Your website should have an opinion: March 11, 2002 issue of New Thinking

March 11, 2002 New Thinking:
Your website should have an opinion

Website content management

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March 11, 2002

Your website should have an opinion

By Gerry McGovern

People want your opinion when they come to your website. They want to know why your products are so good. They want to know what's the latest news from your organization. They want to know why you are such a great organization to do business with.

A false myth that has arisen on the Web creates a picture of the 'power searcher.' This is a rugged individual who wields a search engine to get to the facts. They scour the Internet daily, digging away at the data mountain, unearthing that content jewel from the 600 billion-document pile. This person is almost as rare as the content jewel.

The average person who uses the Web is conservative and impatient. They don't know exactly what they are looking for. They are maybe thinking of buying a notebook computer and wondering what are the issues they should consider. A Xerox Park study describes this type of person as a "content gatherer."

I have seen a recent report from Jared Spool of UIE stating that in apparel and home goods websites studied, many customers never even use search. The March issue of the IEEE/CS Computer magazine reports on a study that paints a picture of a very conservative web searcher.

"Despite commonly retrieving a large number of Web sites," IEEE states, "users tend to view few results pages per query. This trend appears to be increasing with the majority of Web users not browsing beyond the first or second page of results."

I have often made the statement that while industrial societies suffer from scarcity, digital societies suffer from glut. In our digital economy, content has too often become a commodity. Digital content—with its close to zero cost for reproduction—is being endlessly reproduced on the Web. There is too much content and people are responding by becoming more conservative in how they consume it.

This is a huge challenge for any organization that wants to succeed on the Web. How is your content going to stand out? How are you going to get your content read by the conservative, impatient reader? Having an opinion is a good start.

An opinion puts things into context. Yes, people like the facts. What most people want, though, are the facts put into context. They want you to tell them why your product is so much better than the competitors. They want to know what makes you so different.

No, they don't want generic, marketing hyperbole, but they do want to be sold to. Why else are they on your website? Commerce is selling with people. Ecommerce is selling with content. Your content won't sell if it doesn't have an opinion and attitude.

An intranet requires an opinion just as much as a public website. Staff who use the intranet are equally conservative and impatient. They don't jump for joy when they see 100 technical papers on a particular subject area. They are attracted to a statement such as: "Of these 100 papers, here's the five you should read first."

Of course, opinion is subjective. But if people didn't want subjective opinions, then why do they still buy The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Irish Times?

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: The myth of interactivity on the Internet
Previous issue: Web navigation: traffic light, not neon light design
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Content management seminar feedback
"Gerry's presentation was very well received by the more than 400 higher education delegates. I've chaired this meeting since 1994 and very few speakers have generated the same level of enthusiasm. Wit and wisdom is always an unbeatable combination."
Bob Johnson, American Marketing Association

“Excellent presenter ... thought-provoking and relevant. I hope we can persuade him to visit us again one day.”
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The British Association of Communicators in Business

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European Association of Directory Publishers

Find out more about Gerry McGovern's seminars

If people didn't want subjective opinions, then why do they still buy The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Irish Times?

Content Critical: "Standard text"
February 27, 2002: "Content Critical is the best non-technical book on the subject of web content that I have come across to date … For those interested in the ‘change management’ dimension of content and knowledge management, Content Critical may well become the standard text."
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Andy Harrison, Content Management Focus magazine