Simpler is Not Always Better Online

One of the important purposes of your website is to inform your
visitors what it is that you do, and that is not as easy as it sounds. 
We have the pleasure of working with customers who have this problem
when trying to design the site map for their website and typically have
the same recommendation… Simpler is not always better. 

Yes, you need to keep your main message simple, but don’t stop there. 
You need to segment your information into layers so that your visitors
can find what they need by finding the basic information first then be
able to drill down into more and more detail.

Just today, I was explaining this to a long standing client (almost
family by now) and used a Walmart store as an analogy.  Imagine a
Walmart Superstore with no signs.  Imagine walking in and every single
product is all on the same isle.  That is just way too much “content”
too fast.  What you need is a nice way to present your top layer
concepts, then allow someone to drill down further and further into
more granular detail. 

How does a company like AT&T present their business?  By proving
tiered bits of information.  You land on the att.com homepage and are
presented with the very top layer of offerings.  They do not try to
force everything on the homepage, but they do not over simplify their
site either.  If a company with this amount of information online were
to try to break up all of their different offerings into completely
different websites, or limit the amount of information available a few
issues would present themselves.

First of all, most people don’t really read all the text on the web
pages that you have, but search engines sure do.  Content is king when
it comes to the world of SEO.  The more relevant and real content your
website has, the more food you feed the search engines.  Do not overdo
it.  My suggestion would be that it needs to read well and make sense
to a person reading it.  If you find yourself copy and pasting content
or rephrasing something you already said 100 times, leave it out. 

Now, you may notice that I said “most people don’t really read
all the text”.  If someone wants to learn more about your business or
how something works, over simplification will only leave them
frustrated and require them to fill in a contact form or call you to
get some details.  This is critical if you are trying to inform the
public or if your products and services are complex.  For example, if
you are a foundation that is promoting awareness, you will want to have
as much “drill down content” as possible.  Students, parents and other
groups who crave the reading material will be left wanting more.

So, with so much content and information, you will need a solution to
help you manage and organize your online content as well as facilitate
your online visitors to quickly search your website for the information
they need.  Our online business solutions have the tools you need to
post tons of excellent content and not overwhelm yourself or your
visitors.

Contact us for more information 😉