Bringing visitors with other types of sites
What is a sneaker? Facing a question like that right away, certainly strikes everyone who supposes that this article will cover websites on the Internet. The first answer to one of the possible questions you had, no, you didn’t come to the wrong place!
There are different conceptions of websites and many of them cannot be classified in one of the most common types of websites – or even the least – that we know. Stay with us and you will understand better the relevance of our initial question.
What is a type?
Among the possible definitions for the word “type”, the one that we find most enlightening, establishes that it is the set of common qualities or characteristics that determine groups of related things or people.
That is, a type of something or a type of person, is something or someone that brings together aspects that make them similar to each other with things or people belonging to the same type.
Thus, a sneaker has characteristics that allow several shoes with the same characteristics to be framed as such. The same applies to a shoe.
These aspects have always been very easy to identify and have allowed a quick visual assessment to become the framework of any shoe in either of the two types, or in a third or fourth type.
The sneaker, in turn, broke this paradigm, as it was a shoe that brought together some characteristics of both groups, causing its manufacturers to create a neologism that expressed this new condition.
Other site types
When it comes to the Internet and particularly websites, it couldn’t be different.
The Internet is a breeding ground for innovation and is itself a very genuine example of one. Therefore, it would not be surprising that rigid and immutable classifications were not the norm for its development.
There are well-defined types of sites (institutionalsites,blogs, e-commerces, etc.) in droves and forming a list with several examples pertaining to each type is not difficult.
But what if you had to classify the Blogger Cage website into one of those traditional types that you are used to, in which group would you fit it?
Right away, many will say that this is an institutional website for a hosting company. One click here and another there and they will say that it also has the characteristics of a virtual store. Oops, but there’s a blog too. And tutorials. And a customer area.
The Blogger Cage website, is one among many sites that cannot be done in a simple and accurate way in a type and creating a neologism to define it – as well as shoes – is not a viable option.
Even more appropriate and that our approach intends to highlight, is that there are times when we establish a typing, make us hostages to concepts and consequently limit our performance.
Above all, thinking about types of sites to define your digital presence can be an important limiting factor.
What other type of website to choose?
If we were good enough in choosing our approach and how we developed the question so far, you already have your own answer to that question.
But let’s go a little further!
The first deduction is quite obvious and many – if not all – have already realized that it is not necessary that your site necessarily has to be framed in some type, more or less known.
However, when presenting the Blogger Cage website as an example, we are not suggesting that its structure and the content it offers, is the best alternative and therefore it must be adopted.
Each business and each audience, has its own needs, desires and expectations.
What is behind this is an approach that is extremely relevant and that by other means we have already highlighted whenever we deal with Content Marketing and, above all, in Attraction Marketing (InboundMarketing).
The idea is to format your website so that it attracts those looking for subjects related to your business and everything that is consumable by your constituted customers or potential customers.
Another classic and well-known example is Blogging Cage, when it comes to hardware and related issues and that brings together forum, book store, EAD (Distance Learning), content portal, among others, all under the same domain.
So, don’t stick to strict types or classifications. Think first of all, of serving what your audience is looking for.
Breaking paradigms
When it comes to digital presence, it is common to find many articles that say that this is the path to success on the Internet. Almost invariably, they put it as a necessary condition to have an institutional website, a blog, an e-commerce, a forum and all social networks.
You have already seen two examples –Blogger Cage and Blogging Cage – where all or a good part of this is present in one site and we could provide an extensive list of other examples, but possibly some you already know.
When you visit some sites that deviate from traditional classifications, you begin and see the power and reach that visitor-oriented approaches can produce in terms of new types of sites and that this is not restricted to the two Tupiniquim examples already mentioned.
An important name on a possible list is Dell. The well-known hardware manufacturer, has a main website that is strongly oriented to e-commerce, but which also has information like all institutional, contains the support area provided in a conventional way or through its large forum. The list of features is huge.
Microsoft and Apple, two other giants in the technology industry, also have gigantic, option-rich websites that cannot be classified under any formal classification.
What is common in any similar case is the reverse approach, that is, serving an audience and loading the website, whatever it may be, with the resources and formats of content that are best consumed by the Internet user, instead of leaving of a specific type of site and try to accommodate attractive content, but cast by what the type determines.
In short, when thinking about conventional types of sites, a paradigm is established and that in many cases, limits the performance and the possible results.
How to create an unconventional website?
Those who are more practical and who have already convinced themselves that changing is an interesting path, must already be wondering how to enable sites that are not classifiable in a specific type and that serve their audience.
Anyone who has been with us for some time, possibly already has the answer.
The rest must be imagining that it is expensive and laborious to create and maintain such a website. No, it is not expensive and the work is limited to producing the content, but we still don’t know a formula that will bring results without any effort being necessary.
Objectively and for those who still don’t have the answer, one of the best ways to produce a website capable of delivering a lot, with different resources, formats, is WordPress.
It is Open Source, it is free, it has a huge list of themes and free plugins and even many of the paid ones, and they are quite affordable monetarily speaking.
If you have some time to learn how to use this powerful and popular CMS , it is possible to bring together the best of several worlds under your domain, personalizing through themes, creating areas for institutional information, articles, store, forum and everything else that you can imagine, without having to resort to agencies, programmers and web designers .
And even if you have some good enough reason not to use it, there are still other CMS options that can be used together, with pretty good results too.
Whatever solution you decide to adopt, start thinking about the content you offer, as a means and not as an end.
We are not saying that it is wrong to create a strong and wide digital presence, based on conventional types of sites, but that there are other ways to do it!
The truth is that there are many more reasons for you to do it, than there are excuses for continuing the way you always have.
Conclusion
The types of sites known often end up constituting barriers that restrict the digital presence or even limitations in terms of how a company presents itself on the Internet to its public. Seeing new types of websites or that you do not necessarily need to fit into one, expands the possibilities of communication with your potential customers.