Well, if you’re still trying to understand how to embrace the Web 2.0 concept, your head may be reeling with the Web 3.0 phenomenon.
So, what is Web 3.0 and what can you do to get your website / business ready for it?
Web 3.0 (aka The Semantic Web) is all about the next generation of search. It’s the concept of giving the search engines more power so that they understand more of what you are searching for. John-Scott Dixon describes it as “understanding the context of a word or concept to offer relevant resources, thereby making it easier for people to find what they seek.”
Dixon goes on to provide 5 suggestions on how you can prepare your website (and your business) for the new Semantic Web.
1) Increase your network. Using technology from sources like ZoomInfo you can create a list of individuals who match your target audience.
2) Become the hub for your industry. You’ve heard me say this a billion times, give your audience what they are looking for!!! Become the hub of information for your industry and you will brand your company as the source of helpful information.
3) Give the search engines what they need so that they can semantically associate your website with searches for your product or service. How? Use Ontology websites like WordNet to describe, explain and expound on what you sell or do.
4) Create more targeted pages on your website. Remember, each page of your website is a home page, a landing page. Each page of your website should market TO a specific product, service, audience. Let’s say you know there is a segment of your audience who is comparing prices between your product and a competitor’s product. Create a landing page just for that segment. What information would you put on that page to help persuade that group of people to purchase your product versus the competitor’s?
5) There’s a new service/engine coming onto the Internet, Twine.com. It’s purpose, like many Web 2.0 social networks, is to help you create your own networking group.
The bottom line, as with the Web 2.0 concept, is that marketing on the Internet is very much about reaching out to other groups, other people. But, instead of cold calling, what you’re really doing is targeting a more specific group. It’s also all about expanding your website(s) to meet the needs of your target audience.
So many businesses, especially small businesses, create a website and then walk away from it. Websites are not brochures, they are not static, they are not meant to be. They are supposed to be evolving, changing, growing. Would you keep the storefront window display the same all year long, year after year? Then why are you keeping your website the same, all year long, year after year? It doesn’t make sense.
