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Super size your website

Published: 17 July 2006

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By: Nick Tatt

Over the past couple of years the rise of the blog, fuelled by various publishing platforms like Google’s Blogger and Six Apart’s Moveable Type, WordPress and TextPattern, make it easy for anyone to publish online. The success of blogs and the publishing systems behind them has been down to, in part, the ease at which non-technical users can publish online. Bloggers now expect to be able to publish with ease not knowing any HTML; they expect a suite of extras that allow them to distribute their content; and they make their readers part of their content distribution or syndication.

But my business in not involved in publishing I hear you cry. However, any organisation with a website selling their wares or explaining their services is a reluctant online publisher. The way businesses approach this new found responsibility will dictate the success of their online activities. Harness the tools developed by the blogging community and it is possible that you can super size your website.

So what can be done?

1. Syndicate your content – Make your content easily available by providing a RSS feed. RSS feeds allow users to immediately know when new articles, press releases, services update or any new site activity has been added to your site. It requires a user to have a RSS newsreader. RSS has been around for a while but it becoming increasing mainstream due, in part, to its simplicity.

2. Encourage your audience to be part of your distribution chain – Provide your readers with easy-to-use tools to spread the word and promote your widget or service to others. Think of it as viral marketing. If you get this right your audience reach will extend far beyond your known boundaries. Consider simple tools like ‘Email a friend’, links to social bookmarking services (e.g., del.icio.us), links to social news aggregators (e.g., Newsvine or Digg) or a simple newsletter signup form.

3. Give your readers a voice – Allow your readers to leave comments about a new service or their experience of your product. By doing so you can give your site a new dimension: one that benefits other readers and your overall marketing exposure. The freeform nature of comments on a page will do wonders for your search engine optimisation and help drive more eyeballs to your service or product.

Conclusion

These is more that can be done and not all of these are suitable for every business but if you get the mix right for your organisation it won’t be long before your site’s log files will start to show some interesting referrers: referrals from places you would never have been able to access through traditional methods. So next time go large and super size it.

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