What is the Main Purpose of a Website?

It’s amazing what a well crafted website can do to a business. From ensuring that your target customers find you instead of the other way around to moving visitors down the sales funnel.

A website is a powerful sales and marketing tool with the potential to take your bottom line to the next level. Its main purpose is to attract the target audience and convert the visitors into qualified prospects, ultimately making money for the website owner.

But in order to drive revenue, a website has to meet the needs of its audience. There is more than one type of person coming to any one website. And each visitor to a site has different needs and is looking to solve different problems.

As a result, there are different types of websites designed to serve different goals and objectives. In this article, we take a look at how different types of websites go about fulfilling their primary purpose.

What’s the Main Purpose of A Website?

Though different websites have different goals and objectives, the ultimate purpose of a website is to make money and improve the bottom line. Even a website for a not for profit organization is also aimed at attracting donor funds.

In order to achieve this purpose, a website should be able to attract the target audience and convince them to take the desired action. This most wanted response could be filling out and submitting a contact form, signing up for a newsletter or course, making a donation, or buying something.

The Functions of a Website

A website also serves other objectives that support the main purpose. These goals and objectives of a website include:

1. To Establish An Online Presence

At the very least, a website gives your personal or business brand an online presence. It ensures people can find you when they look up your business online and also makes it easy for new prospects to discover your brand and the products and services you offer.

2. To Build Brand Awareness

A website offers a way to build awareness of a brand to a global audience. It’s open 24/7 and accessible by prospects from all corners of the world.

As the face of your brand online, your website can help you grow your brand by connecting with your audience and establishing your unique selling proposition. Use your brand elements such as logo, color scheme, and voice to ensure brand recognition and foster trust.

3. To Establish Credentials

Do prospects care about your qualifications? Then you can also use a website to establish your authority in your industry. Your website should position you as an expert in your field and a dependable, trustworthy and experienced service provider.

If you provide professional services, use your website to showcase your credentials and establish yourself as an expert in your area. Provide information about your qualifications. Include links to professional certifications, and a robust Linkedin profile.

You can also do this by including lots of social proof. Share testimonials, reviews, and case studies, feature awards and recognition, and showcase reputable publications where you’ve been featured.

4. To Market and Promote a Business

A website is also a promotional tool you can use to promote a personal or business brand. It answers who you’re, what you do, and how you do it. It should also convey the value users will realize. You can use it to attract online users or to drive foot traffic to your place of business.

It should do all this in a clear, persuasive, and visually compelling manner while also delivering a great user experience. Finally, you can optimize it to attract local customers or opt to reach even international customers.

5. To Attract the Target Audience

A website makes it easy for your target audience to find you. All you have to do is optimize your website for the search phrases your ideal users are likely to use when searching for the products, services, or information you offer.

When your website resonates with your ideal customers and addresses their needs, you build a positive relationship with your customers. You can also use your website to tell stories that connect with your audience and grow your brand.

6. To Generate Leads

The internet has changed the way businesses market their products and services. It offers an easier and inexpensive way to generate leads for your business.

You can optimize it to attract the attention of prospects who are in the market for the service you offer and encourage them to submit their contact details for a free consultation. You can then pursue those leads and close them into sales.

The Different Types of Websites and their Main Purpose

Just as there are different website users with different needs, there are different types of websites that cater to diverse needs. Let’s take a look at the different types of websites that are out there and the purposes they serve.

1. E-commerce Websites

Purpose: To Sell Products

Thanks to the convenience it offers, the internet has revolutionized the way people shop. Selling products online is therefore one of the best ways to make money with your site.

An ecommerce website showcases products, allows buyers to add products to shopping carts, pay for them online, and then wait for their order to be delivered to their doorstep

2. Social Media Websites

Purpose: To Connect People

Social media websites provide a way for people to connect with each other in a digital world. They serve a basic need and hence their immense popularity.

They make it easy to connect with friends, family members, co-workers, and even meet and connect with new people. Even businesses use social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to connect with their customers.

3. Informational Websites

Purpose: To Inform Users

Most users turn to Google and other search engines to look for information. Information websites are designed to fill this need for information. They provide information about a subject or a variety of subjects to help their readers learn something new or know more about the topics they’re interested in.

