Imagine spending millions of dollars to come up with an amazing product, then cloaking it for invisibility. Perhaps the U.S. military can find good reason to do that, but for any company hoping to capture major market share, invisibility is tantamount to business suicide.
So why is it then that so many bleeding-edge, ultra-cool websites -- products in and of themselves -- are designed to be invisible to search engines and ultimately potential customers? Why is it that companies spend oodles of money to end up with a site that can only be found by employees, friends and family?
I'm a believer that "findability" is a usability issue. If your site can't be found by a motivated user in search of your product or service, it is a WOI (Waste of Investment), the opposite of ROI (you should know what that stands for). If a potential customer can't find it, it's useless to him or her. And if it's useless to a customer, well, you get the picture.
So why are many sites cloaked? The only reasons I can think of is a lack of knowledge about best practices for search or negligence on the part of creatives who believe designing for visibility somehow restricts doing great work. I know the latter is exactly opposite of the truth. Designing for visibility doesn't restrict creative excellence, it enhances it.
[ Read Entire Article ]
So why is it then that so many bleeding-edge, ultra-cool websites -- products in and of themselves -- are designed to be invisible to search engines and ultimately potential customers? Why is it that companies spend oodles of money to end up with a site that can only be found by employees, friends and family?
I'm a believer that "findability" is a usability issue. If your site can't be found by a motivated user in search of your product or service, it is a WOI (Waste of Investment), the opposite of ROI (you should know what that stands for). If a potential customer can't find it, it's useless to him or her. And if it's useless to a customer, well, you get the picture.
So why are many sites cloaked? The only reasons I can think of is a lack of knowledge about best practices for search or negligence on the part of creatives who believe designing for visibility somehow restricts doing great work. I know the latter is exactly opposite of the truth. Designing for visibility doesn't restrict creative excellence, it enhances it.
[ Read Entire Article ]
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