Eight Steps to Analyzing a Website

Kristie Sweet reports:

"Even companies that do not engage in ecommerce benefit from an effective website since customers often find businesses through Internet searching. Companies may perform a website analysis for numerous reasons...An analysis can even help determine the layout of the site before one is created. A good website analysis explains how well the site supports the company's goals...Identify the company goals and how they relate to the Web presence. Including this information early in the report helps the executives or stockholders reading the report understand the purpose for the website. For instance, should the site inform customers about the company's services, persuade them to have a certain attitude about products or ideas or actually allow direct sales? Write these goals in order of importance in the report...Explain your methodology. If you examined competitors' sites, discuss how you determined which businesses to look at...Describe the process you went through at the site or sites. For instance, perhaps you searched for and attempted to buy a toy for a child within a certain age group. Include information about rating criteria in this section...Describe the structure and content of the site or sites. It is important to comment upon how easy it is to find products but also company information such as hours of operation and a contact email. Point out inconsistencies in menus among multiple pages and organizational issues...Write specific recommendations based upon the findings in the previous section. Refer to the company goals as well as effective elements of other websites if applicable...Create an executive summary, which is a brief explanation of your report's purpose, findings and recommendations. An executive summary typically explains the report in more detail than an abstract and is usually one or two pages long. It should explain the information without repeating the report verbatim...Organize the report by placing the executive summary first, then methods, findings, discussion, recommendations and any appendices such as a scoring matrix. Label each section accordingly...Review your language choice. The report should explain ideas succinctly without a lot of technical terms. If you do need to use jargon, define such terms when you first use them...Ask someone to review your report for clarity. The reviewer should not just be an editor looking for comma errors or spelling mistakes but someone willing to express concerns about the way your ideas come across. Revise the report as needed."