Mike –

An interesting post and one that has many strands to it, and too many for me to reply to now having read both the post and subsequent replies.

It’s an very valid point you make. The problem is that as you suggest curators are just that and the process of building a web site really requires many minds and real experts.

From a purely SEO perspective, as you suggest the search doesn’t start with a users arrival at the web site, it begins with Google etc. This reflects my and others’ opinion that every page is your home page.

In addition, museums sit in a very enviable position. They are respected by sources such as Google, by virtue of their being a seat of learning. The most highly ranked sites in the Google index are .edu sites. Moreover, they will because of wider interest in their activities produce a tone of backlinks, which again improves their ranking.

This doesn’t mean life is easy for them, but if they take full advantage of the fact, the benefits can be hugely successful.

That being said, as you suggest there are any facets to the sites, from people looking for basic info to those looking for content within the collection, but at the same time within the site you also need to sell the content in to the casual visitors and cross-sell.

Strong pre-planning and understanding how your site, aspects of the site and external sources sit within your overall internet strategy is important and will help define what you do and how you execute the design and delivery of your museum’s web site and wider WWW presence.

This is an interesting discussion in light of my and others’ reviews of the new Whitney.org web site. A real lost opportunity in my view.