Business Week: Say No To Relevance

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May 25, 2008
Found in: Articles : News : Web Site Marketing & Strategy :

I was at a Dodgers game last year and in those rare minutes of downtime (grin) I overheard someone behind me ask, "When do they score a touchdown?" How many others watched the game that day and had no clue about runs, pitches, steals, outs, and other factors that bring success to not just any team - but a baseball team? This casual ignorance is acceptible for a spectator but what about a team manager? This would never happen! Any misunderstanding of the goal would skew their understanding of what is most important in the game?

"Don't swing the bat!" he would yell in order to minimize the damage and replacement costs of bats. "Just try and steal a base on every hit!" he would bark in his goal to increase the stolen base count. All while costing his team game after game in losses.

You would think that such an absurd scenario would never happen. Unfortunately, it often does and we have another example to give us a much needed reminder about staying focused on what is really important for the long term.

A CNET blog post noted a Gawker story on Business Week mag prohibiting other web sites from linking to pages other than the home page. This is a very common practice often called "deep linking" because the links go deeper than the home page of the site into some other page of content. (Both the links given in the previous sentence are deep links as they point to specific stories within the respective site.)

This simple story is noteworthy for many reasons, some of which I have outlined below. Feel free to add yours to the associated blog post as well.

1. Taxation Without Representation
   It was not the reporters, the writers, the advertisers, or the readers who wrote this rule against linking directly to stories but one who probably prints their emails, still uses the phone book, and doesn't spend much time online. This policy wreaks of ownership without understanding and ultimately undermines the success of the magazine. Get someone to review it who doesn't mind always being sent to the home page of the Times to read an article within it...they don't exist.
   
   
2. Relevance Shmelevance
   This policy also ignores the true capital of the Internet: Relevance. The simplicity of visiting multiple locations on the web reduces the value of "location, location, location" significantly. The new method to draw visitors and their friends is relevance. How valuable is the information you provide and how quickly can I get to it? This policy ignores the vital part immediacy plays in how users perceive relevance. I know the NYT has a great article on recycling but if I can't find it quickly, it is no longer relevant to me. This hurts the NYT and the user for obvious reasons.
   
   
3. Party Like It's 1995
   I wonder if this policy against deep linking applies to Google, Yahoo, and the myriad other search engines who depend on deep links to provide relevant search results to users.
   
   Imagine this was your experience:
   1. Google search: "wow like Steve Jobs"
   2. Search result (deep link):
   3. Destination: www.businessweek.com home page
   4. Emotion: frustration
   5. Likeliness of clicking another businessweek.com result? Zero.

   ­ In fact, this behavior is prohibited by Google and other search engines due to its impact on accuracy and relevance.
   
   As a society, our behavior and expectations have been transformed by the search engine and this policy assumes this change doesn't exist.
   

   ­

4. I Love Car Salesman
   Much has happened in the sales process over the last decade. The availability of previously unknown information such as insurance rates and airline ticket prices at the click of a mouse has move buying cycle control to the buyer, not the seller (this tactic is called "information asymmetry" and is still quite prevalent in many industries but is fading). This has taken the previously low view of salespeople even further downward.
   
   Car salesman tend to take the lion's share of the beating due to the heavy use of this tactic in years past. Now with the ability to buy a car online, their role is obsolete. This is only one example of this trend and this policy ignores this fact by preventing direct and immediate access to the relevant information that helps buyers make better decisions on their own.
   
   
5. Keep It Simple, Stupid
   The think that irks me the most about this policy is the myriad ways it lacks common sense. Why would you rather send users directly to a possibly outdated cached version of the page hosted by someone else? Why would you treat a visitor looking for content you worked so hard to create, a visitor valued by advertisers you are desperate to benefit, and a visitor with cash and 20 friends she might just alert with such disrespect? This policy is an example of just what put many businesses six feet under - policy before people.

People, collaboration, sharing, relevance. These are the attributes of the future and any policy that creates a convoluted and frustrating path to them will be replaced.

If you are looking for ways to create an environment that encourages these attributes for your prospects and customers, an Enthusiast Web Solution would be a great next step. In fact, let us show you just how much such a change would be worth to you with our FREE Search Engine Equity Score & Report.