It's over. After three grueling weeks of racing, Lance Armstrong

has won what some call the world's most difficult sporting event,

the Tour De France. The US newspapers gave the event a cursory

notation the Monday after the finish and showed a single photo of

Lance in his yellow jersey (used to identify the Tour leader)

sporting an ear-to-ear grin. But those of us who are avid

cyclists and follow bicycle racing know there is much more to

winning an event like this than simply one man riding to glory

after three weeks and over 2,000 miles.

The world sees only Armstrong, but behind this cycling phenomenon

is an incredible team. Actually there are two teams. One is the

group of cyclists that support, protect and lead Armstrong during

the actual racing. The other is the support team no one sees.

This consists of all the coaches, trainers, therapists, medical

staff, chefs, team managers, mechanics and even the people who

drive the support vehicles.

So what does this have to do with your website? As I go through

my annual TDF withdrawal, I have begun to equate the US Postal

Service cycling team to a well performing Web site. Here is a

relationship of the various elements.

1) Message

The message Armstrong sent to his competition this year was,

"Don't even think of messing with me." It was a very strong

statement. What message does your Website portray? Do you tell

your site visitors right up front what it is your company does,

what problems you solve and how? People will relate to real

problems your company solves for clients.

2) Focus

Armstrong has a team of elite cyclists whose only job is to

support their team leader. Think of all the pages on your Website

as the support for your message. These are the pages people will

look at and read to learn about your company, your services and

your products. Enforce your message, provide clear and

understandable information, be consistent. Most importantly, stay

focused.

3) Identity

The "posties" (as the US Postal team riders are called) all wear

the same blue jerseys. Each team has its own colors. Your Web

site pages should all look alike. I have seen many sites with a

"killer" home page, yet the rest of the site is mundane. Often,

subsequent pages seem to degrade and change in design and layout.

I begin to wonder if I am still on the original site. The same

logo should appear on every page and be consistent with your

navigation. People should never have to wonder if they have left

your site, regardless of which page they are looking at.

4) Support

Just as the US Postal team has a plethora of behind-the-scenes

support people, your Web site needs hidden support.

The first line is your hosting company. If your site is down due

to a malfunctioning or overloaded server, it is a reflection on

you. I have had hosting companies forget to upload their entire

password file for shared hosting sites when bringing a new server

online. Another ISP never configured Apache on a new server to

display HTM pages, only HTML. A third copied files onto a new

server and lost all the CGI permissions, so none of the forms or

back end programs worked.

Be sure you have clean HTML code. Your site must work in all

browsers and across all platforms. A good HTML editor will write

clean HTML. Many developers still write in text mode and

occasionally forget an opening or ending tag. One bad tag can

ruin your whole page.

There is a bevy of discussion these days on the use of CSS

(cascading style sheets) and yet I see very little mention of how

differently Netscape and Explorer interpret these commands. If

you do not want to perform the necessary testing yourself use an

online service to do it for you.

Be sure your JavaScript works on in all browsers. Recently, I was

asked to critique a specific site only to find the image

rollovers did not work properly in Netscape. This is basic stuff.

Is your CGI reliable? These behind-the-scenes programming tools

that are used to enhance a site can easily destroy it if they do

not work properly.

5) Content

The US Postal Service cycling team has depth and discipline. On a

Web site, this is reflected in the quantity, quality and

consistency of your content. Aside from articles and white

papers, the content must be short and consistent throughout the

site. Stay well focused and direct content to your potential

client base.

6) Anticipate

Every day before the individual race begins, the US Postal

support team drives ahead to the next city. They literally

dominate a hotel and prepare for the arrival of the riders. The

team chefs take over the kitchen, preparing the types of meals

each individual rider prefers. Anticipating the feeding habits of

a machine that burns over 5,000 calories a day is no mean feat in

itself. The cyclists never look at a menu. Their individually

prepared meal is waiting for them when they arrive.

As you lay out your web site, try to anticipate where your

visitors will go next. You can then design your navigation system

to lead the visitor to the next page, or set of pages. You can

pre-load images so the visitor does not have to wait for them to

load. You can direct people to a specific page by continuing a

block of text onto another page. Imagine yourself as a chef for a

racer who hates meat, will tolerate pork and devour chicken. How

long would you last if you gave him a rare steak?

About the Author

Ken Hablow is an independent Website designer and marketing

consultant in Boston MA. He can be reached through his Website at

www.khgraphics.com