What Your Site Is About in Ten Seconds
by DazzlinDonna
At the beginning of the week, I asked the following questions:
What is your message? If you wanted your site to say “one thing???, what would it be? Is that message represented well in the search engines?
Raise your hand if you thought about that post for more than about 5 seconds. C’mon, don’t everyone raise their hands at once. What? Just a couple of you! Ok, that’s what I thought, so today I’m going to challenge you to answer the following, and I want to see your answer in the comments so I know you actually participated. 
Today’s task: Explain what your site is all about in ten seconds or less. If you need to substitute “widget” type words, that’s fine. I’m not looking to steal anyone’s niche ideas. I am hoping to spark a thought process in you, however. I want you to boil down your business to its most important element – its core – its very essence. Once you have that ten-second core message worked out (and published in the comments below), now see if that core message is well represented in search. (You don’t have to share those details below if you don’t want, just the message itself).
I don’t have a real contest or prize in mind at the moment, but I will likely do something nice for someone who actually participates in this task.
Bonus points for anyone who understands why this might be a useful task to undertake.
Shari Thurow does the “8 second test” in her presentation at SES.
She shows the main page from a pre-selected site, then asks the audience what the site is about.
There is often silence from the 500 to 1000 people in the room looking at the screen.
Usually, no one knows.
I didn’t know Shari did that, but that’s a great thing to do! So, folks, after you tell me what your core message is, and see if it is well-represented in the SERPs, go ahead and add one other thing to this task. See if it is well-represented on your site!
Best Buy Metals is all about low cost metal roofing nationwide.
Hi Donna. I’ve been reading your blog for a few years now, and this is the first time I’ve been tempted to comment (a reflection on me, not you)
This is an absolute must for any form of advertising. In fact 10 seconds is a long time for most types of ads! If your site can’t focus the visitor on it’s core message in 10 seconds (or less), they will likely lose that customer, because they’ll move on to the next search result, hoping to find what they’re looking for.
Having your core message represented efficiently on your site is a lot easier than having it represented in the SERPs for competitive “core messages” (read key phrases) but if your core message can be refined enough to fit neatly into a niche, and you can represent that throughout your site/homepage, you will have it made.
That’s what I think you’re talking about. And the more ‘net-savvy the general public becomes, the less time you’ll have to hit them over the head with your message…
Don’t wait another few years to comment again, k?
Getting some good comments now, but so far just one core message. Keep em coming. You’d think it was Friday or something.
My site is about building and marketing successful websites.
Well that’s what it’s supposed to be about anyway. The site didn’t start that way, but over time I’ve come to see that’s what it should be about. My task is to work to make make it more like that single sentence.
It’s a great exercise Donna and one that should be revisited often.
How about this:
“The Kingston School of Dance
- Ballet and Dance Lessons in Kingston since 1967″
Simple core message. Readable in way less than ten seconds, that’s all the site’s about. Ballet and Dance lessons in Kingston.
Yes, I agree. It is very important to understand (and succinctly) what your web project is about.
In fact, before I even open up the text editor on a new site I’m developing, I figure out exactly what the site is about… what its message is…
In the case of Artplop, I perceived a void in the artistic web forums that were around (no offense intended to anyone, but, I’ve got to be candid here.)
And, I decided that I wanted to create a supportive environment where anybody (emphasis on anybody) could share creative work for appreciation and review.
Once I understood the message and purpose, it made development not only very enjoyable but conceptually congruent.
Thank you for listening,
kf
Must be in portuguese!
A Spirituc é um grupo de empresas que prestam serviços nas áreas de Consultoria de Marketing, Design & Multimedia, Comunicação Interna, Estudos de Mercado, Arquitectura, Consultoria a ONG’s e Sistemas de Informação.
Our site is about getting people to call us so we can give them more information and begin interacting with them.
We are currently working on a redesign to help focus in on this goal even further.