KISS. Keep it Simple, Stupid!
It’s the best way to get good, clean content out on the web and make it accessible and easily readable for everyone. Keep everything as simple as possible. This does a number of things for you:
- Increases your productivity
- Increases your reader’s productivity
- Enhances SEO
- Creates a more enjoyable website to view
Think about it. If you keep your site really simple and informational, people might actually visit it as opposed to just your RSS feed. They’ll see your advertisements and more of your content.
My site, already on Page 1 of Google for the term Twitter Rocket, is nothing more than CSS and a few images. Actually, it’s all built off Headway which is one of the simplest WordPress themes I have ever used, but also the most powerful. It is easy to maintain, easy to write and exceptional at SEO.
Go look at www.drudgereport.com. It is arguably a very ugly site, yet it is simple and full of great content. According to www.websitegrader.com It scored an 88% and is in the top 0.01% of traffic on the internet.
If you’re still not convinced, then check out the guys at 37Signals, especially Backpack. It’s simple, clean and so easy to use. It fits the bill of probably 95% + of people and it isn’t complicated.
What do you think? Is simple really this important or is it overrated?