Ways to Evaluate Your Site
There are two kinds of performance measures related to websites:
- Website effectiveness: First, you should measure effectiveness in terms of visitors’ experiences on your website. For example, you can measure how many people visit your site, how satisfied they are, and how well they’re able to accomplish what they want. The jargon for this kind of measurement is “Web metrics” or “Web analytics.”
Web site effectiveness metrics use both quantitative and qualitative data. They can be separated into several broad categories:
- “Customer Focus and Experience” metrics, which focus on the user:
- Knowing your audience / market research
- Measuring customer satisfaction
- Conducting usability testing (goes to "Usability & Design" section)
- Analyzing web logs & visitor traffic
- Reviewing links regularly
- “Quality and Compliance” metrics:
- “Recognition” metrics:
- Applying for awards (goes to "Marketing" section)
- “Customer Focus and Experience” metrics, which focus on the user:
- Achievement of the agency’s mission. Second, you should measure the impact of your website on achievement of your agency’s mission. These performance measures address the extent to which your agency is achieving its mission specifically because of its website(s). Unfortunately, Web site performance measures that tie to achieving agency mission are often difficult to identify, let alone collect and evaluate.
Read more about tying evaluation to agency mission.
Page Updated or Reviewed: February 23, 2006
