The website I chose to look at was Gap.com. The website provides information about the company, as well as allowing viewers to shop their merchandise. The design of the website is directed toward task-oriented users. Task-oriented users are typically users who are looking to search the web. The task-oriented user is looking for a site that allows them to efficiently and effectively find what they are looking for. Most users of the Gap website are looking to purchase particular items such as gifts or personal clothing. The website is broken down into sections to allow fast retrieval of the content the user is looking for.
Upon entering the website the customer can choose which department they would like to shop: Men, Women, GapKids, babyGap, GapMaternity, and GapBody. Within each of the main departments the user’s selection can easily be narrowed down based on what the user is looking for. The user can look at new arrivals for the department or just select a type of clothing such as sweaters. The website is split up into these categories so that the customer knows where to look to find exactly what they want.
Gap.com uses effective navigation in the design of its website for its users. By including a navigation bar in the website’s format users can navigate to different departments without returning to the homepage and without going back a couple of pages. Also the entire time a user is searching a department a vertical bar of links is along the side allowing the customer to go to any of these categories with having to track back. This makes the shopping experience for the customer easier.
The Gap.com website also uses quality content to make purchasing items from the website easier for its users. While searching any particular clothing item on the website the user is given a description of each product which includes information about the fit and style of the clothing along with details about what the product is made out of. Also with each item a link for a size chart is included in the description. For the customer, this feature makes them more comfortable ordering an item from the website. The size chart pops up in a separate window which means that by clicking the link the customer is not navigated away from the item.
As far as traffic building strategies, Gap.com implements many different tactics to drive users to its website. The first noticeable strategy for Gap.com is that it part of a house of brands owned by Gap Inc. These means that Gap.com maintains a website separate from the Gap Inc. website and the other three brands, owned by Gap Inc. The website has an effective domain name, simply using the name of the brand as the URL. This is important because some customers may attempt to access the website without using a search engine. This domain name is simple and is what the customer would expect the URL for the website is. The domain name is not easily misspelled because of how short the domain name is. Also the website uses a .com ending which is the most common address and what a customer would anticipate the ending is.
Gap.com also uses search engine marketing to promote traffic to the website. The Gap.com website on Google comes up as both the one and only sponsored link as well as the number one organic search entry. As a sponsored link, Gap is paying Google to come up whenever a customer searches Gap. With Google’s click through rate, Gap is paying anytime a user clicks the sponsored link. Fortunately for Gap they are also the first indexed website which means customers may just use that link instead of the sponsored link. This drives traffic to the website for free instead of when the sponsored link, which costs Gap a certain amount per click. Gap has achieved its ultimate goal of coming up on the first page as well as being the number one indexed website when Gap is searched.
Gap.com uses an effective title tag to help the website to become indexed on major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. The title for the websites homepage is “Shop clothes for women, men, maternity, baby, and kids at gap.com. – Gap”. This is an effective title because it incorporates the basic idea of the website. When I first looked at the title I thought it was too long and descriptive, but for title tags it is important to be descriptive. The description included in the title tag will help the website to be indexed for on search engines for the keywords included in the title.
In terms of popularity, when I searched which websites had links to gap.com there were only five links that came up. One of the five was Gap’s own link to their site on the webpage. This means that not many people are linking to the Gap website. Apparently having the website linked on other sites is not an important aspect of traffic building strategies for gap.com.
Gap.com implements mass media advertising on a regular basis. Although Gap has steered away from television advertising, which it is famous for, Gap is using print to advertise its products. The company is currently implementing a "Classics Redefined" print advertising campaign using celebrities to model their apparel. This advertising features their products and includes the company’s website URL to direct customers to the website to purchase products.
Although Gap sponsors the keyword Gap, when searching other related keywords Gap is not indexed or included as a sponsored link. I figured when entering clothing or shopping that Gap might be one of the number one indexed sites, but after looking through a couple of pages I still could not find Gap. Therefore, the keyword that they sponsor only works if Gap is exactly what the customer is looking for. I feel that Gap should use other keywords within their traffic building campaign to encourage customers to go to their website.
Also, while on the online, I have never seen as banner advertisements for the company. I think that this could also be a successful method for building traffic for the website. Websites such as social networks would be an effective place for Gap to begin advertising
As popular as the internet has been you would think that people would be moree knowledgeable about how to use it to benefit them personally or for their business. According to recent internet news that is not the case. All of the headlines related to internet marketing are about support for internet marketing and companies offering assistance.
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