An awesome website does not live alone.  It has an army of efforts that bring it visitors.  It may have a support staff, but it doesn’t need one.  What it has more than anything else is a job, and it does that job exceptionally well.

What does it mean for a website to have a job?

A website has a job is like a human being has a job: it performs some service which has value to someone.  A website has a job and every page within that website should have a job.  It should have a purpose that has value to someone in the organization or outside of the organization.  If the value is outside the organization, that’s even better.  If the value is high enough, then someone outside will the organization will pay the organization to maintain the website.  

Some good website jobs:

• Winning the trust of prospects for a brand, service, or product
• Offering something in exchange for money
• Accepting money
• Offering information that has value (especially value that cannot be found on any other website)
• Enabling prospects to submit information to an organization

In short, a website’s job is to improve the organization.  IMHO, an improvement to the organization must be measurable in terms of the revenue the organization generates or the impact that the organization makes.

The Short Answer of How to Make an Awesome Website

Begin with an awesome mission.  Then create the website that will attract people who will enable you (and them) to achieve that mission.  The website will be as awesome as it enables the organization to get closer to achieving that mission.