Visitors rule the content

Well today I thought I’d write a course of our customers.  I get asked all the time about the best way to improve websites, what works and what doesn’t.  People are really interested in making sure they are doing everything they can to build a great site fro their visitors.  So first thing who is your visitor?

Take a step back for a minute and think about it.  Who are the people that are coming to your website?  If you already have a website think about the people you know come to it.  If not think about the people you hope will come to it.

Websites need to be targeted for their audience.  There is little point in writing about handbags for men.  Sure some of them might be interested but the vast majority won’t.  You need to cater for the people that are interested in what you have to say.

There are tools like Google Analytics which can tell you something about the people that visit your site.  However I find that these tools tend to be quite blunt and are designed for sites with 1000 + visitor numbers.  That said many people think of them as essential.  I think that often all you need to do is think about who currently comes to visit.

For most churches they have some of that information, even if they don’t have a website.  It’s simple to think about the people that are in the church and think about what might interest them.  For example if you added the church directory to the website people in the church would probably find that useful even if they only used it occasionally.  No more scrappy bits of paper to lose or scribble on with the latest update phone numbers.

An easy thing to do is create a list of things that people within the church would like:

• Church Directory
• List of speakers
• List of church leaders
• Vision and statement of Faith
• Upcoming events
• Location details