PLAN YOUR WEBSITE
How to set useful goals for a business website
“More traffic” is a weak website brief on its own. A new site needs a customer task to support and a business outcome to observe. Choose a goal you can investigate even before you install analytics.
Name the enquiry you want
Write down what a suitable customer asks for, what information you need and who answers. A consultation request, a service quotation and a support question are different outcomes. If all three arrive in the same inbox, agree how they will be labelled before measuring them.
Find the obstacle
Review recent enquiries and ask customers what they could not find. Do not assume the answer is more animation or a larger logo. An unclear service area, an unexplained process or an unreliable contact route may be the real obstacle.
Choose a goal and a check
| Goal | Practical check |
|---|---|
| Help visitors choose a service | A new reader can explain the difference between the service options |
| Reduce repetitive questions | Common scope questions are answered before the contact link |
| Make enquiries easier | A phone user can reach the contact route and complete it |
| Improve lead quality | Enquiries include the agreed project details and fit the service |
Establish a baseline
Count the relevant enquiries you currently receive over a normal business period. Note promotions, holidays and changes in your offer. Keep the raw counts as well as any percentage changes. If you had three enquiries and now have six, the percentage looks dramatic but the sample is still small.
Turn the goal into a build decision
For an illustrative service business, adding a clear “What to send us” paragraph could support better enquiries more directly than adding another gallery. Ask the developer to explain how each proposed section helps the chosen task. Remove sections with no clear purpose from the first version.
Agree a review date and an owner. At that review, distinguish functionality from business performance: a working form can be accepted even when the site has not yet attracted enough visitors to evaluate conversion. Record unanswered questions instead of attributing every change to the redesign.
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