Defining website strategy in 5 steps

But first: what does a Web site strategy entail?

Just so we're clear: a website strategy is simply the plan that defines what you want to achieve with your website and how you're going to do it.

Your strategy describes things like your goals and your target audience, but it also describes what content you need, how you will promote your Web site and how you will measure results.

And why is it important?

A website strategy helps you make smarter choices about the design, structure, content and promotion of your website. It prevents you from just doing anything and ensures that your site really contributes to your goals.

• With a good website strategy:
• attract the right visitors
• offer you valuable information
• and steer your visitors to a goal (your goal)

More results.

Okay, and how should I determine that website strategy?

We explain.

Step 1: Determine your goals

Look, you don't get into your car without knowing where you're going. Right? The same goes for your website. You can't successfully build/improve a website if you don't know where you want to go.

So first determine your goals. What should your website do for you? What should it deliver later?

It may well be that you just want to give more information about your products/services on your website. But it could also be that you want to increase your brand awareness, get more requests for quotes or sell more products.

Those goals are your dot on the horizon for making better choices. Really.

Pro-tip: Think about how you are going to measure the success of your site. Based on which KPIs. Later you can incorporate that into your new (or improved) website and use it to optimize!

Step 2: Describe your target group

To make your website a success, you need visitors. Visitors who take action and thus contribute to your goals from the previous step.

To get that done, you need to know your target audience. You need to know what they want. Where their pain points are. What triggers them. What their goals are.

This will help you to convince them.

Note: you may have multiple target audiences. Then work out a persona for each target group!

Step 3: Determine your promotion channels

In most cases, building a Web site and then sitting back doesn't work.

You need to actively promote your website. And preferably on the channels your target audience uses.

Do your customers use Google a lot? Then you may soon need to bet on SEO and Google Ads.

And are they on social media a lot? Then it might be useful to integrate your social media into your website.

Good to know beforehand, because it will help you shape your website structure. But we'll get to that later...

So now.

Step 4: Set up a website structure

If all goes well, you now know what you want to achieve, why your target group is on your website and how you can reach your target group.

With that, you can also figure out which pages you need. Or rather: which pages your visitors need to do what you want them to do.

Besides a homepage, about us page and contact page, you can think about:

• Landing pages for services and products
• blog articles
• FAQs
• customer stories

A good structure ensures that the right information is in the right place, so visitors can quickly find what they are looking for and are encouraged to take action.

That's what you want.

Step 5: Plan your content

The next step in determining your Web site strategy: coming up with content.

For each page in your website structure, think about what should be on it. What do you want to say? And more importantly, what do your visitors want to know?

To do this, do keyword research. Find out what questions customers often ask. Check with competitors what they write about or use data from your sales or CRM system if you have it.

Be as specific as possible and note per page what the desired action is (e.g. order, contact, download something, subscribe to your newsletter, request a quote, etc).

That way you'll soon have a design that meets all your requirements.

Time to design!

Like this. You've determined your Web site strategy and now you know:

• what you want to achieve with your website
• who your ideal customer is
• how to promote your website
• What pages should there be?
• And what content should go on those pages.

You can now start working on a design for your new website. But remember: design is more than a lick of digital paint. A good design aligns with your website strategy and makes your website pay off.

A web designer often knows how to do that, but we wouldn't be OMA if we didn't have some little tips for you there too:

• choose a CMS that fits your goals and your team
• build a clear, straightforward menu structure for quick navigation (not too many items)
• keep the style consistent with the same layout on every page and fixed colors for titles, links and icons
• put the most important info at the top of your pages (no long intros before you get to the point)
• Place striking and clear buttons
• make sure your content is easy to read on mobile devices

Finally: measuring = knowing

Your website is live. Great. But your website is never finished. Once your site is up and running, the real work begins: measuring, learning and improving.

Use tools like Google Analytics 4, Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity to see where visitors come from and how they use your site. Check regularly to see which pages are doing well and where people are dropping out. Try to discover what works ... and what doesn't.

That way you can make adjustments. After all, you may well need to adjust your website strategy after a while... 😉

Also developing a good website strategy?

Not getting anywhere with your website strategy? Or just want a second opinion? Feel free to contact us. We'd love to help you further.