Is Your Web Site Top Heavy?

I recently visited a manufacturing-related Web site that really stood out to me. That’s really saying something, because it’s my job to keep up with what’s online to serve metalworking and machining professionals, and I spend most of my days visiting manufacturers of all walks online. To find a site that’s memorable is, well, memorable.

This site didn’t impress me with its slam-bang design. These days, just about anyone can create or imitate an aesthetically pleasing design and interface. More importantly to manufacturers is the fact that few in our realm who are looking for “parts and partners” care one iota about splash screens or rotating logos.

And I wasn’t impressed by this site’s numerous links on the home page to ambiguous areas named “About Us,” “Technical Information,” “Products,” or “What’s New.” You know as well as I do how common these links are on sites throughout the metalworking domain, and how often you select them. Or not.

No, something less obvious but more damning caught my eye. There, for all to behold, in the place where this company should describe with great clarity its value and purpose and knowledge to prospective partners, was this nugget of timeless machining wisdom: “Problem Caused By: Feed Rate Too High. Solve Problem: Reduce Feed Rate.”

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a more spectacular display of online anticlimactic blather anywhere. This is an example of a “top-heavy Web site”—a site that is “fat” where visitors link from (design, graphics, home page organization, link saturation) but way “thin” in those areas that manufacturing prospects and researchers link to for information.

Is your site top-heavy? If so, start loading more meaningful info about what value you offer prospects into your site to give it a solid foundation.