What Is the Purpose of Your Website?

Every website has a purpose. Most businesses use their website to convert traffic to customers but there are other purposes for a website. In this article, we’ll dive into coming up with the right purpose for your website.

When it comes to the goal or purpose of a website, there is no one size fits all. We’ll share 3 main purposes of a website but then we’ll dive into how these shift depending on the type of website you are designing for. Let’s dive into the main purposes of a website and how you can focus on one for your next website.

The 3 main purposes of a website

Generally, we can categorize the purpose of most websites into 3 sections: Awareness, sales, and information.

1. Awareness

What do we mean by awareness? Maybe you’re creating a website for a new brand and you want to share long-form written content in the form of a blog. By writing and sharing blog posts, you are creating awareness on a particular topic. If you are launching a new product or service, you want to create content on the Internet that generates awareness, how can you get people to find you online?

2. Sales and conversion

One of the most common purposes of a website is to generate traffic and sales. This is usually most suited for a business website that’s selling a product or service. There are many ways to go about generating traffic in hopes of bringing in sales for your business, such as creating funnels with specific landing pages, email option magnets, and nurturing through an email series. But creating informational content on your industry will help bring in and attract the right type of customer.

3. Information

Another purpose for a website is simply to share information. Think about Wikipedia, a dictionary or thesaurus, or a news site. Each one of these website types shares an abundance of information on an ongoing basis. You keep coming back to them when searching for a query online. This could also be a curated blog. For example, there are many design blogs out there (including yours truly, Flux) that create content within a genre to help a specific audience, in this case, designers.

Know the purpose of your website before designing

As a web designer, you might be wondering if you need to know the purpose of your website before you design it. You could design a website and fill it with content without ever considering the purpose or goal but you would be at a huge disadvantage. Taking the time to think about the purpose of your website, what the main goal is, and how you will measure success will help you create a better website from the start.

Ask the client for the goal of the website

When designing a website for a client, this is a question you should ask in the discovery phase, before any design takes place. Knowing the goal for the client’s business website from the start will help you make informed design decisions. For example, if the goal is to drive traffic to a free or low-cost trial of a product, you would need to design a simple landing page experience and test conversion to achieve the best results.

Increase Traffic

• Boost organic search traffic by X%.
• Grow paid traffic by X%.
• Increase traffic generated from email marketing campaigns by X%.

Increase Engagement

• Extend the average time users spend on the website by X%.
• Reduce the bounce rate by X%.
• Increase the number of pages visited per session by X%.

Increase Email Subscribers

• Grow the number of email signups by X%.
• Improve the conversion rate for email signups by X%.

Your website purpose can change

We’ve explored the three primary purposes a website might serve and how these apply to different types of websites. It’s clear that brainstorming and defining the purpose and goals of a website early on—whether through discussions with a client or as part of your own planning for a personal or portfolio site—is crucial. Establishing your website’s goals from the beginning helps guide design decisions. However, it’s also entirely possible for the purpose or goals of a website to change as it grows and evolves.

For instance, you might start a travel blog focused solely on sharing information. Over time, as the blog gains traction and an audience, you could develop a business around it. This shift might change the website’s purpose to include raising awareness and driving sales. Such changes often lead to redesigning parts of the website or adding new landing pages to align with the updated goals.

Remember, there’s no definitive right or wrong purpose for a website. What matters most is choosing a purpose to begin with, using it to guide your initial design, and remaining flexible to adjust as your website and goals evolve.