You are here

Take a look at this article before reading further.

Do you know where Del Mar is? Not by looking at the newspaper Web site. But then you are probably not their target market, so it probably doesn’t matter all that much. Unless you want to link to this story from your blog (like I wanted to do here.) Many newspaper Web sites o this. So do college Web site. You are here and if you don’t know where here is, well, we’re sure as heck are not going to tell you.

Now, take a look at your soccer tournament Web site. Can out-of-town teams figure out where you are without clicking through to several pages, maybe going to your map page? You know where you are, but do your guest teams — which you are trying to attract to your tournament — know where you are? When you write directions to the fields, do you assume the team is from out of town and write it from their point of view? Or, do you assume everyone knows that the 10 mile stretch of road is named three different things as it meanders through three different municipalities?

Our Advice: Build your Web site as if nobody knows who you are and WHERE you are. Assume the reader doesn’t know where “here” is and write directions so that they can find your fields and their hotel without any help from third-party tools.