Are there special ingredients that you stir in to make a great website?

Yes and No. I guess you could say the ingredients are the answers we get from our research, and the many questions we ask. Those answers eventually determine the purpose and objectives of the website, which is the first extremely crucial step in creating a good website.

Without defining the purpose and objectives the website ends up with mixed messages and doesn't achieve anything. It's sort of like wondering through the streets of New York City without defining a destination, or trying to build a house without the plans. It can be done, but the outcome will usually be horrible.

Without a purpose there is no clarity, and without clarity visitors get confused, and when visitors get confused a website gets no results. Every business want results, so let me point you in the right direction.

Target audiences help define the purpose and objectives

Before you can define any purpose or objective we have to understand who your visitors will be, why they are coming to the website, how can we get them engaged to start building an online relationship with them. The closer they get to you online the more likely they will be to take other action.

The better the target audience is defined the easier it will be to determine most of the objectives. Here are some questions to get the ball rolling.

• Where do they live?
• What income bracket are they in?
• What is their age range?
• Is there a specific target gender?
• What do they want?
• Why should they come to the website?
• What should they want to do when they arrive?
• How will you engage them? and keep them engaged?
• How will you deliver what they want?
• How will you get them to come back?

The list of questions really goes on and on, but you get the point.

Once you have defined your target audience then the purpose and objectives will almost come naturally through the process.

A good friend of mine is constantly reminding me that, "Getting traffic to a website is easy, converting the traffic is the challenge."

There is a lot of research that goes into planning and creating a website. Like competitive analysis, branding, marketing messages and so on, but those cannot be created without first determining the target audience, then the purpose and objectives. So start defining them. Find out what they want, and how your website will give it to them?