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How I Designed My Website

Define Specific Goals

Duration: 1 hour

There are two types of goals: measurable goals and non-goals. If the goals aren't measurable, there's no way to tell if you've accomplished them.

Goals need to be succinct and on a short list.

For me, too many goals means the site is trying to do too many things too quickly. I keep my goals to four items, and I don't make more goals until I've accomplished half my initial goals.

Most importantly, goals need a time frame.

Generate leads for those in the Ockham Design network

Time frame:1 month
Difficulty level:Medium

How this will be measured: At first, it will be done by word-of-mouth referral where I will directly tell a potential client who would best fit them. Later, I'll add a tracker to monitor click throughs to the websites of those in the network. I'll ask the network to ask how client got was referred to them and track conversion rates of click throughs to services sold.

Get users to revisit this site

Time frame:3 month
Difficulty level:Easy

How this will be measured: Analyze my traffic logs on a weekly basis. I can graph the growth of repeat user traffic. Then I can tweak or add content so the number of repeat users grows over the first year.

Generate leads for my coding services

Time frame:1 month
Difficulty level:Easy

How this will be measured: My goal is to have the current graphic designers I know introduce me and this site to at least two other graphic designers they know. I have a spreadsheet which I'll use to track referrals and the referral bonuses that I pay out.

Get Ockham Design somewhere on the first SERP on Google for the search phrase "denver web design"

Time frame:1 year
Difficulty level:Difficult

How this will be measured: I do a search for "denver web design" every month on Google. I can use one of the online SEO tools to find out where the site is ranked among the SERP results. I can tweak each month to improve my SERP ranking.

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