In a relatively short time, the strategy of business relationships has gone from direct to digital, from personal to pixels. But if you think the personal business relationship is dying, read this from Hillary Clinton:

“But you would think, in the world in which we live today, that with instantaneous communications, that you wouldn’t need to travel as much.”

“But, in fact,” Clinton explained, “you almost have to travel more, both because everybody knows you can get on an airplane and get to where they’re expecting you, but also because it’s almost as if the virtual reality cries out for the real relationships need to be affirmed.” (My emphasis.)

There are basically two objectives to select from when deciding which one should be the primary focus for your website;

1. Getting found
2. Making an impression

Let’s use an example to make the distinction clear. If you are a new or relatively unknown company and have a unique or unfamiliar product to sell, your objective will most likely be getting found. You can’t sell your product until someone knows about it, so you need to attract potential customers to your website. In this example, you may choose to invest in optimizing your website for search rather than, for example, custom graphics or expensive animation.

In contrast, if you are an established, well known company that must maintain a high image profile, such as an ad agency, you may choose to invest in graphics and design rather than search. Your potential customers most likely know your name, and so you prefer to impress them rather than be found by them.

In reality, most companies will select elements of both objectives, and the objectives may change over time as the marketing objectives change. For example, you don’t want a website that is not professionally designed and that alienates visitors.

In visual terms, think of your Web objective as a slider: one side of the scale is search optimized, the other side is image optimized.

For small businesses just beginning their Web programs, it will be advantageous to devote resources primarily to one objective and that objective will most likely be getting found.