It is common for people to ask “Why isn’t my website working for me”? and is perhaps the healthiest question a site oowner, business owner or blogger should be asking. The question really resolves to just a few details.
What is the sites goal? The goals of websites can be very different. Foundationally it’s important to note if a site is intended to be a direct profit center or encourage people towards another profit center or perhaps has nothing to do with generating profit or even revenue. Most of our clients are commercial and seek revenue directly or indirectly via their website and other marketing.
I’ll separate sites into at least two categories for now. The Direct Producers being eCommerce sites where products are sold directly on the website or also via additional contact generated through the site vs. sites with a different mission such as creating opportunities for advertisers and other marketing. The way to determine success on these can be very different.
For a direct producer eCommerce site the goal is revenue from items or services sold through the website. For others it is often just ad links that appear and that relates more to overall traffic than it does to people making direct purchasing decisions. How we handle these key differences is very different and we’ll get more into that in a future post. For now, let’s understand which of theses categories your site fits into. Are you directly selling a product or service or journaling to build up traffic and advertising revenue?