1) What’s The Purpose Of Your Site?

Why are you building your website?

It’s likely you have several goals. The point is to clearly define them. Without clarifying your purpose, it’s unlikely your website will achieve it

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Exactly what do you need your website to accomplish?
There can be many potential reasons, and we’ve listed the common ones we’ve seen among our clients:

  • Is it for brand development and awareness?
  • Is it to build credibility with your portfolio and proof of work?
  • Do you need to streamline an internal business process?
  • Do you want to drive leads for sales?
  • Are you planning on driving online product or service sales?
  • Is it for employee recruitment or HR support?
  • Is it for post sales support?

It’s important to be clear on your purpose.

The way you build a website is very different depending on this choice alone.

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2) Who Is Your Audience?

In other words, who’s your website for?

The next question to get clear on is your target audience. Successful websites are built to serve specific target audiences. The more specific you are about who they are and why they are visiting, the more relevant and valuable you can be.

A good way to make sure you are clear on this is to start by naming each audience type — prospects, clients, recruits, etc. Create a description for each of these different audience types. Most websites serve at least two or three different types of visitors. Develop a profile of each visitor type (also known as client/audience persona).

  • What is their demographic profile? (age, gender, location, income, etc.)
  • What are they looking for on your website?
  • When are they most likely to visit your website?
  • What device are they likely to visit you on (a computer, phone or tablet)?
  • What do they hope to gain from visiting your site?
  • How will they make their decision to proceed?
  • What will they need from you to achieve their goals?
  • What would stop them from taking action?

Keep in mind your website is for them. Your needs are met when their needs are also met.

Understanding their needs and expectations is a foundational component in creating a great customer experience. For example, 

If you’re selling to a high-end audience, you need to look the part. If you’re selling to engineers, they have a greater need for detailed information than most.