Chapter 1- 1 The Purpose of The Web Site

Now here’s a topic that will bring controversy to any boardroom meeting. What is the purpose of the company Web site? If you haven’t established its purpose and objectives and attempted to rank them, you might find yourself in the midst of a lot of arguing.

Will your Web site be able to serve all masters? Will it fulfill every company goal equally? I suppose it’s possible. Look at Microsoft’s Web site. It serves a vast number of purposes, yet someone or a team has concluded which types of content get priority based on their place in the org chart. Of course, when we look at their site, we never consider that it was organized that way. We assume that everything was thrown in so people could fetch what they needed.

What purpose a site serves though, will determine what content gets priority placement or what even is considered content. A web site built to complete a sales process started on a television commercial, or designed to generate investment funds from bankers and venture capitalists, may not have any room for search engine optimization. Web sites exist for many reasons as listed below. It’s smart to understand these purposes and how they will impact your copywriting and optimization of a Web site.

Web Site Roles

Take a look at these possible tasks or roles a Web site could achieve:

• display a catalogue of products and services
• e-commerce site - accept sales and customer service inquiries
• specialized promotional site - promotes specific products or services
• complete a sales process begun in other media such as print, TV or radio
• corporate brochure - public relations, investment appeal, partnerships, corporate disclosure and credibility
• brand asset development and support – multimedia presentation of brand message.
• information delivery – articles and news on topics related to industry, technology and people
• information collection - personal data through forms or online customer data in log files
• deliver rewards - generate customer interaction and continued loyalty and respect
• entertainment - enliven people's attitudes toward the company and improve site stickiness
• encouragement - improve site stickiness and value to the customer
• promotion and affirmation - generate good will toward the company and affirm the customers good judgement and taste in being your customer
  

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