42 Rules for a Web Presence That Wins (2nd Edition)

1. Appoint a Web Ambassador to Oversee Your Online Presence

Every business making a serious investment in its web presence should appoint a "Web Ambassador."

Role of the Web Ambassador. This senior position should report directly to the CEO and be responsible for the high-level, 30,000ft perspective of your web presence. The Web Ambassador should:

• Have a complete understanding of ongoing business strategy, marketing plans, and operations
• Stay abreast of technological developments from a business perspective
• Analyze traffic information and formulate critical questions about online performance
• Have regular contact with all business areas and be open to feedback

Benefits of a Web Ambassador. By appointing a Web Ambassador, you ensure:

• Coordinated planning across all areas of your business
• Adequate representation of web presence in budget discussions
• Opportunities for cross-fertilization of content are not missed
• Internal politics do not prevent sharing of critical web traffic information

2. Create an Emotionally Connected Web Presence

People respond to writing that's expressed in personal terms, using second person language ("you," rather than "them"), and which shows that you understand who they are, and what they're looking for.

Personify your visitors. Develop detailed personas for each visitor type, including:

• Demographics (gender, age, ethnicity, language)
• Professional details (education, experience, job title, responsibilities)
• Personal interests and decision-making preferences

Tailor your content. Use these personas to:

• Look at your website through their eyes
• Ensure they can find what they want quickly
• Make it easy for them to do business with you
• Remove any unforeseen roadblocks

Show up and be real. Enhance credibility and visitor response by:

• Including details of your company history
• Displaying photographs of key employees
• Sharing community involvement or supported causes

3. Leverage Every Piece of Your Web Presence

Every page should have a strategy.

Strategic content creation. Ensure that every piece of your web presence has:

• A clear reason for existence
• Defined goals and desired outcomes
• Appropriate links and clickable calls to action

Maximize all content types. Pay attention to often-overlooked areas:

• PDFs: Embed hyperlinks and navigation elements
• Blogs: Include links to other areas of your business
• Social media: Tailor content to follower demographics

Watch for new opportunities. Analyze your traffic to:

• Identify distinct visitor categories
• Develop new products or services for markets that may only exist online
• Consider the potential for passive income streams

4. Develop a Clear Value Proposition and Differentiation

"How does the one thing that you do best create unique value for your customers?"

Craft your unique selling proposition. Answer these questions:

• Why should your ideal customer buy from you rather than any other supplier?
• What makes your offering unique in the market?

Express your value clearly. Use this formula:

• We (the business) combine A with B, so you (the customer) get C
• The more unrelated A and B are, the more compelling the value proposition

Place it prominently. Ensure your value proposition is:

• Visible on your website's home page
• Impossible to miss
• Supported by customer testimonials throughout your content

5. Optimize Your Landing Pages for Smooth Visitor Experience

Your traffic reports should tell you which keywords bring people to a specific landing page, and thus give you some clues about their mindset.

Understand visitor intent. Analyze your traffic data to:

• Identify patterns in search terms leading to specific pages
• Infer the visitor's purpose and expectations

Tailor landing pages. Create dedicated pages for:

• Specific marketing activities (e.g., email campaigns, social media links)
• Different audience segments (e.g., new vs. returning customers)

Provide clear next steps. On each landing page:

• Include relevant calls to action
• Offer easy navigation to related content
• Consider adding contextual product recommendations

6. Utilize Press Releases as Key Marketing Tools

Your press releases may end up among your most popular "landing pages"—they're the first pages of your site that visitors see.

Optimize press releases for search. Include:

• Title, keyword, and description tags
• In-page headers and alternative text tags
• Relevant keywords naturally throughout the content

Make press releases part of your site structure. Ensure they:

• Are regular pages within your standard navigation template
• Not just Word or PDF documents
• Include links to related products or services

Add calls to action. In each press release:

• Include clickable prompts for desired outcomes
• Direct visitors to appropriate next steps
• Monitor traffic and adjust content if necessary

7. Implement Visitor Segmentation for Deeper Insights

Unless you can categorize them into specific groupings and study the behavior of each group on its own, you'll end up with data that could give you a very misleading picture of what's happening.

Create meaningful segments. Divide visitors based on:

• Traffic sources (e.g., organic search, paid ads, referrals)
• Visitor types (e.g., new vs. returning, customer vs. prospect)
• Behavior patterns (e.g., time spent on site, pages viewed)

Analyze segment behavior. Look for:

• Differences in conversion rates between segments
• Variations in popular content or products
• Time-based patterns (e.g., weekday vs. weekend activity)

Use insights to optimize. Apply segmentation data to:

• Tailor marketing campaigns for specific groups
• Adjust website content and structure
• Allocate resources more effectively

8. Embrace Future Web Technologies for Strategic Planning

"Instead of trying to keep up, we need to look ahead at what we are certain about and integrate what we see into what we want to do."

Understand evolving web stages. Recognize the progression:

• Web 1.0: One-dimensional information display
• Web 2.0: User-to-user content sharing
• Web 3.0: Immersive, multi-dimensional experiences
• Web 4.0: Ultra-intelligent electronic personal assistants

Prepare for immersive experiences. Consider developing:

• Virtual reality product demonstrations
• 3D interactive environments for customer engagement
• Augmented reality apps for education or training

Plan for AI integration. Think about:

• Creating personalized e-agents for customer service
• Developing intelligent chatbots for 24/7 support
• Utilizing predictive analytics for tailored user experiences