We are often asked, “How do I get a lot of people to come to my website?”
Perhaps the better question to ask your ‘web person’ is “How can I establish an online presence that attracts people to my website.“
This is a complex topic, but the number one most important aspect is not complex: Good writing.
Writing that works for you and your business.
Your web page ‘copy’ needs to be specifically targeted to your audience, and, since the web is a place where nobody actually ‘reads’ anything, your visitors need to grok your vibe in the seconds they spend on your site.
The web has always been a writer’s medium.
Many online personalities have earned their chops by blogging, tweeting, and posting their way into the hearts of their audience.
Where once upon a time journalism students would intern at the town newspaper, they now compete for attention at a world-wide level by micro- and macro-blogging.
Writing that works, even for corporations, is a variety of the “Tell Us About Yourself” school. The web is personal and social. An imposing edifice does not translate on a smart phone.
I’m not a writer
Some prospective clients tell us flat out – “I’m not a writer.”
Well, that’s okay. Behind many successful performers and politicians are some excellent script and speechwriters.
We or someone else can cover this aspect for you. We call this service Proxy Posting.
Puzzle Pieces
When we started creating websites, way, way, way back in 1996, the promotion aspect for a business website was accomplished by creating 4 web pages:
Home, About, Services & Contact.
This required designing each individual page carefully in Photoshop, then cutting up that page into optimized smaller puzzle piece images.
Then many more hours were required to fit those pieces into a ‘Matrushka’ doll array of html tables, tables inside of tables, inside of tables…each table cell containing one cut-out piece of our Photoshop page.
The thinking then was ‘print-based’ as in, “I want this page to look exactly like it would on coated paper stock.”
I chuckle wistfully now when I see one of these older sites on an iPhone. They just don’t work.
Now, while a website is still essential, it functions mostly as a hub for a more complex and constantly evolving set of promotion tasks.
Tell us about yourself…
The biggest change I have seen over the past 16 years is in the ‘formality’ aspect of how businesses need to approach their web promotion.
The tone of a website back then was imperious and serious. The design was rigid.
Now, you need to be flexible and friendly. Go with the flow, daddy-O. Hang out, ‘Like’ something.
Tell us about yourself.