Alignment

Many people are replacing New Year’s resolutions with “just one word.” It’s a word that sums up their direction for the year: strength, discipline, growth, focus… For many people, choosing just one word for their year has replaced a vicious cycle of made and broken resolutions.

So maybe your website doesn’t need New Year’s resolutions this year. Maybe it needs just one word. If so, we have some suggestions for you. And here’s the first:

alignment

Your website goals and your website itself should align with your business goals. That means that unless your business goals include being popular on Facebook, increasing Facebook Likes shouldn’t be a top goal for your website.

Now, being popular on Facebook is a valid goal for many organizations. We’re not saying it can’t be one of yours. We’re saying you shouldn’t jump in and put that goal at the top of your list just because it’s something you can count. If your business goals include two new major clients for your premium software package, improved patient education, increased patient satisfaction without increased team burnout, or working with larger clients, then getting more Facebook likes probably doesn’t belong on your website’s list of top goals.

Here are some other measurable things your website can accomplish, which might be in alignment with your goals:

• Convey our organization’s message in a way that appeals to larger clients, as evidenced by a 30% increase in visits from networks like X, Y, and Z showing up in our web analytics next year.
• Get our sales message to our target audience, as evidenced by a 20% increase in visits to our sales pages from our blog posts next year.
• Build our newsletter audience to 1,000 subscribers next year, since that’s our highest converting traffic source.

These might not be the right goals for you, but you can see the difference between these goals and “Get more Facebook likes.” The examples above are aligned with business goals.

Choosing alignment for your website’s just one word might begin by inspiring you to set goals for your website that align with your organization’s goals, but that’s just a starting point. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you do your planning for next year:

• Do the look, sound, and feel of my website align with the kind of customers I want to work with?
• Do the calls to action at my website align with the profit centers of my organization?
• Does the way we’re allocating resources align with the way we’re gaining new clients?
• Does the way visitors use our website align with the path to purchase for our goods and services?
• Does the process for updating our website align with our organization’s workflow?

If you’re not satisfied with the way your website aligns with your organization’s needs, consider starting your new year with a new strategy.