Before you design, build, or improve your web site, you need to make sure that you know the goals of your site.

I can hear the chorus of “duhs” and “of courses” right now—this should be a no-brainer, right?

Then why on earth do so many web sites get it wrong? The main goals of many sites have been lost, neglected, or never incorporated. Many sites are failures because they try to achieve the wrong goal. Some of my favorite examples of sites that fail to live up to their potential are “brochure” sites—sites that are simply online brochures. They don’t provide anything beyond what a normal printed brochure would offer—no interactive features, no additional contact methods, not even “spider food” to attract search engine traffic.

What Are the Goals of Your Site?

That being said, what are the goals of your site? What functions is it supposed to fill? What are your visitors supposed to be able to get out of it? What can a web site provide that cannot be accomplished through other means?

Kindred Learning.com Site Goals

Before rebuilding Kindred Learning’s site, I sat down with the owners and made a list of the things that they would like from their web site, which included things that the site currently did well and things they would like to add. Some of the goals for Kindred Learning’s site include:

• Drive Sales

  The site needs to drive a significant (majority) portion of Kindred Learning’s yearly sales.

• Strengthen Communication

  kindredlearning.com needs to facilitate two-way communication between Kindred Learning and site visitors. Feedback from visitors is crucial to the success of the company.

• Nurture Customer Relationships

  The site needs to make sure that Kindred Learning’s existing customers are taken care of and will remain loyal.

• Provide New Leads

  The site needs to attract, inform, and convert prospects into new customers.

How the site is going to accomplish these goals is a matter of site functionality, which I will discuss in more detail later.

Using Goals as You Build Your Site

Make sure your goals are written down and visible—they need to guide your design (or your client’s design) from the beginning. These written goals act as expectations for the site and prevent you from getting distracted or neglecting important parts of the site. It also prevents you (or especially clients) from having an unrealistic view of what they will get from the site.