Every website will have different objectives while every website owner will have set different goals for it. Any site will have varied reason to exist.
What do you want this site to accomplish for you as well as your site visitors?
Product brand awareness
To market detailed product information
To target communities around the globe
Provide the latest new product or service information to customers
Market yourself
To make money from an online business
It's clear that a business orientated site will be more objective in its goals than a site of a personal nature but the site must have a reason for existing.
Routedge also want a way of knowing if your website is performing its goal(s) as intended. It would be beneficial to the site's owner to get visitor feedback. A simple way is to simply ask or gauge from visitors through a feedback form or a survey.
Routedge also suggest in determining website purpose previously, to dedicate a page in the form of a mission statement. If you decide to do this, you can list your site goals and objectives here also. That way, your visitors will clearly know what your site is trying to do for them!
At Routedge we would like our customers to really know about their website before we start……….
What is the purpose of a web site?
What do you want this site to accomplish for you as well as your site visitors?
What you want your site to achieve?
Routedge will ensure that your website is optimized to achieve the required purpose.
After all, you can only meet your goals when you know what they are.
Routedge suggest you to first focus and understand why you are having a website?
Maybe you are trying to ……………………………
Provide a service
Present information on a topic
Make an announcement
You might even be trying to perform a combination of the above things.
If you are providing a service, you'll be providing marketing information and other related content but understand the principal purpose of the site to provide a service.
Consider devoting a page to your site's purpose. Some sites do this through a mission statement or a dedicated page explaining the purpose of the site. It will effectively address why the site was created, what it's about and what it hopes to achieve for the user (site's goal). This is a very efficient method to combine two of your website's objectives.
You can research other site's statement's of purpose for ideas but remember only you can determine what the purpose of your own website is or is going to be. Understand what are the purpose and goals of your website, get projected in search query results (i.e. asking a Search Engine to find you something you typed in). You have a brief window of opportunity to advertise the benefits your site will offer to the potential visitor so this must convey the site's purpose or benefits effectively and efficiently. Having a clearly defined purpose will benefit you also when it comes to submit your website to directories. The Directory will ask you to provide a limited description of your website. You must be able to quote a purpose/benefit description effectively within two sentences; ideally in one sentence.
Routedge believes that the reasons of explaining the purpose are:
Understand the importance of knowing your site's purpose
Be focused - clearly define the principal purpose of your site.
Be able to state your site's purpose in one sentence.
Don't mislead - be crystal clear and honest.
The success of any website can only be measured by its goals. Having no goals will not mean your site is a failure but simply just an achievement! You may have made it your goal to have your own website and that's great but you're still going to have goals set for your site.
As with the website's intended purpose, we have to get focused and have a clear and complete understanding of what we want this site to achieve.
With any general goal-setting we undertake, there must be some variables to set our goals on. Therefore, goals should be………………..
SPECIFIC : Describe what you want to accomplish with as much detail as possible.
REALISTIC : Goal you know you are actually capable of obtaining.
CHALLENGING : Take energy and discipline to accomplish rewarding goals.
PRIORITIZED : Set goals by time and importance into clearly specified target completion dates.
Writing down your goals creates the roadmap to your success. Although just the act of writing them down can set the process in motion, it is also extremely important to review your goals frequently. Remember, the more focused you are on your goals; the more likely you are to accomplish them.