I was recently doing some work with a publisher on their web presence. As with many publishers, they had put together their web presence some years ago–largely as an online catalog of books. Over time, this presence had grown organically into multiple sites in different geographies with different branding, messaging, domains, etc.–all promoting the same or very similar books.

Back when these sites were created, they made sense, but today, key trends are changing the publishing industry:

• the decline of traditional, physical retail chains in many markets
• the rise of search as the preferred method for finding information
• the growth of online retailers
• the increasing time all consumers spend online
• the growing complexity of the consumer’s purchase journey through multiple touchpoints.

Together, these trends indicate that a publisher’s web presence needs to sit at the center of their marketing efforts–both print and digital. And that marketing campaigns need to be integrated across many different marketing channels in order to build awareness and encourage purchase. In addition, search engine optimization and driving the right kind of search traffic–people who meant to arrive on your site or were seeking your relevant information–becomes essential.

Publishers who were early movers into the web space, but didn’t evolve their web strategy to align with trends now need to quickly migrate their multiple small sites into a global web presence built around a common platform and domain that can message on branding, value, and content rather than on products. A catalog approach no longer makes sense.