By mid-2016 we can expect that one billion homepages will exist in the World Wide Web. This is an enormous amount of data, content and information, and it’s too much contemplate how many mega- and gigabytes this would be! We are creating an online digital society and almost everything can be managed online. As a B2B PR agency, we particularly have our eye on national and international news websites and publications with a tech focus.
As we carry out campaigns and target those online publications, we often ask ourselves what sort of things help an online publication stand out from the crowd. Facing such immense competition, they need to find some unique selling points that help attract attention, like the following:-
-Well-functioned: Nowadays all online publications need to be fully responsive. It’s important to create a website completely functional for mobile devices. True to the motto: mobile first!
-End-user friendly: Another important factor is an illustrative web design for the user. Information needs to be provided in smart and comprehensible categories. Topics need to be easy to find, otherwise the user will turn to one of your competitors. The first 10 – 20 seconds are crucial to catch the user’s attention.
-Search function: To find your way throughout the site it’s important to include an effective search function that really does the job. It’s surprising how many news sites fail to provide a search bar!
-Interactive with readers: Websites of all sources should be interactive and provide a channel for communication with their readers. Allowing things like comments helps the news site become a community.
You can see that it is not impossible to stand out of the crowd of the website jungle. Just be as clear and adaptive as you can be. And always think with a user’s mind.
Frieda Pries is the latest recruitment at Skout. She likes blogging in at least two languages.
