Ask Not What the Internet Can Do For You, Ask What You Can Do For It
There’s a myth going around that the Internet is a pathway to untold treasures. If anything was learnt from the last online crash a decade ago, then surely it has to be that you can’t simply get money for old rope these days. Success is possible, but it takes time, innovation and high standards to achieve it.
The Internet as it stands is overburdened with websites. Everybody thinks that they’re offering something new and original, but more often than not, it’s got more than a passing similarity to another. This could be in terms of the products they offer, or their overall business, it may just be site content; whatever it is, having a wholly unique website is not easy to achieve.
Therefore it is imperative that you think what you can offer your visitors and the Internet in general, not just what you can get out of it. Due to the proliferation of websites it’s harder than ever to get noticed, people want to find what they need in double quick time and they don’t want to have their time wasted by confusing, slow or uninformative sites.
When somebody arrives at your site they want their attention to be grabbed. They don’t want to grope around aimlessly trying to work out what it is that you actually do or sell. Give your site some impact and optimise it accordingly to ensure that you get it moving on up the search rankings.
SEO isn’t, or at least it shouldn’t be about getting massively flawed websites to the top of Google. Ultimately if your site isn’t good enough, it just won’t succeed [see: SEO May be Good, But it Can’t Cure the Incurable]. SEO is there to help a site succeed, yes, but it can always only be as strong as your website or business.
Sometimes it’s worth taking a step back and asking yourself what it is that you’re trying to achieve with your website. Then you need to objectively answer whether or not you’re meeting visitor expectations and offering what it is that they’re looking for. It’s easy to say ‘that’ll do’ particularly when you’re getting a few visitors trickling through the site, but it shouldn’t ever be a case of accepting second best. The Internet offers a wealth of opportunity, despite the competition, you need to rise to the top to truly succeed; to do this means getting your site looking, reading and performing its best.
How many ugly, difficult to navigate and unoriginal sites do you know that are achieving great things? You have to be competitive to achieve your goals in any area of business, online or off, by having a second rate you’re giving the same impression as turning up to a meeting in a vest and shorts; whilst your message may be entirely valid, you will always be undermined by your unprofessional image.
Accepting competition is the first step to beating them. You need to attain to a higher standard, whether creating on page copy, designing your home page or optimising the site. The Internet, search engines and your visitors owe you nothing, it’s up to you to command attention and earn success.
