Purpose and Goals of Site

Why are you building a web site?

Before actually building a web site you need to look at the purpose of building the site and goals you wish to acheive.

Site Purpose

Define the purpose of building the web site. The purpose of the web site is to:

• Build Revenue Build revenues for your new/existing business or
• Share Information Share corporate or educational information or
• Share Opinions Share opinions on a subjet or
• Share Personal Interests Share personal interests with family and friends

All Web Sites

All web sites need:

• to focus on their target audience.
• to have only features necessary to convey information and communicate with their target audience.
• easy, clear navigation systems

Business Web Sites

Business web sites need to look at their market.

• Size of Market  Is the size of the market local, regional or worldwide?
• Niche Market  What niche does the fit into?

Once the market has been determined the web site content can be developed to convey appropriate product information.

Informational and Opinion Web Sites

Informational web sites can be corporate intranets or educational sites. Opinion web sites can be politically themed or your opinion on a particular subject. These type of sites need to:

• contain informative content.
• be easily navigated.
• have pages that are not too long.

Personal Web Sites

Personal web sites (as in for your family and friends) have a more open structure and may contain more fun items like photo galleries. A personal web site still has to consider it's audience. Grandma, although you have got her using the internet, may not quite understand all the ins and outs of surfing. All she may want to do is look at the pictures of her grandkids.

Web Site Goals

When planning a website consider what are the goals of the project. Goals can be divided into 2 categories:

• Immediate Goals What are the immediate (short term) goals of the project? Increase sales for the upcoming holiday? Promote a new product?
• Long Term Goals What are the long term goals of the project? Increase sales for the year? Achieve universal marketing plan?

Once you have set some goals, prioritize them then work on achieving 2 or 3 at a time.