Website purpose – is your site firing blanks?

Designing or writing copy for a site without a clear website purpose is like shooting without a target.

As a web copy and content writer, one of the first questions I ask my clients is “What is the purpose of your site?”

Unfortunately their first reaction to this simple question is usually a blank look, so what about you? Are you crystal clear about the purpose of your website?

Here are some examples to get you started.

• Selling products online
• Producing leads
• Creating awareness
• Building a brand
• Attracting subscribers
• Establishing a community
• Generating feedback

Now we are getting somewhere!

Having a clear idea of the purpose or desired action for your site is a critical first step whether you are building your own site, hiring a web designer, or using a web copywriter like me to aid you in the process.   Without a clear statement of your website purpose your chances of creating an effective website that delivers sales, enquiries or leads is slim to none.

Once you know the purpose you can sketch out an outline of the pages needed to meet this overall aim.   Then you need to ask yourself the same question of each  page.   “What’s the purpose of this page?”  or an even better question is to ask “What do I want my ideal visitor to DO next, as a result of visiting this page?”

Here are some specific web page purpose examples:

• Subscribe to your newsletter
• Download a brochure or price list
• Pick up the phone and call you
• Read some more information on another page
• Send you an email or  contact form message
• Leave a comment on a blog post like this one.
• Share your page content via Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

Now you are ready to write your content

So next time you want to create a new site, or add a page to your existing one – STOP.   Before you go any further, Ask yourself  “what’s the purpose of this site or page?” and don’t do anything else until you can answer that question clearly and succinctly.

Tell us what you think YOUR website purpose is and, if you include the URL, we’ll take a look! 

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