What Are Your Website Goals?

So what are them website goals anyway?

When I talk with clients I always ask them “What do you want your website to do for you? What is its primary goal?” Sometimes I get a confused and glazed look, which is fine. The same thing happens to me when I watched that TV show ‘Lost.’ More times than not, people have a very long explanation about who they are and what they do and what makes them unique.

I try to stop them and I tell them they’re missing the point. Don’t sell me on “who you are.” Tell me what you want people to do when they get to a site. Then I’ll get a response of “Well, I want them to check out each and every page on my site, look at my scrolling home banners and blah, blah…) Again, I have to stop them and then offer: “Look, you don’t really care if they read everything on your site. People that found you already know what they want and have been doing their research. Ultimately you want them to buy something from you or to contact you!

Website Goals Breakdown

A website typically performs the basic following functions

Builds awareness for a brand and their products.
Provides a mechanism for potential clients to contact you about your products and services
Generate sales and acquire new customers

Take an objective look at your website. Does it do any of the three things above? How easy is it to navigate? Are the primary website goals represented on your home page?

It’s worth mentioning that 77% of North American Households are online and roughly 229 million are online in North America alone. Not only do you need a website to reach those people, but you need to ensure your site has basic goals set and that you have a means to achieve those goals.

Quick Tips to Improve Your Website’s Goals

Have a contact number on your site. Preferably in the upper right hand side of the website. Use natural text (not an image) and make the number stick out more than other elements your page. You’re trying to get someone to contact you. Also, if using an image button for people to contact you, make sure the image is a different color also. Be strategic with placement. and be aware of consumer eye-movement.
Have a contact form so people can easily contact you through your website. On that note, have links in various pages on your site that link to your contact page. Why should you have a contact form over just a simple email? Well, contact forms are trackable via tools like Google Analytics, emails are not. Contact forms have methods of reducing spam, simple emails will attract way more spam. Contact forms can trigger autoresponders, and also automatically add people to newsletter mailing lists…
Call to actions are "loud."

Create “Calls to Action.” That is, be aware of what your customers want. A good way to think about these ‘calls to action’ is just someone standing outside of their business handing out coupons or samples to passers-by. It’s just one more way for a business to say “hey, hey! Pay attention to this thing over here!”