What’s better for a website? Having a good design or interesting content? Up until recently I would have answered “both”.
After all, people turn to the web in search of information right? So good content is a must. But if they hate what they see there’s little incentive to stick around for long. The content needs to present well too.
The other day I saw some fairly ugly websites (by the owner’s very admission) that actually earn him some money. They had no banner, no background and only 1 crappy image. But the little text that graced the pages was laser targeted to appeal to what his visitors were searching for. The websites succeeded because they were built around ONE CONCEPT ONLY.
Most websites try be all things to all people and end up pleasing nobody.
So now I reckon what you need is “attractive content”. By that I mean EXACTLY what your visitors want. NOT what you think they might want. The only way to find that out is to ask them via a service like SurveyMonkey or taking a poll on your site.
But that’s still not enough. Because what every website also needs is TRAFFIC.
Without visitors no one is going to appreciate the hours you spent on that award winning design and painstaking research. Getting traffic has more to do with search engine optimization and marketing - very different skill sets. What value will you give your visitors? More importantly, how will you get it under their noses?
Our trick question just got trickier. What if you get the visitors to your site and the design and content suck? They’ll just leave never to return again.
Maybe the question should be, “Which is better . . . design, content or traffic?
It’s like that old game of Paper, Scissors, Rock. Each one can trump the other but also needs the others in order to win.
Leave out one aspect and the whole thing falls apart. Only all 3 working together create the synergy needed for a successful website.
