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Cookie Cutter Sites

Marketing Blaster

On another of our sites, a reader left a comment that Google doesn't like "cookie cutter" sites like this blog.

Is that true?

One has to decide what is meant by "cookie cutter" first. If "cookie cutter" means blogs in general, then I think we all know that simply isn't true. Literally hundreds of thousands of sites run on the Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad and other blogging platforms. Most have two or three columns, a blog roll, a list of archived posts and a way to leave comments.

A blog is instantly recognizable because it has these "cookie cutter" elements. Do blogs rank lower than non-blog sites? If they do, then what is it about them that makes them rank lower? Does Google hate comments? Do they hate two or three column sites? Is it a blogroll they hate? Or is it that the home page constantly changes to a different post?

Well, I think most people would agree that Google doesn't hate blogs. Many people actually claim that blogs enjoy HIGHER ranking, not lower ranking.

I really doubt that Google specifically targets blogs either way. There are high quality blogs and there are low quality blogs. There are high quality non-blog sites and low quality non-blog sites. Why would Google penalize blog sites? Do we see any evidence that Google penalizes blog sites? No. To the contrary, we see a lot of blog sites showing up on the first page of Google results in just about every market. Google seems to love blogs.

Maybe "cookie cutter" was meant to be even more general. Maybe they meant that sites created using any kind of content management system (CMS) are "cookie cutter" sites and Google hates them. That would include wikis including Wikipedia and custom blogging platforms like About.com. It would even include eCommerce platforms like Omniture which runs seven of the top ten converting sites on the entire Internet in a very "cookie cutter" fashion(same page layout, same menus, same controls, same checkout).

I think we can all agree that is absurd. Wikipedia and About.com show up in the top 25 results for most searches. Using a CMS and a "cookie cutter" site layout hasn't hurt them in the rankings one bit.

Or maybe that poster meant something more specific. Maybe they meant sites that all use the same theme, site layout or colors. Well, that is absurd too. We know that most Blogger blogs (Google's own blogging platform) use the same theme, site layout and colors. We see them in the search engine results quite often. Until recently, there were tens of thousands of Wordpress blogs using the Cutline theme showing up in the search engines. Recently most of those Cutline Wordpress blogs converted to using the Thesis theme. That hasn't hurt their results.

Wikipedia is in the top 25 results for almost any search. They use the same cookie cutter approach throughout their entire site. About.com also shows up high in the search results for many topics. They use the same cookie cutter site layout, colors and design.

It doesn't appear that Google cares one iota about common designs. If anything, a common design may make it more likely that the site gets indexed in a uniform way. If Google broke their ability to index Wordpress blogs using the Thesis theme, everyone would hear about it really quickly. But if one is using a completely custom platform and Google makes a change that causes them to not be indexable, then that site owner would probably not make a big enough fuss to be noticed and Google's indexing bug would go unnoticed.

As we study eCommerce sites (sites that sell things), we see a ton of diversity among the small time players. Among the big time eCommerce players, we see most covered by the Omniture platform. Of those who don't use the Omniture platform (only 30% of the top 10 converting sites on the 'net), we see very similar site designs that mimic the Omniture platform layout.

We see the logo in the top left corner. We see a search box often with the exact same words copied from the Omniture plaform prefilled in it ("Enter Keyword / Item #"). We see the "Your Account" and "Signin" links. We see the drop down or push out menu for the site's departments. We see the same information in the footer. We see the same white background in the middle of the page and the same colored background surrounding it. We see the same gradient used at the top although different colors are used. We even see the same button styles copied from such diverse sites as Yahoo, PayPal and the Omniture platform.

Cookie cutter sites... all of them.

eCommerce sites follow the same layout because we are approaching ultimate conversion. Did you know that in December, the top converting site on the 'net converted 52% of their visitors into buyers? It's a new player that beat out ProFlowers for the #1 position. The new player is an old company though. You have probably heard of them... They deliver food to your door... Schwans.com. The #3 site is also familiar. It is called Quixstar.com which you may not recognize. That is the name Amway tried to use to rebrand themselves on the Internet. They now use the Amway Global logo on that site.

What do all three of the top converting sites have in commmon? Go take a look:

Schwans.com

ProFlowers.com

Quixstar.com

All three are cookie cutter sites using the exact same Content Management System (CMS). They are using the extremely successful Omniture system.

With double digit conversion rates (52% for the top player), can you afford not to be copying that "cookie cutter" page layout?

We are with the Internet Business Box. We aren't stealing any code or any other intellectual property, but we are definitely follow the same successful proven site layout. Omniture didn't invent it. It has been used by successful eCommerce companies since before Omniture existed.

Take a look at the other 30% of sites that don't use the Omniture platform, but show up in the top 10 highest converting sites on Neisen's ratings. They all use the same layout too.

You simply can't ignore this "cookie cutter" site layout if you want a high converting site because it is the site layout that is responsible for 52% conversion rates for Schwans.com and 30% conversion rates for ProFlowers.com. Ignore it and do your own thing and there is simply no possibility of enjoying double digit conversions. Double digit conversions come from that "cookie cutter" site layout that people are used to seeing in any reliable online business.

If you want people to pull out their credit cards on your site, then you better follow that "cookie cutter" approach... EVEN if Google does somehow decide they don't like cookie cutter sites in the future.

Google is only 2-10% of the traffic these sites receive. Even if Google banned all sites that use a logo in the upper left corner, these sites would take the 2%-10% cut in revenue because that is where consumers expect the logo to be for a reliable eCommerce site. They would lose 50% or more of their revenue if they cared more about what Google thinks than what their customers think!

But Google isn't going to ban sites with a logo in the upper left corner and a drop-down menu bar below the logo. They aren't going to do that because almost every high quality eCommerce site uses that layout and Google's search engine results would suck if they decided to ban all of us. They would go out of business as a more rational search engine took their place.

And that is why you don't need to worry about whether Google hates "cookie cutter" sites or not. They obviously don't hate them and they obviously wouldn't survive if they banned all sites using a particular layout, design or CMS (Content Management System).

We aren't the best in this business. We readily admit that. Omniture is the best. If you have $20,000 to get started with Omniture for the first year, then contact them. They run the platform used by seven out of ten of the top converting sites on the entire Internet.

If you want to get started for $10 per month with a proven multivariate system and a proven content manangement system that looks and feels similar to every high converting site on the Internet, then give the Internet Business Box a try. We have plans starting at just $10 per month.

And we don't plan to always be #2 either. We plan to take over Omniture's position eventually. We have better technology and a fresh start. I guarantee that if you start with us on the $10/month plan that we will always honor the $10/month price even when we take over a majority of the highest converting sites on the net... for those who start with us now.

Here is where you can get started with our proven CMS, blog platform, eCommerce solution, multi-variate testing solution and most efficient email management solution for only $10 per month:

Internet Business Box for $10/month

Or you can worry about whether Google is going to ban "cookie cutter" sites and follow all of the lemmings with their "long copy sales letters" and "squeeze pages." It's up to you.