How To Quality Review Your Website

Writen by Dan Moore

Once your website is up and running, it is important to review and update the web site from time to time. This will ensure that you keep the content fresh and relevant, and of course can also make changes to improve the content in the light of feedback and experience gleamed through running the site.

A professional review will run through various aspects of your site - here is a brief outline of the areas that should be examined during a web site review:

Usability
This is simply how easy the site is to use. A formal test may involve the preparation of a script containing simple and not so simple tasks for the uninitiated and experienced customer alike to perform. The results are an excellent measure of how usable your site is. If you find that all customers just cannot find an important area of your site for instance, then you can take measures to redress the balance.

Taxonomy
Related to usability, the hierarchy and structure of your site may change in light of feedback received, learnings and different internal or marketing priorities. The key is to remember to structure your site to fit external or customer perceptions and understanding of your company. A common mistake is to structure a site along internal divisions which is likely to confuse a customer who is not going to know the internal structure and politics of a company!

Accessibility
A key requirement: can anyone view your site no matter what web browser or monitor they use? If they are using a text-to-speech browser for instance, or have images and JavaScript switched off - can they still effectively move through and understand your site? Accessibility is key and there may also be legal obligations, depending which country you are in, for your site to conform to accessibility standards.

Search engine positioning
A review to examine the search engine ranking of a site for various common searches related to your business, and to provide recommendations as to what could be done to improve your search engine presence - and hence drive more traffic to your site.

Traffic review
It is very important to measure traffic to your site, where it comes from, and whether it is traffic from the sources you would most expect. You should inspect whether strategic linkings or partnerships are working for you, and what searches people are actually performing to reach your site. Crucially - what can be done to drive even more traffic to your site?

Content review
The content should be reviewed to ensure that it is clear, to the point and of course up-to-date. As promotions finish or expire and new ones come along you should ensure that the dead wood is cut out and replaced with fresh and relevant content.

Dan Moore is Director of Clarity Media Limited, a web design company and puzzle supplier of such smash hit puzzles as sudoku, kakuro, hanjie and codewords