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Today is Labor Day and yes, I am here in the office, but so are most RustyBrickers. Why? Well, many prefer to work today and use the day off for another day. But that is not the topic of this blog post. The topic is how to use holidays, seasons, special days to liven up your web site and keep people coming back - especially in the age of RSS
As many of you know, Google often throws up a logo or (Doodle) for special occasions. They do it for major holidays, to remember special people and to bring awareness to special causes or events. Google is not the only company that does this, but they are noticed most for this. As a side note, but related to today being Labor day, Google and Yahoo have historically never had a special logo for Labor Day and that remains true today. I have a post on the Labor Day logos for 2009 from Bing, DogPile, Ask.com and others at my search blog, the Search Engine Roundtable.
I rarely ever go to the Google home page. Why? Well, search is built into my browser, so if I want to search for something, I use the search box in my browser. That bypasses the Google home page (or any search home page) and takes me directly to the search results. But when Google or other search engines or sites put up a special logo for the day, I make sure to visit the home page to get full appreciation for the logo. Having people visit your home page is a good thing.
With my search blog, the Search Engine Roundtable, I often try to redesign the site's header for special days, such as holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and so on. In fact, here is a picture of a portion of the header for today's design at the Search Engine Roundtable:
Why is it important for this blog to have a special design for holidays? Well, especially for blogs, many readers don't set foot on the site itself. Instead, they consume the content from RSS readers like Google Reader or Bloglines. In fact, I would say about 50% or more of my readers use an RSS reader to preview my content. Some click through and some don't. But I have heard time and time again that my dedicated readers (who are less likely to go to the site because they read it through RSS) tend to visit the site on holidays, in order to see what neat design we came up with.
Plus, it is a lot of fun! Check out some of the more recent themes, Mabe, our design, put together for the search blog:
Those are just some over the past year, the most creative were the last three, because all three holidays overlapped each other. WE have been doing these themes for years now and it not only helps brand the site, bring back users and remind people of special days - it also helps keep the creative juices flowing here.
If you want to see more of these logos and logos from Google and other search players, scan through search logos tag and this category to find most of them.
Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. Barry is also the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and the News Editor of Search Engine Land. He is well known & respected for his expertise in the search marketing industry. Barry graduated from the City University of New York and lives with his family in the NYC region.
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