Each of your site’s visitors is important, and you should welcome and embrace them all. That statement sounds like an obvious one, generating a Duh! response, but it actually is one that needs to be considered. There are webmasters who don’t appreciate every visitor, and although their reasons may seem logical, I must disagree with them. Let’s take the following as an example.

Some people prevent certain users, such as Digg visitors, from seeing their site, using the theory that since many of these visitors use ad-blocking scripts, then they should not be allowed to view the site’s content.

Sure, a visitor uses bandwidth, thereby costing the webmaster a bit of money. In return, the webmaster expects that the visitor will at least view the ads placed on his site, and that some of them may even click through on those ads. Those ad views and ad clicks then justify the bandwidth usage. If the visitor blocks the ads, and never even sees them, then the visitor is “stealing” bandwidth, or so the logic goes.

But this logic is all wrong. That visitor is valuable in more ways than one. Yes, it would be wonderful if every user saw your site’s ads. It would be even better if every user engaged with the ads and clicked through on them. But we know that only a very few will engage with the ads, and we accept that as the natural course of things. So, too, must we accept that some people will never see the ads at all. That is not a reason, however, to turn the visitors away at the door.

A visitor to your site is valuable even if that visitor only stays for a second, sees no ads, clicks on no ads, and never returns to your site. That visitor may still hold some value in that he may tell someone else about your site. He may bookmark your site in one of the social bookmarking sites, such as delicious, and though he may never return, someone else may visit because they’ve seen his shared bookmark.

You should never assume that one visitor is more valuable than another. No matter where they come from, what their motives may be for visiting, or how they interact with sites, they may hold value that you might never have imagined. Making assumptions is usually a bad idea in any area of life, and it applies here as well. Don’t make assumptions about any of your visitors. Roll out the red carpet for everyone. Embrace each and every visitor as though they were the most valuable user ever to have stopped by your site. That kind of attitude will create much more profit in the long run, than you will ever save in bandwidth costs by turning many away.

That’s my opinion, anyway.

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on November 25th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Forming Connections