Does Your Web Site Have a Goal?

Unfortunately, most web sites for small businesses and organizations are created without a plan. Even the essential elements of planning such as having goals are left out. Most smaller organizations tend to treat their web site as a quick information resource for anybody to find and read. Most of the time, the information contained on the site is direct from a brochure or other marketing collateral.

This is a mistake. A web site should serve as an extension of your organization. As a place where people can go to find unique information. Furthermore, a web site should have specific goals in mind for visitors.

For example, if someone goes to your web site, what do you want them to do? Fill out a form? Download a whitepaper? Buy something? Thinking of goals along these lines will help you structure your web site more meaningfully. It will also help you to maintain a specific focus when crafting your content. You can have one goal in mind, or you can have several. The point is you should have an expectation for what your web visitors are going to do next.

A quick case study Let’s take Cavendo’s web site as a quick case study. Before our site went through several re-designs, we really didn’t know, or quite frankly, care how people used our site. As we became smarter, we understood that our visitors should probably be filling out a web site quote request or at least a simple contact form. So with that in mind, we began pointing parts of our content toward a contact form. For instance, “If you have any questions, please contact us.” This didn’t go too far. Blanket statements such as the one just mentioned don’t entice visitors to do anything. It was then we knew we had to direct visitors toward a specific action. Our goal was to obtain a quote request. In carrying out this goal, we created a “Request For Quote” page that visitors could fill out to let us know they were interested in receiving a price estimate. This quickly transformed into a more detailed questionnaire that allows us to better assess potential clients.

We intensely integrated the RFQ function of our web site into our content. We also began creating noticeable buttons touting the RFQ form. We could probably do a better job with our RFQ process, but the point is that we established a goal (“We want people who visit our web site to fill out our RFQ”) and implemented ways for prospects to meet that goal (e.g. directing them through content, using noticeable buttons, and making an RFQ form that was useful to us).

What goals do you have for your web site? What do you want your web site visitors to do?