Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Everyone can have a different perception regarding the same situation. It’s all about different points of view. This is why people can have vastly varying opinions about virtually any topic in the world. When you’re trying to build a website, your perception can also influence your degree of success. For example, you might think that one page of content on your site is amazing. But does your target audience?[adrotate banner=”8″]
Your Perception of Success
What is your idea of a truly successful website? Is it a certain level of traffic? Is it a monetary goal? In reality, a truly successful website is one that meets the owner’s expectations. For instance, I call Writer Sanctuary a success if I am able to help even a handful of people throughout the year. Other people would call it a failure because the site makes less than $0.20 per month in revenues.
Of course I would love to see higher levels of traffic and more income from this site. Which is why I am not completely satisfied as of yet. Unlike other owners, though, I am continuously working on trying to boost its popularity.
How Your Views Influence Success or Failure
A lot of website owners will create a site they want to see online. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s the ones who expect a certain level of success who wind up having the hardest time. Their perception of the perfect website often doesn’t fall in line with the visitor’s perception.
Getting confused? Let’s break it down a bit and I’ll explain.
Setting Traffic Goals
When you create a website that is perfect in your eyes but unattractive to others, you can’t expect to reach high levels of traffic. There’s no doubt that you may get a few hits every month thanks to curiosity or perhaps search engine clicks. However, a poorly designed and developed website has far less of a chance to accumulate a great deal of traffic.
Your views on content will also play a role in how many visitors you receive in any given month. Even if you create the most amazing piece ever conceived, the site can still perform poorly. This mostly has to do with a lack of several major concepts:
- Relevant content on the website
- Search engine optimization practices
- Proper marketing to your target audience
I know a handful of site owners who simply refuse to grasp these three major factors. As a result, the websites generate less than 20 legitimate visits per month. They often complain about how the site isn’t “working.” This is because they don’t put in the effort to build it.
Knowing Your Content
Your perception of the perfect content can be far different from what visitors are expecting. Take this website, for example. I would have thought my pieces on how to legitimately work from home to make money would have been far more successful. Do you know what the most accessed page is on Writer Sanctuary? A story I wrote a few months ago called, “Chance Encounter in the Wasteland: Part 1.”
Knowing what your audience would rather read is vital if you want to build onto your success. Because of how interested most readers are in my creative works, I have been trying to add more. This all goes to show what you think may be an amazing piece of material may not even be close to what the majority of the people coming to your website think.
Website Design and Layout
The look and feel of your website will greatly influence the perception of visitors. Even though you believe you have the most amazing color scheme and nice images, others may be turned away. If you want to attract and keep that audience, you need to make adjustments. Otherwise, your site will never truly grow into its potential.
One past client wanted to make his website look like the advertisement pages in the newspaper. Essentially, it would be a site covered in affiliate advertising banners. He once called it, “a strip mall site.” Luckily, I was able to talk him out of this practice. Making the site look like the side of a Nascar racer is unprofessional and distracts from the content – the whole reason the visitor is at your site in the first place. This is aside from the fact that most affiliate brokers and ad banner programs limit the number of placements on any given website nowadays.
Website Niche
Your perception of a profitable niche may not be the same as those you’re trying to engage. You can’t expect everyone to find value in the same kind of content you do. While there’s nothing wrong with sharing the same interests as other people, you can’t expect to get rich overnight if your niche is not a very popular one.
If you want to center your site around a specific topic or industry, you’ll need to create more than just one or two pages worth of content. You’ll also need to put effort into providing facts and information to support the content of the site. No one will take you seriously if it seems that you’re talking out your ass.
Your Perception of Perfection Is Not the Same as Mine
Bare in mind that what you think of as perfect may not be widely accepted by the masses. This is when tools like Google Analytics and other metrics come into play. If you want to set traffic goals or make a certain amount of money per month, then you need to have a strategy for continued growth. You need to cater to the majority of people who visit your site. And you need to write more than just one blog post per year.
Although beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it’s not always shared by the majority. As long as you’re completely satisfied with how your website has been developed, that is all that really matters in the grand scheme of things. Otherwise, take time to understand your audience. They may be able to help you create something amazing.
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