We used think about a website in a different way that we do today. It used to be that we were expecting people might visit our site, bookmark it, enjoy visiting, etc. But in truth, that's not the case, according to recent usability studies.
Instead, the web today is one vast integrated resource for users who are not looking for sites to visit. Instead, they want answers to immediate questions, often isolated pieces of data or information, such as how long it took Lewis and Clark to reach the Pacific. Or, where can I find the best price for the new ipod. Or, give me a nice hotel in San Francisco this weekend (as searched in google or yahoo, and not through Expedia).
For most users this targeted search activity has redefined how they use the Web. They seek focused information, usually the stuff that's found on the interior pages of sites, with no stop-over for the home page, and very little use or exploration beyond the immediate need or task.
In old days, before 1994, prior to the development of modern visual browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape, a few people used the Internet to find articles, technical information and arcane bits and pieces of research. There were perhaps, 30,000 websites on the Web. The idea of visiting a site for entertainment, pleasure, or a visual tour of a hotel room, or any other kind of "visiting" simply did not exist.
Today, we have gone full circle. In the aggregate, users worldwide hit the web for specific answers and don't bother to bookmark anything at all. Their loyalty is to a search engine, used primarily as an answer engine which can dredge up an endless numbers of interior web pages to address an immediate need or task. The user simply doesn't care about the sites themselves. This kind of behavior, called "information foraging" has allowed users to search out information by through keywords more easily than by sticking with one site and exploring the links.
Much of what exists on the web is out of date in this sense, not because it is unattractive or unprofessional looking. Instead, it just does not meet visitor needs quickly and simply. Visitors are not going to browse. Instead they arrive at a page, find what they need, and leave. Maybe twenty or forty seconds in all. No further visiting, fun as that may be. It's more like this: here they are. Now they're gone.
You cannot change their behavior, but you can redesign you site to catch the bird when it's in your hand.
Ask yourself, do users quickly find what they need on the interior pages of your site? Do you show them text based links within the content area for related choices or more information? When you give away free information, do they find your product shown immediately and clearly as the solution to their need? These links (called"Also See" links) can be placed strategically within your site, on each and every page, to keep them reading and discovering what you have, both for the intrinsic value of the information and for the main selling points of your product.
This is where usability, information architecture and page design naturally flow into each other. It is the place where search engine marketing resides. Natural, organic search results derive from the way you present your content, the link names you use and the way in which your site is designed.
In the pre-Mosaic age the web was a network of information where the base unit was an article about a certain topic. It was not about websites per se.
Search engines have become the user interface to the world's abundance of information. This is good news for users, who merely spend a few minutes making their query in a brief string of key words to find what they need. Unfortunately for the marketer who is building a website, this is not necessarily such a good thing. But you can set a course to take advantage of how today's web is being used.
As they once said in the stock market, "don't fight the tape. Make the trend your friend."
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