Layoff Walk of Shame

Layoff Walk of Shame.

Website archeologist or anthropologist — which does your business need?

If you’re in business, do you need your digital and social media staffs to be website anthropologists or archeologists?

Let’s assume you were paying attention back in fifth grade when the teacher tried to explain the difference between the two.

Archeology deals mainly with the recovery of ancient artifacts; the places they were found and the people who created the artifacts. Think Indiana Jones (fedoras are optional).

Anthropologists study human cultures and how societies have evolved into where we are today.

So here’s the real question. As the leader of a business, do you want your digital and social media staffs spending the majority of their time poking around archaic website production software and outdated computer hardware? Essentially being website archeologists.

My guess is that you’d rather have these key players in your company’s future playing the role of website anthropologists. Not so much looking back at how we got to the modern paradigm of Internet activity, but spending time seeing how social media of all forms interact with traditional websites.

Simply put, for a business website you want to know how traffic is flowing to your site and where are users going once they’ve found you. This is important information in the success of your site. If users can’t find what they need on your site, chances are they are not coming back.

Here’s where your digital and social media staffs can be real players and not just relic diggers. Through the use of online analytics they should be able to tell you the sources of traffic (i.e. SEO, social media, Web page links, etc.)

They should also be able to tell you the pattern of the traffic once users are on the site. If, for example, 90 percent of your users don’t scroll down the page below the fold, then it should follow that the important stuff on your page is not positioned at the bottom.

They should also be able to show you the timing of the traffic pattern. If the majority of your visits are coming on weekdays during business hours, it makes sense to have your digital and social media staffs focusing on these time slots.

Now there are always outliers in every plan. But that’s where your website anthropologists can keep your site one step ahead of the game and not wasting time looking for ancient artifacts.