One of the many things I like about David Meerman Scott’s new book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, is the way he articulates simple, obvious principles that never occured to me. Case in point–

“Amazon.com has been optimized for browsing. At a broad level, there are just two ways that people interact with Web content: they search and they browse. Most organizations optimize their sites for searching, which helps people answer their questions but doesn’t encourage them to browse. But, people also want a site to tell them something they didn’t think to ask.” (Chapter 2)

True on all counts! All business Web sites should be built for searchers and browsers. But come to think of it, most of them are built for neither. At least, not with any passion.

Amazon is about as close as you can get to the actual, pleasurable experience of wandering through a bookstore. Their Web site is a browser’s paradise.

You can browse by subject, as if you were wandering from aisle to aisle.

You can browse reader reviews, as if you were chatting with customers and friends.

You can browse related products and editorials, as if you were discussing the finer points of your topic with the shop owner.

Amazon is passionate about pleasing the customer. Their site design reveals a deep understanding of how their customers like to shop. You can search with the precision of an eagle, or you can browse until the cows come home.

On the B2B side, take a look at shipping supply giant Uline. Along with a multitude of basic and advanced search options, Uline makes browsing for shipping supplies easy, and believe it or not, fun.

Products are neatly categorized by product type. Drilling down presents the visitor with descriptive product photos and related product ideas.

Free offers keep the browsing visitor entertained (and thinking about placing an order, of course).

A variety of special offers appeals to the bargain hunter.

And for the traditionalist, Uline’s massive print catalog is available for online shopping the old fashioned way. (With an index in Spanish, by the way.)

While these various browsing elements of Uline’s Web site may seem fairly obvious, how many online stores actually feature them? How many combine design, navigation, and content to execute them well? The answer is, not many. Why?

Like David Meerman Scott, Amazon and Uline make it look easy. The fact is, creating a Web site with powerful “search and browse appeal” is extremely difficult and tedious work. It involves careful planning, meticulous attention to content details (for instance, making sure product descriptions are written in plain English), repeated programming tweaks, and continual testing and refinement.

And, before you can even begin doing all that, you have to thoroughly understand your customer. How do they behave online? What do they want? Are they wandering about the corner bookstore, or are they dashing into the White Hen Pantry for a gallon of milk?

The payoff for all this work is more business. Lots of it. Online customers have literally millions of options. What’s going to make them opt for you?

A tough question, but you can get help. I work with clients regularly on customer research and content strategy. My friends at Whoast, search marketing experts, deploy a variety of Web analytics tools to help companies learn how visitors move around a Web site. Programmers with e-commerce experience have probably already figured out which database structures work and which don’t. When it comes to Web development, more than half the battle is assembling the right team.

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