Planning your web site
Setting objectives for your site

If you want to know if your site is successful, then you need to establish some yardstick against which to measure the site's performance. As with any project, you will need to identify some objectives for your site.

Make sure that your objectives are SMART, i.e.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-related.

A valid aim for your site might be:

• " to improve our marketing to potential postgraduate students"

The objectives, however, need to be more closely defined; some SMART objectives might include:

• "to reduce the number of phone calls asking for basic information on MSc courses by 20 per month in the next six months"
• "to boost international student enquiries for the next intake by 10%"
• "to increase the number of email enquiries about specific research options by 10% in the next six months"
• "to update news of research activity in the School within one week of notification"

These are objectives by which you can measure your site's performance.