When you first designed the web site for your company or organization, what was the particular goal that you wanted your web site to help you achieve?

The answer to this question will tell you exactly what you need to focus on to improve your site’s value to you.

Let’s think about that question a bit. If you haven’t thought about this yet, and you do have a web site up and running, think about how the answer to this question applies to your site.

You want your web site to be focused on specific goals. If not, your site will not provide value to your business and may even become a burden. Why would you want to spend time updating your site and keeping it current if it’s not working for you? Maintaining a site that doesn’t have any focused goals and that doesn’t really provide any value to visitors is a waste of time.

Let’s take a look at some common goals of a lot of business web sites. Here are some examples of what you might want your web site to help you achieve:

  • Generate leads
  • Show off a portfolio or previous work
  • Educate your customers or provide support

These three goals could probably apply to many business web sites, we’ll take a quick look at how these examples can help you focus your web site.

Generating Leads

If you are depending on your site to generate new leads for you, you need to focus on making site visitors take action to contact you.

Simple ways of doing this might be to add a graphical button or text somewhere on the site header, home page or other prominent location on the site that simply encourages visitors to “Click here to contact us about…” – fill in the blank with what you offer.

Adding a prominent graphic or bit of text that calls to the user to click and contact you can go a long ways to encourage a visitor to do so. If you don’t tell them to contact you, they might not!

Showing Off A Portfolio

If you are using your web site to showcase a portfolio or previous work, you are probably doing so for the following reasons:

  • To prove to potential customers that you indeed know what you are doing
  • To show off the quality and style of your work, so that potential customers know what to expect from you

If these are major goals of your site, be sure that your portfolio is not hidden or hard to find. Put prominent portfolio pieces right on the home page or other places where people can easily find them. Add graphics and action buttons on your site that encourage people to click and view your portfolio.

In addition to these steps, you should also make it easy for people to contact you when they are looking at the work you are showcasing on the site, going back to the point about generating leads. If you have a small graphic or bit of text right on your portfolio pages that encourage users to contact you, they might be more likely to take action.

Educating Customers & Providing Support

Is one of the main goals of your web site to provide education and support? If so, be sure that your site has lots of content to answer all possible questions. Analyze the navigation system on your web site, make it easy for customers to find the information that they need.

Think about all the questions that you have to frequently answer over the phone or by email. Could these questions maybe be added to a Frequently Asked Questions page on your site? Yes, indeed. You could even take it further than a simple FAQ page and build a knowledge base on your web site.

Putting the burden of answering customers questions on your web site is a great way to make your web site work for you. If you make it easy for your customers to dig through your site and find the support info they need, you’ll spend less time on the phones and answering emails.

Conclusion

These three examples should give you an idea of how to focus your web site. You want your site to work for you. You don’t want to have a web site that just sits out there and does nothing.

Take a step back and think, “what do I need my web site to do for me today?”

Once you’ve answered that question, and have set some expectations for your web site, tweak your site pages to focus on those goals and you’ll see your web site become a more integral part of your organization.

Absolute Marketing Group can help you work towards your online goals if you need help. We have a Fargo-Moorhead based web design team that can help you do everything you read about on our web site. Contact us today if you need help with your next web project.