{"id":17172,"date":"2022-03-17T14:15:32","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T18:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webworkshops\/?page_id=17172"},"modified":"2022-04-14T11:33:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T15:33:21","slug":"module-2-consider-your-websites-purpose","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webworkshops\/website-review-training\/module-2-consider-your-websites-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Module 2: Consider your website\u2019s purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Learning Outcomes<\/h2>\n<p>By the end of this module, you will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Better understand the purpose of your website<\/li>\n<li>Have considered what elements are vital to fulfilling that purpose<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Estimated time to complete: 15 minutes<\/p>\n<h2>Module<\/h2>\n<p>To properly reorganize your site and analyze its performance, you need to understand the point of your website. Some possible site purposes are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To provide information to users\n<ul>\n<li>Example: <a style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;\" href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webservices\/\">Web Services<\/a> (<span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;\">highlights services and support)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>To encourage registration to a service or to sell a product\n<ul>\n<li>Example: <a href=\"https:\/\/graduate.carleton.ca\/cu-programs\/human-computer-interaction-masters\/\">Graduate Studies<\/a> (promotes grad programs)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>To act as a database or storage for information\n<ul>\n<li>Example: <a style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;\" href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/its\/help-centre\/\">ITS Help Centre<\/a><span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;\"> (provides self-serve help &amp; how-to info)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you are having difficulty thinking of your specific goals, consider the following :<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is the reason for your site? Why do you have a website?<\/li>\n<li>Who is your target audience? Do they need to be made aware of your site?<\/li>\n<li>What do you want visitors to do on your site?<\/li>\n<li>Does your website serve a different purpose in different seasons? For example, a website made for students might be all about starting the new school year in August, and then focus on recruitment for the winter and exam preparation in March<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each of these purposes requires different priorities in site content, layout, and navigation. For example, here are three different types of sites, with their respective requirements and focuses.<\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 18.4191%;\"><strong>Site purpose<\/strong><\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.5837%;\"><strong>Requirements<\/strong><\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 22.9972%;\"><strong>Focus<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 18.4191%;\">Providing information<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.5837%;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Logically organized and easy to find information.<\/li>\n<li>Clear and easy to process content<\/li>\n<li>A site structure that is designed to guide the user to the information they need<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 22.9972%;\">Clarity of content and navigation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 18.4191%;\">Promoting a product or service<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.5837%;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Generates site traffic and interest<\/li>\n<li>Content that clearly relates to the service or product and persuades the user to try it.<\/li>\n<li>A site structure that leads users to a clear registration \/ purchase link.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 22.9972%;\">SEO and clear CTAs (calls to action, in this case, a registration or purchase link)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 18.4191%;\">Acting as a database<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.5837%;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Content that can be easily located by those who need to access it<\/li>\n<li>A highly organized site (both in the back and front end) to accommodate different types of content being logically placed within the site<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 22.9972%;\">Organization of your site and navigation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Keep in mind that it is likely that your site will either fit somewhat into a few of these categories, or not fit into any. We suggest creating your own list of what your site needs and suggestions for what to focus on, based on the purpose you have identified for your website. This will help you conduct a more effective site review.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"module2video\"><\/a>Video Tutorial<\/h2>\n<div class=\"content__video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Module 2: Consider your website\u2019s purpose\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PbIOMKHr33Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>Transcript<\/h3>\n<div class=\"slideme\"><dl class=\"slideme__list\"><dt class=\"slideme__term\"><a href=\"#slideme-module-2-consider-your-websites-purpose\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"slideme-module-2-consider-your-websites-purpose\" class=\"slideme__heading slideme__trigger\">Module 2: Consider your website\u2019s purpose<\/a><\/dt><dd class=\"slideme__description\" id=\"slideme-module-2-consider-your-websites-purpose\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hello and welcome to Module 2 of our Website Review Training. To best conduct a site review, you need to understand the purpose of your website. There are many reasons for a site to exist. Some of the most common include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Providing information to users<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Promoting or selling a service or product<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or acting as a database of information<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To identify your site\u2019s purpose, consider the following questions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why do you have a website? Are you trying to gain interest in your business or organization? Inform visitors of your research? Or perhaps document your own policies and procedures? This will help focus your review as a whole and prioritize elements that are key to your website\u2019s purpose.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider your audience. Which devices do they use to access your site? Are they familiar with the topic of your site and the language that it uses? What search terms would they use to find your site? These questions can be answered with the help of analytics, which we will cover in module 4.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, what do you want visitors to do on your site. Maybe you want them to sign up for a newsletter or other offering. Or do you want them to be able to easily navigate to a page of information? This will influence what calls to action,or CTAs, you put on your page, as well as your menu navigation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, think about if your website\u2019s purpose might be different at different times of the year. For example, a site for undergraduate students might focus on course registration during the summer and fall and exam preparation in the winter and spring.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each site\u2019s purpose should inform the focus of its review. For example, an informational site should:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be logically organized, so that visitors can easily find information<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have clearly written content<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And a navigation that enables users to find information<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, if this is the purpose of your site, you should focus on creating clear content and navigation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other hand, a site that is trying to promote a product or service should:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Drive site traffic and engagement<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have content that guides the user to register or make a purchase<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And also needs the call to action &#8211; to register or purchase &#8211; to be clear.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Therefore, managers of this type of site should focus on clear and effective SEO and CTAs<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our final example of a site is a database. This type of site should:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have navigation that makes it easy to locate content<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And have highly organized content<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A review of this type of site should therefore focus on organizing content and navigation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s likely that your website will not fit perfectly into one of these categories. So, you should closely consider what <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> website\u2019s purpose is. Think about this as you move onto the Take Action section, as you will need to have a clear idea of your site\u2019s purpose to complete the activity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/dd><dl><\/div>\n<h2>Take Action<\/h2>\n<p>Review the list of site review goals that you created in the last module. Take note of your website\u2019s main purpose(s) and add items to the site goals list that will help your website achieve its purpose. You can also remove items which, after considering your website\u2019s purpose, are no longer relevant. Star or otherwise highlight items that are essential to fulfilling your site\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n<p>Act on some of the goals for your website by adding or reorganizing content on your pages. For example, if your site\u2019s goal requires your visitors to be led to a certain page, add clear CTAs leading to that page from key pages. If you are unsure which pages are key pages, you can bookmark this task and return to it after modules 3 and 4.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"u-center-text\">\n\t<p>\n\t\t<a class=\"button__red button__red--solid\" href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webworkshops\/website-review-training\/module-3-do-a-content-audit\/\"  rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Next: Module 3<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learning Outcomes By the end of this module, you will: Better understand the purpose of your website Have considered what elements are vital to fulfilling that purpose Estimated time to complete: 15 minutes Module To properly reorganize your site and analyze its performance, you need to understand the point of your website. Some possible site [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"parent":17161,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Module 2: Consider your website\u2019s purpose - Web Workshops<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learning Outcomes By the end of this module, you will: Better understand the purpose of your website Have considered what elements are vital to fulfilling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webworkshops\/website-review-training\/module-2-consider-your-websites-purpose\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webworkshops\/website-review-training\/module-2-consider-your-websites-purpose\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webworkshops\/website-review-training\/module-2-consider-your-websites-purpose\/\",\"name\":\"Module 2: Consider your website\u2019s purpose - 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