What is Web Strategy and Why is it Important? 10 Questions to Help Explain

Do you think of your customers as one big group or do you categorize them?

Summary: I have watched friends build a website to generate income with very little planning; they have an idea, and the next day they're building the website. But I've watched those same friends start a business and immediately start with a business plan before doing anything else. Why the difference? It seems that planning is an expected part of successful business strategy. Why isn't planning considered equally important for a website? In this article we'll discuss what web strategy is, questions that should be answered as part of a successful website strategy, and we'll talk about why such a strategy is important.

So what is web strategy?

I'll start with a rather pithy definition: Web strategy is about looking at and anticipating root causes of online success or failure and coming up with solutions to address those root causes instead of superficial solutions.

Perhaps that still doesn't make sense; let's try to explain it another way?

Put simply, web strategy is like a business plan, but it is the plan for your website. In it you outline a road map for your website. You outline obstacles and challenges you expect to face, your plan to overcome those obstacles, and goals that will determine whether you've been successful.

Do you really need a web strategy?

You may ask, 'Why is planning important?' An ancient proverb states, "The plans of the diligent one surely make for advantage, but everyone that is hasty surely heads for want." Good planning ultimately leads to business advantages. Similarly, good website planning ultimately leads to advantages for your website versus competing websites.

But what types of questions are answered as a part of a web strategy?

Let me provide some examples of web strategy questions and see if this helps you to understand what web strategy is about:

1. What are the categories of customers who use your website? Thinking of all your customers in one big group is an example of having no website strategy because customers are not all the same. For example, a website selling books might group their customers into categories like as in the chart at the top of this article.
   
2. Does your website address the needs of each category of customer in a satisfactory way? Many website owners think primarily about their own needs, for instance getting a sale, and thus the website reflects this. Just as we hate salesman that are only out for their commission people hate websites that only sell and otherwise aren't helpful at sincerely answering questions or concerns the potential buyer might have.
   
3. What are the top 10 questions customers ask when they reach your website? How do you answer each of those top 10 questions? Websites that fail to answer the most important customer questions won't get sales because it is guaranteed you have a competitor on the internet that does answer his questions. Since this is the case, why would he buy from your website?
   
4. On each page of your website, what is the desired action you want the user to take on that page? If you don't know this, how can you tell your customer what to do? If you can't tell your customer what to do, how will he know what to do next? If he doesn't know what to do next, he will just leave your website.
   
5. What is considered a successful visit on your website? What are you doing to ensure that each visit to your website is successful? Are you trying to get a phone call, a newsletter subscription, a purchase? The answer to this question should greatly affect your entire website's layout and design.
   
6. What is the average conversion rate for your industry and what is the target conversion rate for your website? If you don't know your industry conversion rate, then how can you set a target for your own conversion rate? You can't just pull these numbers out of the air. If this data is not available, you need some other logical way of determining a reasonable conversion rate.
   
7. Besides relying on search engines, directories, and advertising, what is your six month plan for increasing the number of visitors to your website? Millions of websites are competing to get on Google Search, Yahoo Directory, etc. If you do the same thing everyone else is doing, you're going to get the same results. The average website fails. So what will you do differently than those failing websites did?
   
8. What are the goals for your website in the next 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year? Your goals should guide your activity every day. Without goals you are like a runner running without a destination. How will he know which direction to take his next step?
   
9. What lessons have you learned from your competitors in the last 6 months and how do you plan to apply those lessons in the next 6 months? Your competitors are trying thousands of different things to find success. The smart entrepreneur learns from his competitors. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart and Sam's Club, started Sam's Club after he visited Sol Price's Price Club (now named Costco). He way always learning. You should be doing the same by using your competitor's websites regularly.
   
10. What reason does a visitor have to tell others about your website? The best marketing is word-of-mouth. Is there anything about your website that a customer would have reason to tell his friends and colleagues about? To get an honest answer, you may need to ask someone else for their opinion. This is probably the most important question you can ask.
    

I could continue to list questions, but hopefully you get the point. Web strategy is about formulating answers to questions like the above. To put it another way, a successful web strategy can be a formal document, just like a business plan, that outlines your plan for the growth and development of your website and sets clear goals that will allow you to determine whether you were successful or not.

Your Plan is Your Map

If you don't have a web strategy, then you're like a traveler on a road trip without a map and without a route. You might stumble upon your destination, but your journey is going to be long and difficult full of wrong turns and dead ends. However, by developing a web strategy you're going to be like the traveler that has both a map, and a well planned route. You will reach your destination, and you will reach it quickly and you will enjoy the scenery along the way.

Discouraged? A Successful Website Requires Realistic Goals

What are the repercussions of having unrealistic business goals?

Summary: In this article we will discuss how to establish realistic goals for a website and why we do so. Realistic goals are important for a website owner if he is going to have success. Realistic goals accomplish two objectives. First, realistic goals lead to constant, measurable progress. Second, realistic goals provide motivation when achieved. Whereas, unrealistic goals can lead to wasted effort and discouragement.

What is wrong with having unrealistic goals for your website? Unrealistic goals can lead to discouragement. Discouragement can lead to a loss of joy and, worse, giving up altogether.

Sometimes in our efforts to reach out for as much as possible for our business, we reach out for so much that we overstretch ourselves.

Therefore, to keep your joy, and to continue to grow your company, you should always set goals that force you to stretch but that also allow you to see steady progress.

