Scale. It’s important. More important though frequently is PERCEPTION of scale. How big you actually are is many times less important than you actually are. And get your mind out of the gutters. I’m talking about your website.
Humans have a really hard time judging scale. They can’t really picture size. When you do try and represent things to them that have immense scale their minds shut down. For instance there was a great blog post over at
http://yougottobekidding.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/what-does-one-trillion-dollars-look-like/
About what one trillion dollars looks like. It starts with a hundred dollar bill and goes up in increments till they reach one trillion. Here’s their representation of one million dollars.
It’s a little pile of 100 dollar bills.
Something you can visually grasp. Of course even that little pile you can’t probably really understand the scale of the number, you can at least stuff it in your duffel bag and run out of the bank as fast as possible.
Not that you should rob a bank. Unless your dog tells you to do it while listening to Beatles albums. Then really, who could argue with that?
Ok here’s one trillion dollars…
Boom baby.
And the US Budget is what… three times that? Wrap your head around that scale. Next time someone says ‘Let’s cut this or that from the budget and save a million dollars’ you know to laugh. They spend more on toilet paper in some departments of the government.
Anyway my point is scale. It’s something that at a certain point you just can’t really comprehend it anymore but just hits you in the gut.
We’re closer to the rabbits in Watership Down. I forget how high it was, but they could only count to like four or something. They couldn’t comprehend high numbers. We’re the same way, but we can go past four.
Scale is important. Even with us once you get past 10 it starts entering ‘gut’ range. What does 100 people look like? 1,000? 10,000? Try and do it outside of a context, like on a white background. Most people you say “hey picture 100 people”, think of a picture of something, like a picture of all their wedding guests. If you say 50,000 they picture a crowd at a baseball stadium. But they’re not really picturing those people. They’re not picturing 50,000 people. They’re picturing ONE baseball park full of people. You know it’s a huge number though. When you see massive crowds on the Washington Mall, etc, your gut is what tells you about the size and importance of something. You don’t, and can’t, count all the heads. It’s impossible. You just gutcheck it after a certain size.
What made me think of this was the map of the current BP Oil Spill…
http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/
That’s a pretty cool little map website. Takes the oil spill in context, and then puts it in a context of size you have a better time understanding. The size is still pretty incomprehensible, but putting it in a more familiar place on the map you can say “holy shit it covers my entire state”. Seriously, click on it. It’s pretty crazy. Seeing it in the Gulf of Mexico doesn’t really let you put scale to it, but putting it centered on your home really drives it home how big the damn spill is.
Ok so where the hell am I going with this?
Websites. Scale. Gut checking.
It’s been established that pretty much everyone under the age of 30 (96%+) use the internet as their primary tool for finding products and services. Bye bye yellow pages, hello yellow pages.com. (they fucked that one up a decade ago, don’t get me started). When they look for services that they’re unfamiliar with, or that they’ve recieved a referral for via their social network (another major way they find things….) they’re going to look your business or organization up online.
It goes like this.
Friend Referral via Social Network (optional) -> Google Search -> Your Website
Pretty simple. That’s the majority of ways that people under 30 (and really the majority under 40, but it’s pretty much EVERYONE under 30). Do you care about people aged 18-40? Are they in your market? Then you should be using social networking, worrying about your SEO and search engine rankings, as well as having a good website.
Here’s where I get to my point and do my TL:DNR.
Your website needs to be concerned about scale. Not the number of pages you have, that’s not what I’m talking about. Amount of content is a separate issue. I’m talking about that gut check. That thing in the person’s gut that they use to comprehend scale whether it’s a trillion dollars, or the size of an oil spill, or your company.
They want a bunch of things from a company that we can talk about…but what I’m getting to here is the gutcheck part of the equation. Is this company legit.
The trick to this is to look to someone’s gutcheck like one size larger than you are. Size does matter. I’m not saying to actually CLAIM you’re bigger than you are. Just look it to a gut check.
If you’re a one man operation working out of your attic, do you want your website to look like a one man operation working out of your attic? Is that a pretty obvious question and answer? No. I don’t care if you’re a lawyer or a gardener….you don’t want to look like you’re one guy working in an attic. You want your website to NOT reflect that. You want to look bigger than you are. Maybe like you might even be a few people in your firm, with professional offices somewhere. That’s what you want to look like.
If you’ve got a few employees and an office you want to look like you’re even bigger. 1o0 employees. A big office.
Etc.
Using restaurants as an example if you’re a corner pizza shop (honestly you probably don’t need a website) but you should look from the person’s gutcheck like a citywide chain. If you’re a citywide chain, you need to gutcheck as regional. If you’re regional, you need to gutcheck as national. If you’re national you need to gutcheck global. If you’re global, then congratulations you’re on top of the heap, make sure your site looks bigger than everyone elses.
Again I’m not saying “bigger” or “size” by actually claiming to have multiple locations. Just how it looks to someone. It’s quality. It’s targeting. It’s a good high quality design.
A lawyer’s website that has “Frank Litigator, J.D.” and a phone number as black text on a white page isn’t going to inspire any confidence in you by that guy who doesn’t know you coming to your site. Whereas if it’s a site with a high quality web design that looks like a classy lawyer’s website, with high quality information, photos, services, etc. It’s going to make them think “ok this guy looks like a professional”.
That’s what I’m getting at.
If you’re a guy with a phone number, you need to be a guy with a kickass website.
Size does matter. How people perceive your size does matter. More and more every year that means having a website that isn’t just some generic template with 4 pages of information and a phone number.
It’s what my company is doing for multiple industries and we see the results in our clients. Daycares using oDaycare fill up and have waiting lists and open up multiple locations. Athletic Clubs using oFitnessclub give our more free trials that turn into new members a week than they used to in a month. Clubs using oClubhouse get more participation in their events than before. Lawyers using oLawoffice get more contacts from people looking for legal advice, that turn into clients.
It’s not rocket surgery. We’ve worked hard to make products that help your websites LOOK bigger, because it’s important to look one level of scale than what you are.
Size does matter. Luckily we can use photoshop to help you.
Seriously, get your mind out of the gutter.