Most people are looking in the entirely wrong direction to for the solution to fix the problem they have getting people to come to their web site. The reason your web site gets so little traffic isn’t what you think.
You’ve got a business. You heard sometime back in the 90′s that you needed a web site to be considered “legitimate” anymore.
So somewhere along the way maybe you paid a bunch of money for someone to build you a site. And it looks snazzy. If they did it in the last couple years perhaps they talked you into springing for the flash site option built with mostly animated graphics.
Or maybe you were horrified at the prices web companies were charging so you got a friend of a friend to do it for you in trade. And in those moments when you are alone and honest with yourself you don’t really like how it looks.
Of course there is the possibility that you paid a ton and really don’t like what your web vendor put together either. There are some web development companies out there charging a ton and producing absolute crap in return. Makes me angry.
Appearance Isn’t the Secret
Even so, the appearance of your site has very little bearing on how much traffic your site gets. It has some, sure, but much less than most people think.
For example check out Doc Searls Weblog. Even though the site is visually unappealing (sorry Doc, but it ain’t pretty) the site is still in the top 25,000 websites in the world for traffic according to Doc’s Alexa rankings.
Think that’s an anomaly?
Check out Craigslist, perhaps the King of Ugly sites. I mean from a design perspective it doesn’t get much uglier than Craigslist. Ugly is almost part of their brand. Yet even in their ugliness Alexa says they are one of the top 50 sites worldwide for traffic.
Pretty doesn’t matter to them. And it doesn’t factor into your site’s traffic figures anywhere nearly as much as you probably think either.
The Secret to Big Traffic Numbers
The thing that Doc Searls and Craigslist have in common, the thing that gives them such high traffic volume in spite of their lack of visual appeal, is that they constantly have new information that lots of people want to see.
Did you get that?
They have new content. That you can’t find anywhere else. And they are constantly adding to that content.
Think about the sites that you go to regularly: Google, Amazon.com, Yahoo, CNN, eBay, BBC, Netscape, The Weather Channel.
What do all those sites have in common?
They constantly have new information that you want to see. So you go back, again and again to see it. Because it changes.
So why do you think you can have your web site built, not change a thing on it in years, and expect traffic to be heading your way in droves?
What makes you different?
Growth Takes Work
You want your traffic numbers to grow? Somewhere there has to be some energy put into the equation. One viable option is to spend some money on advertising your site. That costs money, but a good marketing campaign can drive traffic your way.
A much more cost effective method to see traffic growth over time is to regularly add new content to bring people back. That takes an investment of time from someone on your staff, for sure. But it is a much more steady and reliable option over the long haul.
You rely on advertising alone and your traffic will be dependent on your ever increasing advertising budget. If you ever stop spending, your traffic will stop.
But. If you add new content your traffic will build over time naturally regardless of your advertising budget. How much money do you think Craigslist or Doc Searls spend advertising their sites? My guess is not much if anything.
You want traffic? Update your site. Often.
And if your web company makes that a difficult process, go to my contact page and tell me about it. We can talk about solutions to that problem and get you on track to see traffic growth at your site.
Unfortunately, my blog is lumped by Alexa with the rest of Userland’s. So it’s hard to tell how well it does on its own. It has to be less than whatever Alexa says Userland’s is.
I’ve never been interested much in traffic anyway. Traffic is for advertisers, and I’ve never had those.
Instead I’ve been interested in readers and writers. Those are the people who move ideas and enlarge the world.
If you want those, write quote- and link-worthy posts, and do it every day. Good things will follow.
Hi Chris
I live by the credo: If you want your website to work – you have to work on your website!
(But hey, I had an excellent webmarketing teacher who set-up my first static website, which I took over from him 6 months later). Daily traffic: over 250 pages visited, 70% of any searches we end up on page 1 of the search results – 70% of our customers first get to know us from our website
Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
Doc, Thanks so much for stopping by. And for reinforcing that sites worth visiting are those that have engaging content! In spite of your protests I’m confident that your traffic levels would be the envy of most small business web site owners!
Karin, that’s a great philosophy and is pretty much true with anything. Without work there is no miracle.
Thanks for driving home a point I have been making to my clients for years! I have had to work very hard at convincing many of them that their “news and announcements” need to be front and center – not on a page deep within the navigation.
Char, I think it is a drum we’ll have to keep beating on for some time to come. New content takes effort, something many businesses are loathe to invest in their web presence.
Hi Chris / Doc,
I’d say Doc’s site would definitely perform better with some improved visual design.
I followed the link, after reading from this blog how amazing the content was. But I didn’t bother to stay and read anything because the page was vastly long and chock full of links – I didn’t know where to start, and I couldn’t quickly figure out the theme of the blog so I left.
I’d say some nice visual design combined with some usability would be vastly beneficial to the Doc’s blog. All it would have taken to keep me there would have been a shorter homepage, a main navigation bar, and a couple of pics which give me a visual clue as to what the blog is about.
Web design is that special mix of content, visual design, marketing, usability and everything else. Any site that ignores a fundamental element of web design is not going to be performing at it’s best, Craigslist and MySpace included.
You make a good point, Harvey. I know I nearly started drooling when I went to your site. Yours is a very simple design but it incorporates your food theme beautifully.
Think about what Doc said above, though. He’s not chasing traffic. Granted he’s got enough prestige that he’ll attract it anyway just because of who he is. But he’s focusing on his audience and providing content worth reading for them, which keeps the vast majority of them coming back.
I’m sure many read his blog in their feed readers which can overcome his design problems.
I agree with you that good design will help improve traffic. The trouble is to way too many folks “good design” equals “pretty”. And pretty alone isn’t enough to bring traffic.
Yes I know content is king, but you still have to find a way to get people to look at the content in the first place. So I try to do both, improve my SEO and add content.
Bill
Flagstaff web design
thanks for this article..
I have just launched a new blog and I have been hunting the Internet on this topic and every site I see is the same. Content is truly king. My new site has a few writers so new content comes a few times a day. I still find it hard to focus on topics to write about as I feel I should be pumping out the articles to get the brand name flowing. I guess it will take time. Sorry for digging up an older article there Chris but it still is very relovent. Thanks for a good read.