You’re managing search keywords.  You’re measuring ROI.  You’re writing great titles, descriptions and ad copy.  But what happens after the user clicks on your link?  Are you giving your users what they want?

Yesterday my daughter requested a song.  Not just any song, but her current favorite, the “baloney song.”  Of course, I delivered.  I sang it just like this:  “My baloney has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R.  My baloney has a last name, it’s M-E-Y-E-R.  Oh I love to eat it every day and if you ask me why, I’ll say, ‘cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.

Which led to this conversation with my wife:

Wife:  it’s “2nd” name, not “last” name.
Me:    baloney.
Wife:  you’re a jerk
Me:    this is why Larry & Sergei invented Google.  

So, Google it I did.  I typed in “Oscar Meyer.”  The first thing I noticed was that I was wrong on one count – it’s Mayer, not Meyer.   The next thing I noticed was that Kraft (the proud owners of Oscar Mayer brand meats), may want to invest in a title tag for their site.  Anyway, Google got it right.  They listed the Oscar Mayer website first in the organic listings.  Did Oscar Mayer give me what I want? 

They did.  On their homepage they have a nifty little Flash app that has a company timeline.  I clicked on 1976, figuring that’s about when the ad in question would have come on.  I was then able to play the beloved baloney song and answer the question at hand.  As it turns out, much to my disbelief, my wife was right.  It’s “second” name.  Great.  Now I have to go drop the SureHits blog from the wife’s RSS reader so she can never find out.

So why am I telling you all this?  Because it shocks me how often website owners, particularly those who spend time and money on traffic acquisition, forget to think about what the user is looking for.  They consider the company’s perspective, not the user’s.  If you’re Oscar Mayer, you have to ask yourself why on earth anyone would visit your website except to hear one of the famous jingles (older readers will be there for “I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener” and they, too, will get what they want).   Users are not there for the nutrition facts on a hot dog, that’s for sure.

The execution on this site could be better (missing title tags and multiple references to a non-existent page are just a few of the problems).  But they got the most important thing right – they know why most people would visit their site and they deliver the goods.

So how do you get it right for your site?  Look for a post later this week with my detailed thoughts on that.