Why Do Websites Matter?
If you're like me, you were, or are, clueless about websites. It's something other people do. People who are more "techie" or "geeky" or computer saavy. And really, even if you wanted to learn more, you have no time or interest in taking a class, and there is no way your teenage son is going to spend time trying to train the "untrainable" ...(is that YOUR view or his?) Fear, ignorance or just plain lack of time or money are stopping you. Been there, done that. Then reality slapped me upside the head and I was forced to learn, grow, and change.
So what's a person to do?
If you had told me 4 years ago, while sitting in a cubical doing analyst work in an HR department, pregnant with my firstborn, that I would become an "expert" at website stuff, I would have laughed. I knew NOTHING. I even pushed back on my boss, trying to convince him that I should NOT be the one responsible for the HR pages on the corporate website. No, no, please, I don't want the responsibility.
The idea of a blank website page was horrifying. While I tried to wax poetic, I sounded stiff and dorky, filled with self-doubt about what I should be saying. I obsessed about things that I don't even care about anymore. (For example, I was obsessed with fitting words tightly on the homepage so nobody has to scroll down to see more.)
And now here I sit, two kids later, passionately trying to help others understand how and why websites are so, so, so very important to reaching the people you're trying to reach. I feel like the "Greatest Generation", horrified when the baby boomer generation started dressing more casually, men grew their hair long, and loud music started to enter their homes. "How will anyone take you seriously if you aren't wearing nice clothes?" "How can you even think of walking down the street with shaggy, unkept hair?" "That's not music, that's NOISE!"
Somehow I've become the fuddy duddy, shocked and gasping in horror at amazing people and organizations whose websites do not even come CLOSE to reflecting, in design or content, what they're about. My husband has to gently remind me that websites are not EVERYTHING. Well, sure, but they're almost everything! (OK, no, they're not, and there are excellent reasons why websites may not matter to you.)
Quick personal story for you to understand why I am so passionate about this topic. Imagine YOU are the surgeon in this story (or that it's not surgery but marriage help, or personal help with major mental crisis).
I'm having major surgery this spring. Other than when I gave birth, my body will not be more vulnerable than with this surgeon. I Googled to find the surgeons website, having just been given her phone number. At first glance, I didn't think I had the right website. After clicking around, I realized this was, in fact, her real website.
Let me say, without a doubt, if not for a trusted referral, I would have RUN far, far away. The layout, design, words (or lackthereof) all scream out at me... and made me want to go find a nice looking surgeons website, even if that surgeon wasn't nearly as qualified!! How could I be so vulnerable to someone who can't even design a decent website. I know, I'm crazy. But it's the truth.
It's been about 5 months and I have to allow myself, still, to calm down about her horrific website. She clearly she knows her stuff and I feel very loyal to her from meeting her in person. I check back every month or so in the hopes she realizes it's an awful website and realizes she could be scaring away others.
Who knows, maybe I'll be able to work in a suggestion to revamp their website when I'm post-op. I can blame it on the pain killers.
How can websites can prompt such EMOTION? Why do I have to "talk myself down", forcing myself to trust her over trusting that her website really reflects her work?
Does my story about the surgeon surprise you -- or are you aware of the power of websites to help or hurt you?
