Five questions you should answer before you build a website

Never say ‘ah it is only a website’.  Creating a website is just like brick and mortar but with one difference – it is virtual clicks and mortar. In the case of judging a book by its cover, this is as true of a website as this is representing your company image or brand. So, if it is bad then your company image will suffer. However, if the website is brilliant your company image will come up smelling of roses.

If you have an online presence, then it is imperative that you create a website that will fit in with the expectations of people who visit your site. As well as meeting the requirements of visitors, your website has to be above those expectations to ensure repeat visits. After all if your website is only getting one or two visits then it is pretty pointless.

Every website has different objectives and uses different strategies to gain online presence. However, the most fundamental if not most important objective of having a website is to get the user to bookmark the site as one of their favourites so they can keep on coming back again and again.

Not only does your website have to meet the requirements of visitors’ but you also have to be able to continue to keep their interest and increase the amount of visits they make to your website. Don’t be under any illusion that you will be able to create some top secret magic formula that will do it.

However, to help you on your way here are five questions that you can answer in order for you to put down your foundations to build an impressive online presence, which will result in revenue, return visits to the site and brand awareness.

What questions I should be answering?

The five questions that you should make a note of answering to help you on your way are as follows:

• Who is your target market?
• What are the main objectives of your website?
• What will visitors to your site expect from you?
• What are you hoping the visitor will take away with them?
• Why is your site so special for a visitor to return?

Defining the target audience?

The World Wide Web is the most popular resource for any person who wants to find out more information about anything in the world.  The web is the hub of convenience for our day to day life. When any business is looking to achieve online presence, then it is critical that the target audience is established at the outset before any development or content is started. Once you have defined who your target audience are then it is easier to answer the five underlying questions which build the foundations to your website.

Determining your target audience also enables you to build your website with greater accuracy. The greater understanding you have of your target audience and what their expectations are for your website, the more content relevant you can make your website.
If you do your research you will soon conclude that most websites follow a standard template. Straight out of the box, 6 page simple website. Included pages will be ‘Who we are,” What we do,” and “Links”. The reason websites follow this template is for ease of use. However, because the website is so generic it proves no value to anyone that visits it. The user will not bookmark or add the website as a favourite resulting in never returning.  What the website owner will be able to do is measure the hits and page views activity but this will show no loyalty of visits. To put it in plain English it will be a first and last time visit for many surfers.

Who is the target audience?

Finding out who your target audience is, is a fundamental step when building your website and it is also critical to establishing loyalty on your website. So you should ask yourself’ just who are the people that will be coming to your website?’ Will it be students looking for information for essays or someone looking for some technical information? You need to assess how these people will utilise the web and use the information they find? Is it more important for your website to be visual rather than textual, and if so does the visualisation deliver the message you want to get across to your target market.

From the above you can see just how important knowing your target audience actually is – it is not just about age, gender, educational demographics that tell you. By fully understanding your audience only then will you be able to provide content that is of value and more importantly how the content is to be sent to your audience. By spending some timed defining your audience you can stay ahead of your competitors. After all, the benefit of competitor advantage is that you know information your competitors do not.

What are the objectives of your website?

Are you clear as to why you need a website or are you just creating one for the sake of creating one?  You will find that many companies don’t have a clear and definitive strategy when it comes to creating a website and their main reason of having a website is just so they can keep up with the Jones’.  If you ask these particular companies why they have a website they will tell you it is because their competitor has a fantastic website and they didn’t want to be left behind. 

If this is the strategy that you adopt then stop and think.  You need to assess what value your website offers in terms of content to your visitors.

Many companies want an online presence for a variety of reasons. But in reality, the main objective of any company having a website is because everyone else has a website. The most basic reason for building a website is because it is convenient and cost effective for you to communicate better with your audience. In terms of cost effectiveness, the beauty of the internet means that any small business can create an online presence and no one will really see how big they are – doors are opened to a much bigger marketplace. For a small business, having a website is great because it means they are not restricted by location. They are able to deliver specific content and traffic to specific people which when using traditional marketing methods would prove to be very costly. The only reasons you should even contemplate having an online presence are those that are entirely customer focused.

What visitors expect when they come to your website?

The quicker you understand the visual requirements of your target audience, the quicker you can understand what their expectations are. One thing you need to focus on is the perspective from the customers’ point of view and what their expectations are.  Typically internet users expect ease of use as their number one priority. This means easy navigation and fast download times. On average if a user is shopping online they expect to wait no longer than 8 seconds before they leave the page and go somewhere else or stop the transaction process. This usually happens when the page is too slow to open.

Once you have achieved this, you need to look at the bigger picture and other things visitors will expect – does it meet entertainment value and if not how dissatisfied will the visitor be. Other people will look at sales information availability and detailed company information. These are just some expectations visitors will want to see but they will vary from person to person. However, good research and understanding will mean you will be able to perfect your website design and content for your audience.

What visitors to your site want to leave with?

Ok, so now you have the understanding of what your audience wants from your site, the next step is to be clear about what you want them to take away from your site once they have finished looking at it. Ask yourself the following questions:

Do you want to reduce the sales time and make sure your customer knows everything they need to know about your product?

Are you looking to improve brand image online as well as offline?

Depending on what your goals are you will need to adopt different strategies for these goals. One you know what you want your visitors to leave with you then need to be clear on how to address those needs. This can be done by focusing on relevant content on the site and the overall design of the site. One method that works well is to strike a balance of good content and design that satisfies your customer requirements.

But why should someone return to your site?

Why should someone visiting your website bookmark it to return to it again? If there is no good single reason for them to do this then you need to look at how you can improve the overall look and feel of your site to encourage people to return.  It is very important for you to know this before you actually go ahead and create a website as it will help you define your target audience.  There are many reasons for creating a website to get online presence. However, if you are not driving traffic back to your website then any efforts you have made on design and content are wasted.  Remember, there is no point of having a website to let your competitors know what you are doing!

By developing a loyal following on your website you are also generating offline revenue. By having the right relevant content on your website you are making it so much easier for people to find what they are looking for. A great relevant website will encourage repeat visits. Once you know everything you need to know about your target audience you will have set the foundation for all your web activities.

Five questions, five answers

As you can see this article has covered in depth things that you need to know about before creating a website.  However, there are many resources – books, magazines and e-zines that explain these points in more detail. However, these five questions will help you lay the foundations to the website you are building.

Answering these five questions in a logical manner will not only create the foundations of a great website but will also enable you to gain an online presence that meets your requirements and the requirements of your visitors – they will keep on returning to your site.

Finally, you should remember to thoroughly do your homework before you launch any web site initiatives. But if you have already created a website you can still address these questions and make your existing site better and more importantly one that meets your visitors’ expectations.