Know Your Niche: Thinking about Specialization and Intended Audience

摘要

Everybody loves Google, with its sparse and fast interface, context-sensitive ads that aren't in your face, and vaunted ranking system that still works some of the time. So every Web site should strive to be like Google. Everyone loves Yahoo! too, with its wide range of features laid out in front of you. So every Web site should strive to be like Yahoo!. No, wait, that won't work. Maybe every Web site that's primarily a search system should be like Google and every Web site that offers a range of services should be Eke Yahoo!. And then again, maybe not—particularly if you're not just another Yahoo!-wannabe or just another Google-competitor. When you look exactly like a category leader, it puts you in direct competition with that leader. Chances are, most of you can't out-Yahoo! Yahoo! or out-Google Google, and by making your site look just like theirs, you have to play the game on their terms. Making your site look and work just like a well-known category-leader also tends to make you look like part of that category even when you may not be. If the most obvious thing on the opening screen is a search box, you look like a general-purpose search engine—never mind that you may really be a seller of garden tools or a depot for online medical information.