Setting SMART Website Goals

When you plan your marketing strategy, you can’t be satisfied with saying that you want to get more out of your website, and leaving it at that.

Your website goals need to be SMART:

• Specific: If you decide to do as well as possible, you have no goal. You have to define success for yourself and your website. Some of the specific elements of online marketing success can be increased online visibility, increased sales, higher traffic, increased conversions, increased interaction with customers, or more high quality links.
• Measurable: This can be the hardest part. How will you measure something like “increased online visibility”? Determine how you’ll measure the improvement you want, and quantify it as much as possible. A 30% increase in sales, or doubled traffic, or 100 more quality links — all these are goals that allow you to recognize when you’ve succeeded.
• Achievable: Your goals should be a stretch — audacious, even. But they shouldn’t be impossible or unreasonable. If you’ve been gaining 100 new Likes a month, a goal of 200 new Likes a month is a good goal to work for. A goal of 100 new organic Likes a day is a fantasy, unless you have a very specific, very aggressive plan.
• Realistic or Relevant: Some people choose “realistic” for this part of the acronym, and some choose “relevant.” Either way, it means that you need to have marketing goals that fit with your overall business plan and capacity. Do you want global traffic to your e-commerce website? Only if you’re ready and willing to fulfill overseas orders. As the old saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for.” In this case, you’re planning rather than wishing, so just make sure that your marketing plan is in sync with the rest of your plans.
• Time-defined: While we’re quoting old sayings, let’s remember that “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Put deadlines on all your goals. Some may be goals for the full year. Some may be things that need to be accomplished on some particular date, and some may be milestones on the way to a larger future goal.

Write it all down.

Don’t put it away, though. Make sure that you work with your goals and measure your progress regularly. That’s the smart way to make sure that your SMART goals actually happen.