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Define Effective Goals For Your Web SiteEven the simplest web site should have clearly defined goals.![]() If I ask you to shoot these targets, you're going to find the second one easier to hit because it's nice and clear. Every decision that you, your copywriter, your graphic designer and especially your staff make about your web site
should be made within the context of your web sites' goals. This ensures everything that everyone does with your web
site is heading in the right direction. Which Goals?So which goals are right for your web site? The 2 most obvious goals for most web sites are to attract enquiries or generate sales directly off the web site.Generating enquiries is a typical goal for a service-based business, for example electricians, accountants or web designers. Generating sales is a typical goal if you sell a product, especially if you sell a niche product. For example ergonomic
keyboards, natural health books or pet collars with name tags. Niche products like these can work really well on the Internet
because of the 'scarce factor'. Your web site can also do more than that:
Joe's Lawn MowingAs an example, Joe who provides a lawn mowing service wants to build a web site to generate more enquiries.Joe gets a lot of enquiries from price shoppers who call every lawn mowing service in the yellow pages to find the cheapest price. So Joe's goal for his web site is to get more enquiries. By adding some standard pricing to his web site (or even an indication of pricing such as "from $17 per cut") Joe gives the time wasters enough information to show them that he's not the cheapest. He might eliminate (for example) 40% of those time wasters, and Joe estimates that could save him 3 or 4 hours per month. Specific, Achievable, Measurable & MotivatingThe best goals are specific, achievable, they are measurable and they should have solid motivation. With everything you do on the Internet, you should understand why you are doing it and have a good reason for it. Don't do it just because it's the in thing.Having a goal to "increase enquiries" will not help you much. It's not specific and you can't measure it so you don't know when you've achieved it. And worst of all a vague goal like this will not properly motivate you to achieve it. Joe, the lawn mower, has a small operation so he can't handle a huge number of enquiries. He wants more good enquiries
and he wants to reduce tyre kickers - they waste a lot of his time. Those goals are specific and they are achievable. He can measure whether he's achieved them without much trouble and he has really good reasons for having these goals. This means he's likely to follow through and achieve his goal. Keeping It SimpleIf you plan your web site well you'll get a much better result, save plenty of time and money and you'll make your life much simpler.Here's a web site action plan template
to help you identify your goals. Make this process really easy and contact us - we'll do it for you! For more info about building a profitable web site register for our free seminar: Simplifying the Internet - the small business owners guide to a profitable web site.
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