It's over. After three grueling weeks of racing, Lance Armstrong has won what some call world's most difficult sporting event, Tour De France. The US newspapers gave event a cursory notation Monday after finish and showed a single photo of Lance in his yellow jersey (used to identify Tour leader) sporting an ear-to-ear grin. But those of us who are avid cyclists and follow bicycle racing know there is much more to winning an event like this than simply one man riding to glory after three weeks and over 2,000 miles.The world sees only Armstrong, but behind this cycling phenomenon is an incredible team. Actually there are two teams. One is group of cyclists that support, protect and lead Armstrong during actual racing. The other is support team no one sees. This consists of all coaches, trainers, therapists, medical staff, chefs, team managers, mechanics and even people who drive support vehicles.
So what does this have to do with your website? As I go through my annual TDF withdrawal, I have begun to equate US Postal Service cycling team to a well performing Web site. Here is a relationship of various elements.
1) Message The message Armstrong sent to his competition this year was, "Don't even think of messing with me." It was a very strong statement. What message does your Website portray? Do you tell your site visitors right up front what it is your company does, what problems you solve and how? People will relate to real problems your company solves for clients.
2) Focus Armstrong has a team of elite cyclists whose only job is to support their team leader. Think of all pages on your Website as support for your message. These are pages people will look at and read to learn about your company, your services and your products. Enforce your message, provide clear and understandable information, be consistent. Most importantly, stay focused.
3) Identity The "posties" (as US Postal team riders are called) all wear same blue jerseys. Each team has its own colors. Your Web site pages should all look alike. I have seen many sites with a "killer" home page, yet rest of site is mundane. Often, subsequent pages seem to degrade and change in design and layout. I begin to wonder if I am still on original site. The same logo should appear on every page and be consistent with your navigation. People should never have to wonder if they have left your site, regardless of which page they are looking at.
4) Support Just as US Postal team has a plethora of behind-the-scenes support people, your Web site needs hidden support.
The first line is your hosting company. If your site is down due to a malfunctioning or overloaded server, it is a reflection on you. I have had hosting companies forget to upload their entire password file for shared hosting sites when bringing a new server online. Another ISP never configured Apache on a new server to display HTM pages, only HTML. A third copied files onto a new server and lost all CGI permissions, so none of forms or back end programs worked.