In some ways, web sites are like kids and dogs. I should know—I have all three. They take lots of time, attention, money, and you can’t leave them alone by themselves for very long. They can be down right frustrating. And they are gratifying as well. Oh, and web sites are never perfect and need room to grow and change: they are never really finished products--but rather always works in process.



A web site is a big, ongoing responsibility—for as long as your business lives. It isn’t something for every business. As mentioned, unless you are willing to make the commitment to good, fresh, interesting content (see last week's debunker <http://www.nospinmarketing.com/page501245.htm> ) you will not reap much in return. Rather, you should put up a “contact” page on the web and perhaps revisit your interest and ability to “raise” and nurture a web site in the future.



My new “child,” my new NoSpin Marketing web site, should be birthed in the next week or so, and I’ll share what I learned from that web site construction process in a future debunker.



Content—the foundation of good web sites--is a big topic, and a few readers last week thought that I was only grazing the surface. They were right. My intention was and is to continue to debunk more about web site content. Also, I am writing a handbook about web sites that will focus on web site content, which has been the stepchild of web site design and development for some time.



Your web site homepage is your most important page. It not only includes key content but also sets the primary context of your content. You’ve usually got less than a half-minute to get someone’s attention, and what’s on your homepage is critical. Here are a few homepage content myths that I’m debunking today—and I’ll continue with more content hints next week:



· “Busy” is bad (that is ”clean,” and “minimal” is good) on the homepage. Actually, well organized, “busy” can be good. Check out www.cnn.com or a lesser known but very popular, award winning site www.craigslist.org just to name a couple sites that are chock full of meaty and well organized content that gets the attention of a variety of audiences.

· People obviously know what my company’s about, so I won’t bore them with background on my homepage. “Subtle” is bad on homepages. You must give your visitors very clear idea of who you are, what you do, who you are talking to and what you are offering them (on their current visit)—or you’ll not likely get another chance.

· I better put on the hard sell right off the bat if I’m going to generate business. Wrong. Web users rarely fall for the hard sell. They want valuable information, and they want it now. Maybe if continue to offer them information they need, they’ll end up buying from you. If you don’t, you have no chance at all.

· My homepage should remain a constant. The way that people navigate your site should stay pretty constant, but the content itself can and should change at least weekly. That means changing things on your homepage on a regular basis.

· The company mission statement is critical content for our homepage. Trust me, virtually one cares about mushy, corporate-speak mission statements on your homepage; bury it somewhere else on your site, if you must.

· If I dump tons of “key words” into my homepage “meta-tags,” I’ll increase my search engine hits. This one may bit a bit too nitty-gritty for some readers (and I will discuss search engine optimization in a future debunker), but meta-tags do almost nothing to increase web traffic via the top search engines.

· I need a Flash intro before my homepage to at least “look” like I’ve got great site. Unless you’re truly in the entertainment business (e.g. sell games, movies, music, etc), Flash intro’s are a horrible way to introduce people to your site. Use your Flash money on illustrating your products and messages elsewhere on your site.

· You should never put more content on your homepage that can be seen on your screen (without scrolling). There’s some difference of opinion about this one, but if someone has to scroll a bit to see your whole homepage, that’s no big deal to see good content. Lots of scrolling off the homepage isn’t good. As a corollary, you get points deducted, not added, for making your fonts so small that most owls could not see the print—just to cram your homepage “content” into one screen.



More on web site content next week, and I’m hoping my new site will be up by then!



Happy Halloween!