Not My Department

According to a recent survey of mall shoppers by Mohr Access, a retail consultancy, this was the most-cited annoying phrase that comes out of the mouths of retail workers.

Does your web site say the same thing to web visitors? If your content is organized by date, or according to some heirarchy within your organization, then you're forcing visitors to search through the equivalent of rows of content before they can find what they want.

Better to arrange your content based on user groups, like "for donors", "for the press", "for potential donors" so that people can identify themselves and find content that's for them. "What we do", "Where we work" are also good organization techniques.

"If it's not on the rack, we don't have it." That's the #2 complaint. The web solution? A good site search with two additions: (1) an email or contact link that displays after the search results. "Can't find what you want? Ask us," it would invite. (2) a staff member who reviews the results of web searches regularly and suggests content based on terms the visitors are using in their search.