Developing a company or corporate website is not easy. One of the reason is because there are so many different types of customer (everyone, current/potential customer, current/potential partners, press, investors, etc)

Company sites must address the needs of many audiences, therefore a company or corporate website that does not balance its attention to these different audiences in proportion to their size, will not succeed.

Company website engage, sell to, and support customers and partners. They also promote to media, inform investors, and recruit employees. These audiences have varying needs. However, if you want your company website to be successful, you need to focus on your primary visitors, focus on the primary audience and take care of its needs first. Don’t forget about the secondary audiences and your company branding too.

One way to tackle the issue is to dedicate 95% of the area and links to the visitor groups that account for 95% of the total visitor population and keep the remaining area and links for the visitor groups that account for the remaining 5 percent. Don’t forget to balance spacing for your branding against the navigation needs of your target audience.

Use simple language, use value propositions that they will understand. Include more information/presentations and list of information to keep visitors engaged if they want to know.

Go to www.williams-sonoma.com and you should see a good example of what a good corporate/company website should look like. The home page provides quick links to all the major parts of its site. It also provides highloghts to special features, such as cooking for kids, barbecues, wedding and gift registries.