Content Management | The Next Step in Web Evolution
In the Beginning
In the beginning (the late 90s), there was a need to have a web site. People would ask, "Do you have a web site?" If you didn't, others would gasp! "How can you not have a Web site? It's the future!" This would usually be stated by someone who recently completed their web site. Then they would smugly turn up their nose, turn, and walk away. So everyone went out and got themselves a web site. The main focus was to make sure you had a .com not a .net or .bz (Brazil). As if having a .com alone would somehow cause cash deposits to happen in your bank account while you slept.
Highway to Australia
I remember I couldn't wait to get a web site up. This site would be on the information superhighway. (I don't think they even use that phrase any more). I assumed the moment my site went live, I would be bombarded with orders from Australia. Ten years and I've yet to receive a single order from Australia. I realized eventually that web sites aren't places where strangers magically send you tons of business.
Unfortunately, the Web isn't magical, unless you're a 12-year old who's found a way around parental controls. But I digress. When people discovered this, they left a trail of web sites along the information superhighway like abandoned shacks in a gold rush ghost town. All the traffic speeds by them to cities called YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Still Useful
Fortunately, however, the web is still very useful, and it still is the future. The great thing is that millions of people do use the Web. However, they're not just looking for any web page that's been posted. They're looking for useful information, services, products, and entertainment. They're looking for content that's kept fresh and current. The key, then, is to create or upgrade your site to have useful information.
Web Guys
Now, one of the roadblocks to updating your site has always been that you were dependent on the "Web Guy." You ask him to make a simple change, such as changing your daily special from chicken noodle soup to tomato basil soup, and it takes a week and a half. Also, turns out, your Web Guy is you neighbor's nephew and he's going away to college. Or, if you have a professional company, changes are $100/hr. So you're hesitant to make any changes.
The Past's Future is Past
The future's future, unlike the past's future, is about being able to manage content yourself. The technical term for it is to use a Content Management System (CMS). Sites created using a CMS allow individuals within a business to update content themselves. Design and content are separated. The Web Guy creates the design; the company controls the content. Additionally, content can be updated by multiple people within a company, further assuring that content remains fresh. And it can also be shared with the Web design company as backup support.
A good Web company will also offer training so that, although many CMS systems are built to be user friendly, it assures that you get past the learning curve.
How Search Engines Work
The guys at Google™ are googilianaires a reason. Instead of figuring out how to decide what is useful information on the Web, they came up with this idea – let people decide what is useful themselves! We'll just figure out what pages everyone is going to and we'll send everyone else there. And, we'll check to see if the information they're going to is fresh. If so, we'll put them at the top of the list. That's it in a nutshell.
If your site has fresh useful information, and people start going there, Google will send more people there. The more people that go there, the more people will go there.
How Do I Know People are Going to My Site?
Well, it's the Google Guys again. They also created a free service that allows you to track visitors. It tracks the geographical location of your visitors, the pages they visited, how long they stayed, and the page they left from. It's called Google Analytics.
How Do I Get More People to Go to My Site if No One is Going There Initially?
You start in the real world. Promote yourself whenever you can. Get business cards made up with your Web address large on one side. Ask people for their e-mail (opt-in of course) and then build an e-mail list. You can then send out an e-mail newsletter featuring excerpts of you current content with a link to your site to finish the article. Once you start promoting your site, use Google Analytics to track your progress.
I Googled [your product here] and I didn't come up
Don't expect to be at the top of the search heap overnight. You can't plant tomato seeds and make a pizza from the tomatoes the same day. But with a plan and persistence, you can make the Web a strong marketing tool for your business.
