Some websites have an obvious purpose. A dating website for example is obviously seeking to connect people looking for a date, looking for love, looking for sex, looking for romance or all of the above. An estore selling electronics is obviously just that–an electronic store where you can buy electronic merchandise. But some websites are not quite so obvious in their aim, and with these such sites, more effort needs to go into the process of outlining a goal and defining a clear purpose.

The importance of having a clearly defined purpose cannot be underestimated. When people are unclear about something they usually will not bother to try to unravel the mystery unless there is something to be gained from investing time and energy into figuring the mystery out. A website with a vague or mysterious purpose is not going to become the next million dollar Internet business. No one is going to come to such a site and spend five minutes to an hour racking their brain trying to figure out what they can do at such a website; then come back the next day to repeat the process. It needs to be clear to your audience what your website can do for them.

One of the key signs that your website purpose is not clearly defined is your own inability to explain the purpose of your site in a way that doesn’t confuse people more than they were confused before you started trying to explain what your website does. If you have to work too hard to make other people see the point you have a problem because your success depends upon selling your idea to other people.

HINT: If it’s not clear to you, it’s not clear to anybody else.