We all have different ideas for what our website will help us achieve, especially when determining our successful business goals. Maybe we hope our website will result in more sales, more subscribers to our newsletters, or even more followers on our social media pages. But whatever your specific hopes for your website may be, you’ll want to set goals that can help you achieve your objectives.
Simply hoping that you have an “awesome website” isn’t enough. What constitutes “awesome?” How do you know when “awesome” as been achieved? Would each person be able to agree that you’ve created an “awesome” site?
Ambiguous goals make it difficult to see when you’re truly moving forward. That is why you’ll want to create S.M.A.R.T. goals for your website. In fact, Forbes says that S.M.A.R.T. Goals are one of the 12 Things All Successful People Do.
What are S.M.A.R.T. Goals?
S.M.A.R.T. goals aren’t just described as well thought out objectives. Instead, S.M.A.R.T. is actually an acronym that can help you cover all the important bases when creating a goal for your website.
Let’s take a look at what makes a goal S.M.A.R.T.
Specific
The first thing your goal should be is specific. When it comes to creating specific goals for your website, you’re describing exactly what you want your visitor to do when they reach your page.
A specific goal will avoid generalizations or ambiguous language. For example, if you want more emails for your target audience to send updates to, a specific goal may be to increase subscribers to your email list.
Measurable
Next, you will want to make your goal measurable. This puts a value to your goal so that you can better determine when that specific goal has been achieved. Measurable goals for your website may include a specific number of readers or even a specific amount of time your visitors are staying on your page.
You will want to be specific with your numbers. Going back to the example of gaining more email subscribers, you can make this goal measurable by indicating a number of how many visitors you would like to have. A measurable goal may be to get 50 new subscribers to your list.
Achievable
While you want your goals to push you to be better, you don’t want to make them so difficult that it will take you years to achieve. Make your goals just large enough that you need to work to achieve them, but not so difficult that you’ll burn out trying to reach the goal.
For example, if you’re just starting your website, a goal of 50 new subscribers may be too high. Lower your goal to a more achievable number, such as 10 new subscribers.
Relevant
The relevance of your goal is how well it relates back to your overall company goals. To have a successful website and company, you must have large goals that push you to work each day. Each smaller goal that you create will need to relate back to those larger goals.
With each goal you create, be sure to identify how it relates back to your overarching business objectives. Make this connection clear. If you have 10 new subscribers to send your email promotions to, how will this help accomplish your business objectives?
Time-Bound
Finally, to complete your website goal, you will want to set a due date to have the goal achieved. Be sure you are giving yourself enough time to complete the goal without risk of burning out, but at the same time challenge yourself to get it done sooner.
If we return to our goal example, you may say that you want to get 10 new subscribers in the next 30 days.
Start small and create new goals on a regular basis. Your next goal might be to increase traffic from search engines by 10% in the next week. Maybe you want clients to learn about a new product or service you are offering. Create a goal for getting x number of visits to your new product page by the end of the month. This gives you a purpose for creating relevant and helpful content for your audience while achieving your business objectives. Remember, your audience wants to know what’s in it for them. Keep that in mind when working to achieve your goals.
Some other examples of S.M.A.R.T. goals for your website might include:
- Increase in qualified leads for a specific product
- Increase employment applications online
- Get views on an awareness video
- Improve customer service or sales support
- Increase sales of an online product
If you include each component of a S.M.A.R.T. goal in your website objectives, you can start to see stronger returns from your website and the time invested into it.
And if you’re like me and you love spreadsheets and handy tools, check out HubSpot’s Smart Marketing Template download. It’s packed with formulas and tips to help you figure out what goals are right for you and ways to discover where you need to grow most.
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