Launching a World Wide Web Site
by Bill Sweetman, June 1996
What are some of the common mistakes to avoid?
I would like to go on the record as saying it's
dead easy to build a Web site. Anyone can do it for
little to no money.
What is not so easy, however, is building a
successful Web site, one that meets your business
objectives and encourages people to return time and
time again. There are thousands of sites on the
Internet, most of them mediocre. Why? The clever
folks at Artech,
an American Web Development firm, have diagnosed some
of the major problems as follows:
Sistine Chapelitis - Immense spectacular
artwork has a place. The Web isn't it. People just
don't have the modems, time or patience to wait for
endless graphics to load in. So no matter how
beautiful that immense 1789 ship-at-sea oil painting
in your lobby is, don't use it as a masthead. Unless
of course, you're equally comfortable with it being
on your headstone.
Siteusnervosa - Just because Netscape
allows you to make your entire Web site
on and off doesn't mean that they intended you to do
so. Just remember that you can make things blink on
TV and yet the only advertisers who use this feature
are selling either Ginsu knives or pan flute
recordings.
Situs Incommunicado - You don't call.
You don't write. Nothing annoys people more than
going to the trouble of contacting someone and not
receiving any kind of acknowledgment. So respond.
After all, the purpose of a Web site isn't to talk at
people, it's to talk with them. So talk already.
Pagus Invisibillus - There is absolutely
no point in putting up a Web page unless you're
willing to let people know it's there. So promote
your site in everything you do from your advertising
to your business cards. Unless of course you suffer
from any of the above maladies, in which case
discretion is probably the better part of valor.
(from Maladies of Commercial Web Sites -- ©
Copyright 1995 Artech)
Other Common Mistakes
- Rushing in without a master plan
- Appointing the wrong person to the task
- Failing to research the competition
- Lack of organization
- Not providing surfers with a good reason to
return
- Overlooking the Web as a global medium
How to Avoid Making Mistakes
- Know your goal - This sounds so
obvious, but you would be amazed how many
companies launch Web sites without asking
themselves why.
- Content is king - Sure, it's a
hackneyed expression, but if your site is not
going to contribute anything of value and
substance to the online world, why bother?
- Keep it fresh - You cannot and must
not allow your site to remain static. Plan to
update the site a minimum of once a week or
do not launch it in the first place.
- Integrate the Web initiative with the rest
of the company's - It's still not
uncommon for the folks from Marketing to
discover, usually to their horror, that the
folks from the Information Technology
department have already put their company on
the Web. It's time for some of these
departments to bury the hatchet and try to
get along, or at least talk to one another.
- Take advantage of unique characteristics
of this medium - The Web is an
interactive, real-time, two-way medium. Lose
sight of this and you will soon have a
"ghost site" on your hands. Just
keep repeating to yourself, "A Web site
is not an online brochure. A Web site is not
an online brochure . . . . "
- Think about the experience you're offering
- Do you read your company's annual
reports? Then why inflict them on Web
surfers? Visitors to your site should be
inspired to immerse themselves in your
corporate environment, not have to read
endless pages of press releases.
- Think customer service, not selling - Heavy-handed
online sales pitches do not work. Helping
your customers quickly and easily find the
products and services they need does. Even if
this means linking to the competition!
- Make it easy for people to get to your
content - Web surfers are not going to
wait more than 10 seconds for your home page
to load. And if they have to wade through
endless screens to get to what they want,
they will quickly give up. There is no such
thing as a Web site that's too obvious.
- Do not ignore the power of E-mail - All
this talk of the Web obscures the fact that
good old-fashioned E-mail is a very powerful
tool. Use it to correspond with customers,
set up Auto Responders that will send canned
information to anyone who writes in, or
create a monthly e-newsletter that goes out
to special customers.
Bill Sweetman is MultiMediator's Founder.