What makes a goal realistic? And how can your goals help your company make steady, measurable progress?

Here are some guidelines:

1. Realistic goals should be in-line with what companies in your industry have been able to accomplish historically.
2. Your goals should allow time for your efforts to bear fruit.
3. Realistic goals should reflect deep planning and not shallow thinking.

Let's briefly expand on each of these three points.

Realistic goals should be in-line with what companies in your industry have been able to accomplish historically.

If your goals fail to take into account industry averages they are more than likely going to be missed.

For example, if the average conversion rate in your industry is 5% and your website's current conversion rate is 6%, would a goal of having a 25% conversion rate be reasonable?

Google Analytics has a new benchmarking tool that helps companies to benchmark their websites against industry averages. Consider investing in tools like this or manually gathering data published about your industry. Then, armed with industry knowledge, set realistic goals.

Your goals should allow time for your efforts to bear fruit.

The farmer can not plant his seed Monday night and expect to reap Tuesday morning. Similarly, reaping the results of your effort to increase traffic, revenues, or profit requires time. Often noticeable improvement requires consistent effort for years not months.

Don't try to fool yourself into thinking that you're going to increase your monthly revenues an order of magnitude through a brief three month burst of activity. Though some websites manage to buck the trend, on average websites seem to take 2-3 years of consistent effort to gain traction. To read a real life example, click here.

How long are you currently planning on waiting for your efforts to yield significant results?

Realistic goals should reflect deep planning and not shallow thinking.

Many website owners obsess over only two numbers, traffic and revenues. This obsession is shallow because it fails to look at the root sources of traffic and revenue.

There are myriads of factors that go into a successful website (e.g. quality product selection, good site design, educational content, quality customer service, well written product descriptions, etcetera). Don't just set traffic and revenue goals as a knee jerk reaction. Try setting goals for improving very specific parts of your website.

For example, a study by Jakob Nielsen on website usability found that users are 22% more satisfied when website content is written in a concise, objective and scannable manner (Nielsen, 1997). Can you set a goal to re-write all of the text on your website to make it more objective (e.g. remove any biased or overly optimistic statements)?

One of Jack Welch's most famous actions when he became CEO of GE was to get GE out of any business where they weren't #1 or #2 (Wikipedia, 2008). This allowed GE to focus its energy on its strengths. Can you do something similar with your website? For example, can you set a goal of trimming back your product selection to only products with margins at or above your industry's average?

Paying attention to the three points discussed in this article as you set goals for your website will help you to set realistic goals that continuously move your website forward. By setting realistic goals you will avoid discouragement. More importantly, your steady, measurable progress will serve as personal motivation to continue working on building a successful business online.

References:

Nielsen, Jakob. 1997. "How to Write for the Web"
Wikipedia. 2008. "Jack Welch"

Website goals are required to assure a successful website - Lessons from my January 9th Class

Obtaining a successful website requires more than hiring a graphics designer or purchasing a nice template.

Summary: Many of the website packages that get sold don't work. Some website design companies do not hesitate to sell you a failing website and leave you with a dud. How can you protect yourself? Before you spend money on a website, you must set goals outlining exactly what your website must accomplish. You can not expect your website design company to build you a site that works without your guidance.

I typically start all of my classes with some conversation about why students are attending. I was very happy to meet Mary at my class on January 9th. We conversed for several minutes, and one topic was particularly interesting. She has been looking at the website solutions being sold to businesses, and she asked me, "Does that stuff really work?"

I smiled, because it is an excellent observation. No. Most websites don't work. If they did, I would not need have been interested in helping business owners improve their websites.

However, I want to point out that all the blame can not go to the website design vendors. Too often, companies asking for a website have no real idea what their website should accomplish beyond saying, "My website should help generate sales."

This is true, a good website should help generate sales. But how this is accomplished for each company is going to be vastly different. Most web site designers have limited industry specific knowledge. Therefore, the company requesting the website must provide many of the deepest insights as to what makes a successful website design for their specific company.

How can your company do this? You must clearly identify the goals of your website, and hold your website designer to these goals.

What are good goals and what are bad goals? Let us examine...

Good goals: A good goal ties directly to customer's needs and differentiates your company from your competitor.

1. My website should answer the top questions my customers will ask.
2. The homepage should unambiguously state what my company does.
3. My website should be clearly organized and each page should be uncluttered.
4. My website should contain industry and product specific information demonstrating my expertise and explaining my products and my services.
5. The text on my website should contain all of my critical keywords at least once so that Google can index them.
6. My website should contain all of the properly formated Title, Keyword, Description, and Heading tags that Google uses.

Bad goals: A bad goal is one that is prone to different points of view, highly subjective, and does nothing to differentiate you from your competitors. For example, goals such as...

1. My website should look attractive. One man's beauty is another's ugliness.
2. My website should be easy to use. That all depends on what you consider easy to use.
3. My website should turn up high in Google. This is easier said than done. Your focus should be to have all the appropriate HTML tags used for your website and make sure your site text contains your critical keywords.

Before you spend money on your website, please identify the key goals for your website. Once you have identified these key goals you will be able to provide more productive feedback to your web designer. If you are designing the website in-house, specific goals will help you guide your own designs more accurately.

By planning well in advance, and outlining specific goals for your website, you will make sure that the money you spend on your website is money well spent. You will also help your designer to give you a website that is going to work.