Or, rather, who is a website for?

The simple answer is: it’s for the people who visit it.
Not the people who own it. Your website is for your customers. If your personal vision for your site doesn’t suit the visitors, you should change it.

In the early days, lots of sites were made that simply occupied a piece of space on the web. They were “flat”, you couldn’t do anything much in the way of communications. There were lots of sites where you could play, or look at someone’s incredible artistic creation, but true interaction was rare. You got what the website owner wanted you to get.

Things have changed. Now people are used to being in control on the web. They can buy or sell, upload, download, see the world, be another person, rule their own kingdom…
And if they don’t like what they get from you, if you push a sales message ahead of the service message, or if you’re unhelpful or uninformative, they can leave your site, and go somewhere else.
So, your website is for your customers. Remember that, and it helps you to decide what your site should be like.

There are two main things a website is for: getting information, and doing stuff.

Information can be contact details, addresses, locations, facts and figures, answers to questions, instructions… and guess what? It’s the site visitor that decides what they want to know.

“Doing stuff” can be downloading, uploading, writing or receiving messages, playing games, taking tests, being a Martian, changing a photo, buying something, selling something… and guess what again? It’s the client that decides what they want to do.

Your website should give the visitor the chance to do something they want to do, and what’s more, it should give them a reason for coming back, to do the same thing again, or better still, something different. On each visit, you get the chance to influence them, and maybe get them to do something you want, like buying something, or registering and leaving their email address.

And what makes people return? Well, you could update your content regularly. You could create an experience that they enjoy. You could be a good place to start from, in order to get somewhere else. You could put people in touch with each other. You could make it all easy to do.
You could be good at what you do. And prove it.
You could know a lot. And share it.
If you provide good information, good links to it, and good service, people will return.

Also, if your site is a pleasure to use and looks good, is clear and easy to read, and everything is where people expect it to be,  they will return.

So what is a website for?
To give people good information, or to link to a site that has it
To give people something to do that they enjoy
To be easy to use
To show people how good you are

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