infinite42: Squeeze More Results From Your Website

This might seem like a strange question. You probably know what it’s for don’t you? My question is:

• can you describe what your website is for, and
• is it really designed to do it?

Or, is the goal of your website confused by fancy graphics, collections of (ir)relevant information, multi-colored text and visitor counters? Does this sound familiar? Spend a few minutes browsing through a few websites and you might see what I mean.

If you know a bit about web technology it’s easy to get distracted by what you CAN build instead of focusing on the goal of the site, who your visitors are and how you are going to get them to the goal. Even if you work with a web designer, you need to think about this. They will probably have a nice portfolio of clever stuff that they’ve created for other clients. But can they help you to achieve your goal?

My advice is to write down the purpose of the site. You should be able to write down one (or two or three) goals. Everything that you put into the site should steer people toward those goals.

If not, it might be time to start using the delete key…

Tags: design, goals, website

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