[thelist] RE: common key to good sites

[Andy Budd]

Steven Streight wrote:

> What do you think is the One Common Key Ingredient
> that makes a web or blog site successful?
>
> Do you know an even better answer, based on your
> privileged experience and insight from battling in the
> trenches?

There is no one answer because it depends on your definition of 
successful.

What makes users keep coming back to a site is useful, interesting and 
timely content written in the correct voice for the audience. This is 
why blogs are so "successful" in terms of building traffic. However 
most sites aren't actually about creating repeat visitors.

Some people would consider their blog to be successful simply because 
it gives them an outlet for their thoughts and feelings. Others may not 
consider their blog successful unless it's getting XX amount of traffic 
a month, making $YY from AdSense ads and in the top ZZ of blog sites in 
Technorati.

Some business sites may feel that their site is a success if their site 
traffic doubles, however for most companies a more realistic measure of 
success would be an increase in the number of conversions, a reduction 
in support calls, automating their billing systems etc.

So the actual success of a project really depends on the goals of the 
site and the metrics you're using to measure that success. However If 
we're talking generalities I'd say the success of a site is based on:

Having a site who's content, architecture and core offering meets a 
specific user need while at the same site effectively supports the 
organisations business goals.


Andy Budd

http://www.message.uk.com/