Читать книгу Do the Web Write - Dan Furman - Страница 5

Before I go any further, perhaps I should explain what I mean by “now what?” “Now what” encompasses three very general questions:

1. What will your website say? (Self explanatory.)

2. Where will your website say it? (What pages, page order, etc.?)

3. How will your website say it? (How will you write it?)

These three questions have nothing to do with the nuts and bolts of actually making your website, but they mean everything in regards to its success.

They are also the hardest questions for any business owner to answer. This is because generally, a website developer will seek to get these answers from YOU (and not the other way around, like many people hope). In fact, here’s how the conversation usually goes:

Web Developer: “Okay, I can make you the site … so, what pages do you want, what order do you want them in, and what are you going to say on them?”

Business Owner: “Errrr … ” (Translation: “I have no clue — I thought you were doing this part.”)

What happens then is the web developer (who almost always isn’t a web marketing person) will attempt to do this part by asking you a few questions about you, your business, and your life. They’ll find out that you are a family-owned business, that you have a great reputation, that your customers love you, and that you have two cute kids, all of which will make it onto your site. They’ll also attempt to figure out what your business does (having a business name like “Uncle John’s Live Night Crawlers” helps a lot) and make a page for that too.

The end result will be a nice looking, somewhat boring website that pretty much tells people all about your business. Which is really, really bad. Know why?

It’s bad because nobody cares about your business.

Really, they don’t. Nobody came to your website to marvel at your company history, to read about your reputation, or to find out the good works your company has done. They don’t even care about the Golden Turnip award you won last year (I know, I know … it’s a big honor. Listen, if it means anything to you, I care, okay?)

This isn’t to say this information doesn’t have its place. Of course you need to mention things about your company — even the Turnip — on your website. The trick is in how you do it. How (and when) you do it means everything.

This is because your visitor is decidedly selfish; he or she came to your website with a problem, and your website needs to solve that problem, pronto. In other words, your website needs to engage your visitor, address the reason he or she came, and then drive him or her to action (buy, contact you, bookmark you, just get that mouse clicking). Anything less is failure. Make sense?

Remember this — the goal of almost all business websites is to get visitors to click in some fashion. That’s it — that’s the goal. Don’t ever forget that.

And that’s the crux of this book — to help you craft a successful website (whether you are actually making it or you hired a website designer). I’m going to help you decide WHAT to say, WHERE to say it, and then I’m going to show you HOW to write it.