One of the most visited websites in the world is not one with lots of content or
flashy graphics. It’s actually quite plain. The site’s owner breaks all the
rules for building a successful website and yet he still wins, getting more
traffic and views than most of his competitors.
What site am I talking
about? The Drudge Report (www.drudgereport.com). No matter what your political
leanings, Matt Drudge’s site has plenty of food for thought for how you should
be engaging with your clients.
If something is mentioned on the Drudge
Report, it gets my attention. I consider any news mentioned there as something
that I should know, and the items are shorter then tweets! It’s a way to keep my
finger on the pulse of things I might not otherwise pay attention to.
The
simplicity is stunning: no fancy fonts or fancy graphics (when there is really
major news, a quick-loading “flashing siren” image will appear above the
headline).
This means that when you are about to spend a small fortune to
upgrade your website, you need to think first “why are my customers here, and
how can I serve them better?” You’d be surprised at how what you think is an
improvement may be seen as the opposite.
In the case of the Drudge
Report, it’s ultimately about three things: getting the news in an easy-to-read
format; being able to read the news at a glance; and reading the news on a
website that loads in under a second. And that’s what I’m after. I’m not
interested in “snail-surfing” news that gives each news item three
pages.
Value your customer’s time as much as they do. They’ll appreciate
you more, not less!
Have you been told that you need to “add more pages” to your
website to make it more Google friendly? Sure, adding relevant information
(notice that key word: relevant!) to your website helps with search-engine
optimization (SEO), but is it customer friendly? Does it have to be one way or
the other?
The rules obviously, are not set in stone. If you read the financial
pages you know there’s nothing pretty about them. You don’t need pretty. You
need information. Making the stock reports “pretty” would upset customers who
want information fast in an easy-to-find format (it’s been tried!).
The
Drudge Report does the same thing. For people who want information and want if
fast in an easy-to-read format, being a one-page website is all you need. Notice
the primary thing both resources share: people know what they want and why
they’re there. When people understand why they are there and know that a website
is providing a service – namely, linking them to what they want to know – a
website that does this effectively can be extremely powerful.
Not all of
us are in the business of providing information to customers who want it fast
and simple. Customers who don’t know us, or know what we do, or what we’re about
need something more. Sometimes, it’s more important to have a “sticky” website
that draws your readers back again than to have them come once for a half hour.
A short piece of information, a tip, a photo, a quote or insight every day might
be more helpful than lots of information. It depends on what your goal is. (And
when you build a website or create an event, the event should be created with
the goal in mind – and built around it. Not the other way around!)
As you start
reading news and websites, you’ll begin to realize how many of the stories you
are reading started out as press releases. When that happens, you’ll start to
see how you can use the media to get your own stories placed, which drives buzz,
brand recognition and most importantly, traffic.
I once almost published
a book, titled
The Accomplishments of Barack Obama. The only listed item would
be “won the Nobel peace prize,” with the remainder blank.
I didn’t end up
publishing it, although it would definitely have gotten media attention as a
political gimmick and would sell as a gag gift for conservatives. I could count
on it getting mentioned by conservative bloggers, which would have driven viral
traffic, buzz and sales.
And if it didn’t work? All I’d have to do would
be to get a Democratic sound bite condemning the book. That would surely do the
job! If you are reading this article online, please tweet, share and Facebook
it. If enough of you do that, and it goes viral, then Matt Drudge will hear
about it, too. And if that doesn’t work, there’s always the option of getting
this article condemned for what it says about President Obama’s accomplishments!
issamar@issamar.com Issamar Ginzberg is a rabbi, businessman, public speaker and
marketer.