As previously mentioned, I work for a company that builds websites (among other online marketing services). At this company, it’s a frequent thing for new clients to come to us with artwork, ideas about design, and a favorite list of bells and whistles they’d like to use on their site. Some even come with suggestions for navigation gizmos – like drop-down menus, fly-outs, even JavaScript heavy menu trees with click-to-expand functionality. They know they want great search engine rankings, and some think they have information to share about how to get them. They’ve got ideas about everything… except content.

How can that be? There’s plenty of information about how important content is. How can companies who want to succeed on the web be so disconnected from such a major key to success? Are those of us who build the web just bad educators? Is it a classic case of companies focusing on style over substance?

To add to that, many of our clients write their own web copy. Though they have no copywriter on staff, and certainly no one who is experienced in writing for an action-oriented medium like the web, they ask us to cut copy writing services from proposals. I understand why boot-strapping start-ups do it (even if they likely need it the most), but I don’t understand why companies with budget to back their marketing would.

I also don’t understand the rampant cart-before-the-horse thinking. What good will great search rankings do if the copy about your product doesn’t sell it? What value is there in turning up #1 on Google if, when I get to your site, I just end up clicking my back button because I can’t figure out what you do or why I should care?

So now I’m working with a non-profit organization, and they have great ideas about the image they’d like to present on their website, what kind of photos are appropriate, which parts of the site they might be able to charge for access to, and where to link in all the methods by which you can donate to them. “Great,” I say, “Do you have a content outline yet?”

The answer: “No, we’ll worry about that after we’ve built the site.”

Sigh.

I ran across this great video about what the web is, and I just have to share. The guy is spot on. In some ways, everything we know is wrong. In other ways, we’re back to the beginning. Watch it and be inspired.

On a similar topic, I’ve recently been listening to the panel podcasts from SXSW 2007 (since I wasn’t fortunate enough to attend). One of them is all about the future of the web, and a segment of particular interest is a discussion about personal transparency online. Citing things like blogging, Twitter, YouTube, and other services whose primary purpose is to make the usually private (or at least privileged) details of our lives visible to anyone who cares to look, panelists posited that a generation of web users (the younger ones, mostly) are very accustomed to living in the open. And it’s true – things you once might not have told anyone but your closest confidant are now published, syndicated, and circulated – not only available for anyone to know, but for anyone to comment on.

It’s a shame more businesses aren’t embracing the idea of transparency, at least a little. Consumer confidence is at an all time low, and it’s harder than ever to get consumers to believe that companies have any goal other than making money. We don’t believe in the perfect faces companies present us with. According to the Edelman Annual Trust Barometer, “…more than 80% say they would refuse to buy goods or services from a company they do not trust, and more than 70% will ‘criticize them to people they know,’ with one-third sharing their opinions and experiences of a distrusted company on the Web.” According to a iCrossing study, “88% of adults who purchase items online conduct some sort of online research at least sometimes prior to completing their purchase,” and “67% of U.S. adults who research online before making a purchase decision use search engines as a research tool.”

If one third of the customers who aren’t happy with a company are publishing their experiences on the web, and 88% of adults are doing online research before they buy from a company, what is the impact on a company’s bottom line? Can they even measure the number of people who chose not to buy from them because of a blog post about a bad experience or a negative review on one of the myriad consumer review sites? And with 67% of U.S. adults using search engines as a tool for researching purchases, is it any wonder that the SEO business is booming? Is the biggest threat to a company in this arena a competitor, or is it the voice of unhappy customers willing to tell the world about their dissatisfaction? More than one company has approached the digital marketing firm I work for with the express goal of getting ahead of bad consumer reviews in search rankings.

Transparency is already affecting businesses everywhere, whether they embrace it or not.