Interstates & Highways

What is the difference between Interstates and highways? Interstates are designed to [in theory at least] move people from place to another as directly & quickly as possible. They avoid cities & towns to allow a traveler to quickly get from point "A" to point "B". Developed in the 1960's, they are the travel route "of choice" for most drivers traveling the country.

Highways, on the other hand, come from a different era...a time when travel was less of a "sure thing". When I was young [yes...it was a long time ago], travel by car had the potential for breakdowns and the need to service your car. For example, on one family trip we traveled to Arizona by car & blew out 4 tires over the course of the trip! Because automotive travel was not a "sure thing" & cars overheated, broke down, or had problems, travel required drivers to "sprint" from one town to the next. As a result, highways are built to seek out towns & cities as "way points" between point "A" and "B". They leisurely move through the countryside ... slowing for every town on the way ... so you can stop to eat, maintenance your car, and just see the sights along the way.

By Interstate, the destination is the key ... by highway, the journey is the experience.

What does this mean in a web world?

When originally developed, most websites were built on a "highway" philosophy. We were looked at as surfers who were visiting companies to see what they offered. Web developers talked in terms of home pages, sticky sites, and assumed people were visiting to "see the sights along the way" as they attempted to find the items they wanted.

Look at most site maps. They start with a single home page with the assumption that one message - one position is right for every possible visitor coming to the site. They then have a deep structure of product, services, about us, and other places to visit as you cruise their company highway. The assumption is you will take the time to leisurely move through layer after layer of information and visit lots of pages to find what you need.

While this worked in a highway world...consumers & businesses are moving at Interstate speeds.

Today, people want websites which quickly get them the information they want. This means they expect the company to structure their web experience to quickly get them where they need to go. How quickly, in our research, we have found people seldom want a web experience to be longer than three pages. Page one positions the company and shows its expertise, page two can present products or tools to determine what they want. Page three shows details and starts the order.

If you agree with this approach, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does your website force most of the people to visit a home page first?
2. Does your PPC [pay per click] and SEO [search engine optimization] strategy also focus on the home page?
   
3. Are all of your search terms the same for all pages?
   
4. Do you drive all PPC searches to one page?
5. Can you identify unique markets or communities who visit their site?
6. Do these communities have different needs or purchase patterns?
7. Can a web visitor identify their community of interest and can you move them to a unique page developed just for them?
8. Can you identify unique communities on search engines and PPC to drive them to these pages
9. Can you tailor your community landing pages to move from information to order in three steps?
10. Does this make sense to you?

As consumers - both B-2-B and B-2-C - time is our most precious commodity. Today, we want to visit sites which know our specific needs & quickly produce the information & products which meet our needs.

In considering your website and marketing programs, think Interstate not highways.