Building the Perfect Website

I’ve been giving a lot of thought about online content lately.  One of the terms I often use when discussing online content and marketing with my clients is the shift that happened many years ago with the birth of the social Web that is at the forefront of the online environment today and still growing — that is moving from destination-centric to audience-centric in web design, web development, online brand building, and web usability.

No longer can websites exist simply as an online destination.  Instead, they must be 100% audience-focused and deliver the information consumers are looking for — and they must do it fast!

So what’s the first step to building a perfect business website in the early years of the 21st century?  Make sure every page, every sentence, every image, and everything else on your website is audience-centric.  Focus on the consumer, not you.  That’s one of the core rules of social media marketing success, but truth be told, it has become the core rule for online marketing as a whole. I even discuss that rule in my book, Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, as it relates to copywriting.

For example, a website like YouTube is great as a destination for online video.  However, it can be challenging to find the specific content you’re looking for on YouTube.  In 2009, highly targeted niche sites are all the rage, and the trend from creating destination sites to audience-focused sites makes sense — consumers have neither the time nor the desire to sift through page after page of useless information.  They want specific information and they want it fast.  Deliver it to them on your website by developing the structure and content with your audience’s needs and wants ranked as the top priority.  Be audience-centric, not destination-centric.

Your thoughts?

Image:

Special K Ad Embraces White Space and Gets Noticed

Every advertiser knows (particularly online advertisers) that white space is important, yet it can be so easy to fall victim to the allure of that unused space and fill it up with more messages.  The result is inevitably a confused customer who doesn’t know where to look and ends up simply looking away.

That’s why it’s great to see an ad that makes great use of white space, clean design and simple colors to get noticed in one of the busiest of places – the home page of Yahoo!

Several times yesterday I found myself on the home page of Yahoo!, and each time, my eye was immediately drawn to the ad on the right side of the page.  An ad always appears in that spot, and my eyes have been trained not to notice it.  However, sometimes an ad jumps out at me and makes me take a second look.  Yesterday was one of those days, but instead of just making me take a second look, this ad made me take a second, and third, and fourth look.  Each time I visited Yahoo.com yesterday, I stopped and looked at this ad.  Check it out below.

Taking the ad out of its context, you’d never guess that it could be so visually compelling, but amdist the cluttered mess of the Yahoo! home page, this simple red and white ad for the Special K Challenge stood out like a beacon.  It simply catches the eye and makes you look at it.

Is the message compelling enough?  That’s another story entirely, and the design details could use some tweaking.  But the point is this – the design concept with the stark red and white colors and heavy use of white space worked. 

Just food for thought next time you’re creating an online ad that has to compete with clutter on all sides.  White space is good!  Embrace white space.

What do you think?

Image: Kellogg