When you first start out creating your website, or talking to a company like ours to develop one for you you’re going to have to stop and ask yourself, “What is the purpose of your website?” If you don’t know, it’s hard to create the website because without a purpose it’s impossible to get started. Not only that, it’s hard to use your website the right way if you don’t even know why you have it.
Do You Want a Niche Affiliate Website?
This is generally like an authority or expert website that is devoted to promoting someone else’s products or services using the code that they provide. This type of site requires the ability to place a lot of content and information on it, as well as a lead capturing service like AWeber.com, and it needs to be devoted specifically to the niche you want to support. It’s a lot like an authority website except it will promote other people’s products or services.
Do You Want to Sell Products or Services?
If this is the point of your website, then you’ll need an e-commerce website. It will need shopping cart technology, the proper security, the right type of server capacity, and a way to pull traffic and handle leads that don’t purchase right away. Knowing up front that you want to sell products or services directly from your site will help you explain to a web designer what you need.
Do You Want to Generate Leads?
Building a lead-generating website requires a little less technology than the e-commerce site, but it still requires such things as an autoresponder, special landing pages, attractive design and keyword-rich content that is devoted to educating the audience and collecting names to market to later (usually via an autoresponder system like AWeber.com or MailChimp.com).
Do You Want an Authority Website?
Many experts like to establish their online presence by creating an authority website. Usually they will fill the site with articles, blog posts, and information relating to their specific niche as well as possibly a portfolio and links to other work they’ve done that establishes their expertise more fully. This website basically requires the same technology as the lead-generating site, but it will be set up in a more personal way with the expert as the center of the website.
Do You Want a Locally or Nationally Focused Website?
Another important factor in considering the purpose of your site is whether you want to attract a local or national audience? If you have a local business where all of your foot traffic will come from people passing through or who live in your city, then of course you want a locally focused site. If you have a business that can be recognized nationally such as being an author, or selling products online, then you want to focus your website nationally. There are a lot of differences to the two that need to be understood before getting started.
The makeup of your site also has many characteristics that are always important, regardless of the purpose. All need a lead capturing system with an autoresponder like AWeber.com and all need to have a beautiful and responsive design. But they each have their own purpose that needs to be clear when someone visits the site. Knowing your purpose will increase the marketability of your website exponentially. After reading this, do you know the purpose of your website? If not, contact me and I would be glad to help you figure out what direction to take.