Kumite Tag-team Champion of Web Marketing: Content and Usability

There are many different tricks or should I say tactics for getting one’s site noticed on the web. Links, PPC, SEO, SEM Social Networking, Digg, MySpace, Twitter, Black-Hat, White-Hat, whatever else you want to add to this endless list, while all incredibly useful in your marketing efforts, they are all just icing on the cake. The cake is made from two ingredients: Content and Usability. Take the time to develop what your site does properly. It doesn’t matter how good your Digg title is or how many friends you have in your MySpace profile. If your site offers no real content or your content is difficult to readily access, your not gonna make it.
By way of contrast, if you do have great, easily accessible content, but a poor marketing campaign, you still have a chance. Although your site will take longer to reach it intended market, quality will eventually be recognized. At least, as long as you don’t go bankrupt waiting to be discovered.
In the race to come up with the most clever link bait idea, it sometimes seems that we forget the most important thing: ACCESSIBLE CONTENT. I read dozens of blogs and articles every week (thanks Stoney) that offer very good insight on various web marketing techniques. All of these articles usually begin or end with a quick mention of, “oh yeah, btw, you need great content for this to work”. Few take the time to define great content. The few examples that are given are useful, but one of the main characteristics of good content is that it is unique. So imitation doesn’t have too much value here. The point is this. Before you move forward with any real campaign to market your site, make sure you have taken the time to make sure your site is what it should be. Just because you understand how your site flows and the message you are saying, doesn’t mean others will. Get feedback and revise. Then when you are ready, throw your hat in the ring and fight for your share of the highly competitive world of web traffic.