Let’s talk college football (American style) briefly. Michigan recently lost to an unranked team by two points. The going into the game they were ranked 5th in the nation, after the game, they were scored to be out of the top 25. This is something that hasn’t happened before, (falling so far so fast), which led me to ask some questions. Basically I came up with two scenarios.
- Michigan should have never have been ranked #5 to begin with and was just riding their past history, or
- Their opponent (Appalachian State) was better than thought, and should have been ranked (they can’t because of other conference rules), or
- Dropping them out of the top 25 was an over reaction, and will be corrected over time.
I don’t follow college football. So if I were to guess, it would be foolhardy. It is hard for me to say which is more accurate because I don’t know the bigger picture and understand what losing by 2 points means when its to an unranked team. Yet I see this happen with my clients occasionally.
It usually starts with everything is fine, then something happens (traffic to the site falls for one day, someone else enters “their” market, etc.). Next thing I know, 10 minutes later, I’m getting calls wanting to know what we are doing about it, what has to change, and why we’re not already doing it right now.
Just like with a normal “brick and mortar” store, it is important to remember that your website will go through phases and cycles in its business. Last week you might have had stellar numbers, however you ran a 25% discount last week, and this week you are not. Last Monday you ran a e-mail blast to your previous customers on your mailing list, this Monday you didn’t. (It’s not Christmas this month like it was last month…I could go on, but you get the point.) Events like this can cause numbers to skew high (like Michigan’s initial ranking), then cause later performance to look foolish.
Don’t take the initial numbers at face value without understanding them first. Does this mean ignore the numbers, NO! But understand their context.
There are two things that you should do in a case like this.
First, work with your web master to know what this change means. Is it a hiccup, such as a holiday weekend when people were at the beach/lost electricity while being snowed in, or the start of a trend. If its a trend, look to what it will take to fix the problem, in the long run. Don’t create a knee-jerk reaction which will “over correct” and have to be corrected itself later on.
Second, always be working on the site. Small steady improvements to your website will help make its content fresh, it will help fend off the sudden upstart, and it will keep downward trends at bay.
About Walter Wimberly