Three basic questions for a successful website

How do you ensure that your website will be successful? Think before you start about the following three basic Web Design questions. It will save you a lot of hassle afterwards!

1: Why do you want to
build a website?

First, ask why you want to build a website. Why do you want to invest your time, energy and money in this long-term project? What results will you get out of it? To achieve goals such as earnings, recognition or fame?

A website is an investment, a successful website is a long-term project. It consists of making the right choices over and over again. The Internet is evolving. To keep abreast of the latest developments in web design, you must evolve yourself.

Remember that once you build a (free) website, you need to maintain it. Unfortunately, the Internet is full of such bad examples. Websites, online shops and blogs that are rarely maintained after an initial intensive period.

Not only is it a waste of the time, money and energy that goes into it. It's dangerous too! Badly maintained websites are popular with cyber criminals. Such websites are not well protected and thus easy to crack.

Ask yourself these questions:

• reason: What is the main reason for your new website?
• keywords: Name 5 keywords that belong to your website. Why?
• results: What do you want your website to give you? Why?

2: What is the purpose
of your website?

Second, ask yourself: What is the purpose of the website? What do you want to achieve in the short and long term with your website? What exactly do you want to show your web visitors?

Describe exactly what you want your web visitors to see. This ensures that your website is as specific and clear as possible. Remember that many small steps together make a big step forward. So your main goal subdivides into many small sub-goals so that your wishes are workable.

Website purpose:

• Goal: What is the purpose of the website?
  1. Entertainment
  2. Education
  3. Inspiration
  4. Unique offer
  5. Personal branding
• Main and sub-goals: What is the goal?
  And which sub-targets can you draw from this?
• Result: What do you want to achieve in the short and long term with your website?
  1. Attract new customers
  2. Sell products
  3. Increase sales
  4. Strengthen brand image

3: From WHOM & for WHO
is your website?

Third, ask yourself who owns this web site? How is the culture within this organisation? Which organisation is behind this site? The vision and mission of this organisation? Why? What products or services do they provide? What would this organisation achieve?

FROM WHOM:

Website organisation

• Organisation: Who owns this site? What does the organisation look like?
• Objectives: What are the objectives of the organisation?
• Vision and Mission: What are the vision (ideas) and mission (mission) of the organisation?
• Products & Services: What products or services does this organisation offer?
• B2B & B2C: Do you supply to businesses or individuals?
• Area: On which region(s)/country does your organisation focus?

Web culture

• Culture: How is the culture of your organisation?
• Market Segment: In which market segment is your organisation located?
• USP: How do you distinguish yourself from the competition?
• Dream: What will this organisation achieve in the 1st year? And after 5 years? And 10?
• Growth: How will your organisation grow in the coming years (turnover, employees, product or service offering)?

But also: Who is this site for? If the answer to this last question is: "Everybody", think again. Instead, align your target audience with information, text, images and other web tools. However, if you opt for a general audience, nobody feels addressed.

FOR WHO:

Website target

• Audience: Who is the target audience of the organisation?
  1. Age
  2. Sex
  3. Education
  4. Knowledge
  5. Profession
• Tasks: What do you want website visitors to do on your website?
  1. Registration
  2. Newsletter subscription
  3. Buy product/service
• Criteria: What criteria must a site meet to be successful?

Web appearance

• Appearance: What do you want the website to radiate? And what not?
• Look & Feel: What feeling should a visitor have when he/she visits the website?
• Structure: How does the structure of your website look? How many pages? Which?
• Elements: Which components must your website contain at least?
  1. Calendar
  2. Contacts
  3. News
  4. Membership records
  5. Photo album or Video page
  6. Contact page
• Website example: Which websites do you prefer? Why? Give examples.