6 Must have elements of a website strategy

6 Must have elements of a website strategy

How to develop a successful website strategy

 

Gone are the days when a website was just a few well designed pages on the internet. With so much competition and so many businesses now online, developing a website that ranks highly requires a multi-faceted approach, and it all starts with a great website strategy.

 

So what should you include in your website strategy?

Whether you’re considering a new website, or a website re-design, the content for your website strategy remains the same, and it all starts with your target customer.

Below are the 6 key website strategy elements that helps you develop an awesome website that smashes your competitors out of the ballpark (and really, who doesn’t want that!?).

 

  1. Define your target audience

Without a target audience, you don’t have a business. It’s as simple as that! Your products, your services, your brand all need to come back to one thing – your target customer.

Defining your target audience doesn’t have to be a difficult process. In fact if you’ve already been in business for a number of years and have had success with your products and/or services, then you obviously have a pretty good grasp on your target audience. But let’s say you’re just starting out, or pivoting your business, or introducing a new range of products and services to a completely new audience. How do you define who they are?

You need to develop a customer avatar – draw a circle in the middle of a page with a smiley face or a stick figure (or get more creative if you like!) – this is your target customer. Now, off this circle draw smaller circles and label them ‘age’, ‘gender’, ‘occupation’, ‘family’, ‘likes/dislikes’, ‘where they live’, etc… and populate these circles with as much information as you can. Much of the time it will be quite anecdotal, and that’s ok. As long as you start to build a fairly realistic view of your target customer.

Now consider how this information applies when they will visit your website. Is the layout appealing to them, have you chosen colours that are appealing to them, have you provided them with the information they’re most interested in in order to convert them into a lead or sale?

Keep a safe record of all of the ideas that come into your head, because you’ll need them further into the strategy.

 

  1. Set your website goals

Just like in a business, setting goals for your website is incredibly important. If you have a website developer put together a website without a prioritised list of website goals, how do they know what design elements or functionality to prioritise?

Examples of website goals might be:

  • Grow the number of visitors to my website by 15%
  • Convert 25% of visitors to my website to leads
  • Increase sales through my website by 20%
  • Decrease bounce rate by 5%

Of course, if you’re building a brand new website, it will be difficult to put growth numbers and percentages beside your goals, so make sure you have a plan in place to track these numbers in a months time or three months time so you can then adjust these goals and add in some growth targets.

 

  1. Goal-driven design direction

So now that you’ve developed your website goals, how do these goals translate into the design of the website?

If data capture is a top priority, make sure you have a contact form ‘above the fold’ (above the fold refers to the top part of the website that you can see before you scroll down).

If website sales conversions are a priority, then have you made your online shopping ‘experience’ engaging and simple? Do you have an engaging Call to Action on your key webpages? Have you included a Value Proposition which inspires your customer to take action?

If reducing bounce rate is important, have you made sure there’s enough engaging content? Do you have a fast page load speed?

Remember, when you’re considering the goal-driven design direction, always come back to your target customer. How would your target customer feel when they visit and interact with your website?

 

  1. Website Brand Image

In the first point, we discussed your target audience. This is where your brand image is very important. If you have an existing brand, you’ll want to make sure that your existing brand elements tie into the website brand image.

Is your brand personality fun or serious? How does the website design image reflect this?

Do your website colour choices reflect your brand colours, AND do they also appeal to your target customer?

Does your chosen website imagery reflect your brand?

There’s so much more that goes into developing a successful brand, but the important thing to remember in your website design, is that you’re consistent with your branding.

 

  1. Website site map

Developing a successful site map is more than just having a home, about, services and contact page. Get into the head of your target customer and map out how they would want to interact with your website.

What information are they wanting to find? How have you set up your website navigation to allow them to find this information quickly and easily?

Developing a site map also helps you determine what content (copy and images) your website will need.

A sitemap can be an effective planning tool for both designers and non-designers alike. It’s a centralized planning tool that can help organize and clarify the content that needs to be on your site, as well as help you eliminate unnecessary pages. (Neil Patel)

 

 

  1. SEO Keyword Analysis

Before you write ANY copy for your website, make sure you’ve performed an SEO Keyword Analysis. Not just an analysis of the keywords you want to rank for, but also the keywords that your competitors rank for.

Keyword research is the only way to figure out what people are typing into search engines. You need to know this to avoid creating content about topics that nobody is searching for. Lots of website owners make that mistake, and it’s likely a big part of the reason why 90.63% of pages get no traffic from Google. (Ahrefs)

SEO Keyword research is more than just writing down the top keywords. It’s important to consider the following factors:

Keyword Difficulty – how difficult it is to rank for a keyword (this is based off the number of other websites in your set jurisdiction which also rank for the keyword) and also the CPC (costs per click, which is an important consideration factor in determining keyword for Google Ads.

Search Volume – this is how many times your selected keyword is searched for. If the volume is low, then chances are it’s not a highly searched for keyword or phrase.

Search intent – this is an often overlooked factor, but critical to your SEO Strategy. Search intent allows you to understand what information people are hoping to find when they type in a specific keyword. Are they looking for informational content (ie. Blog posts, how-to videos).

Keyword research also helps you to answer questions like:

  • How hard will it be to rank for this keyword?
  • How much traffic am I likely to get if I rank for this keyword?
  • What kind of content should I create to rank for this keyword?
  • Are people searching for this keyword likely to become my customers?

Source: Ahrefs 

Once you’ve performed your keyword research, develop a SEO keyword strategy to work out where and how to use the keywords throughout your website.

 

  1. Measuring your results

Critical to measuring your website success, is setting in place some measures. Look back at your website goals and have a think about how you’ll measure the success of these goals.

Two free and easy ways to track your website analytics is through:

  • Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

If you’re developing a new website, or a website redesign, put a plan in place to check your website results at specific intervals. Make a note of the analytics and adjust your goals accordingly.

 

Go forth and design a great website

 

If you’d like to discuss a website design strategy, or a complete website build or website design, I’d love to help. I have over 15 years of marketing experience from around the world and bring a unique holistic view to my website design. I also specialise in website copywriting and website SEO, which means I’m a one-stop shop for developing a website that looks great, engages your audience and can be found on Google.

See my website design portfolio here.

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