They range from established websites like Wikipedia to small niche websites that cover a niche subject. Blogs are also a type of information websites, only that the content is time-based. Any website can incorporate a blog to provide helpful information about their services or products.

4. Entertainment Websites

Purpose: To Entertain Users

Entertainment websites are created to entertain their audience. They provide entertaining content such as stories, videos, graphics, and celebrity gossip. Companies also use these types of websites to share stories and connect with their audience.

5. Education Websites

Purpose: To Provide Training

There are also online training platforms such as Udemy, Team Treehouse, and Coursera. Their purpose is to provide accessible education online. Student can take courses from the comfort of their homes and without having to pay expensive tuition fees.

They feature courses created by subject matter expert and some of them even provide professional certifications.

6. Lead Generation Sites

Purpose: To Generate Leads

This type of website promotes a product or service but it doesn’t sell it online. Rather, it’s job is to generate qualified leads and collect contact details of those interested in the service or product. It’s optimized to attract visitors looking for the service the business offers and then convert those visitors into qualified leads. You can the pursue those leads and close them into sales.

7. Credentials Website

Purpose: To Establish Credibility

This is the simplest type of website you can build for your business. It’s objective is to establish an online presence for your brand and also impress people who know your business and are looking for more information about it

These types of websites establish a good reputation by providing information that demonstrates knowledge, an impressive portfolio, customer testimonials and so on.

8. Service Websites

Purpose: To Serve Users

Some websites are created with the main purpose of delivering a service, without necessarily selling something. Examples of these sites include government websites and websites for non-profit organizations. However, some of these websites also aim to raise money in order to facilitate the delivery of their services.

7. Portfolio Website

Purpose: To Showcase

The primary purpose of a portfolio website is to establish an online presence for the business and also showcase their work to potential customers. Such a site also serves to manage the reputation of the brand.

8. Directory Website

Purpose: To Connect

The primary purpose of a directory website is to facilitate connection between people and businesses. They provide information that make it easy for people to find what they are looking for.

How to Determine the Main Purpose of Your Website

What’s the main purpose of your website? Answering this question correctly when setting out to create a website can help you create an effective website that achieves the desired outcome.

Before mapping out your digital strategy, take a moment to think about the purpose of your website. With this clear, you can then decide what type of website to create in order to best serve your audience and achieve your goals for the website.

Consider the following factors when defining the purpose of your website:

Define Your Website’s Purpose According to Your Target Audience and Potential Customers.

Your website isn’t about you or your company. It isn’t even about the products, services, or information you offer. It’s all about your target users and their needs.

The best way to figure out the purpose of your website is to identify the user types that will be visiting your site and what needs they’re looking to fulfill when they come to your site. You can then design your site to solve their problem and give them a clear action step to take next.

Consider the Nature of Your Business

The nature of your business will dictate what type of website to build and the purpose it’ll serve. What are your goals with the website and how will the site support your business?

Also take into account the geographic scope of your business. Are you a local business or a global brand targeting customers from all over the world?

Assess Your Business Structures and Capabilities

Consider your overall business capabilities and business structures as well. Do you have the required resources to match the results of your website strategy. For example, do you have the capacity to fulfil orders generated by your ecommerce site or the staff to follow up on the leads generated online?

Solve a Pressing Problem

Having hard time deciding the main purpose of your site? Then think of a problem that your target audience faces and your products or services aim to solve. Design your site to solve the problem and you’ll have yourself a winning site. After all, form follows function when it comes to web design.

That’s A Wrap!

In this day and age, each and every business needs an online presence in order to succeed. But a website can be so much more than just an online presence for a brand.

It has the power to attract your ideal customers and turn them into qualified prospects. This is how a website achieves its main purpose of making money.

The key to a winning website is having a clear purpose from the get go. Figuring out the main purpose your website will serve is, therefore, a very important step when mapping out your website.

Though your website exists to make you money, it must fulfill it’s main purpose in order to bring in revenue. Depending on the type of website, this purpose could be to inform, to promote, to generate leads, to connect, to sell, or to entertain.

You can ensure your website fulfils its purpose by identifying the major user types who will be coming to your website, clarifying their needs and making sure the site’s structure and design speak to those needs.

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