What CMS should I use for my site
2. Identifying Your Website Needs
This section is designed to help you understand and identify your website needs. By the end of this you will be able to evaluate your business goals, define target audiences, and outline the key functionalities required to create a successful and efficient website that aligns with your objectives.
2 a. Defining Your Website Goals
Let’s start by watching the video below that explains, from a marketing perspective, why your website is important.
Further reading: In the video the ‘Jobs to be done theory‘ was referenced. This theory may help you think differently about your approach to this discovery phase and makes interesting reading.
Exercise: Start by listing any general business goals that come to mind. Now think about how your website can help you achieve that.
What does that actually mean for you though?
Increased revenue?
Maximise profitability?
Improved client satisfaction?
Reduction in your personal working hours?
Showcase your portfolio or services?
Identify the primary and secondary functions of your site but also consider setting long term objectives.
Great website goals are driven by purpose. What’s the purpose of your site? What information do you want visitors to know and what’s the number one action you want them to take?
To help get you started here are the top three goals for most sites:
- Establishing authority/brand recognition in the industry.
- Increasing sales/profits.
- Automating/streamlining processes.
2 b. Analysing technical requirements
There are six technical requirements and specs to consider:
Do you want an e-commerce site, is your aim to enable your customers to buy products or services?
Do you want a blog to share updates and articles?
Do you want a portfolio to showcase your work?
Are you creating a community, will users need to register?
Defining your site’s primary functions and purpose will guide other technical decisions.
How will users access your site?
Primarily on desktop, mobile, or a mix of both?
Your site should be optimised for the platforms your audience uses the most. If mobile usage is projected to be high, the site must be responsive, adjusting layouts and content to fit smaller screens, although this is generally a given.
Will your site integrate with any external services?
Solutions like email marketing, customer management systems, payment processing, social media, etc.?
Provide details on any third-party services you currently use or plan to implement so they can be incorporated into your site architecture.
Do you need an internal site search feature?
Site search helps users find content and can improve the overall experience. Consider if site search would benefit your site and any customisations needed, like searching limited areas of the site or filtering results.
Website analytics provide insights into how people use your site. Analytics should be set up to track key metrics like page views, traffic sources, popular content, conversion rates, and more. Determine what analytics platform you want to use and the key performance indicators (KPIs) you need to monitor.
Take note of specific colours, fonts, images and styles you want to use on your site and how they should be used. E.g. all heading should be a particular size, font colour.
Maybe consider an overall aesthetic, eg. corporate, creative, conservative etc.
And finally keep in mind your competitors!
Exercise:
2 c. Understanding your budget
In this section you will learn about the potential costs to help you better manage your budget.
The type of website you need will affect the cost. For example, a simple or minimalist design will be cheaper than a customised and complex one.
Additional functionality, such as eCommerce integration or API integrations, will increase the price. As will number of pages, images and media on your site.
Domain name:
The domain name is the starting point of your website. Remember this is usually an annual or biannual cost.
Web hosting:
The cost of server space or web hosting can vary and is an annual cost.
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