The Long Neck

All websites have a very small set of killer tasks that really matter to the customer. Web management is about perfecting the completion of these tasks. The 80:20 rule states that 80 percent of wealth is owned by 20 percent of people; that 80 percent of sales comes from 20 percent of customers. As a result of many years of research on websites I have discovered the 25:5 rule. The 25:5 rule states that at least 25 percent of demand is for 5 percent of tasks; that 5 percent of content is read by 25 percent of people. The 25:5 rule is a type of distillation of the 80:20. Viewed in graphical form it creates a Long Neck. For years, I have been developing a technique called Customer Carewords. It's based on the idea that words are the most important driver of action on any website. If you identify the most important words of your customers, you know what they really want. As a research project, I developed a list of over 100 words connected with tourism. Words such as: planning a trip, vacation packages, getting here and around, accommodation, special offers, things to do and see, etc. I asked over 1,000 people in 12 countries to scan the list and vote for their favorites. There were 147 words/phrases to choose from. The top 7 carewords, representing 5 percent of the total words, got 35 percent of votes. In fact, the top 7 carewords, astonishingly, got more votes than the bottom 120 carewords. (