What Is Website Evaluation/Web Metrics?
Evaluating your website is a best practice for managing your agency’s website. It’s the process of collecting, analyzing, and evaluating data that tell you how well your website is meeting its objectives, so you can make improvements. Routinely evaluating your site helps create a higher quality product that meets your customers’ needs and your agency’s mission. It’s not a one-time exercise; it’s an ongoing process that requires an overall strategy to determine what, when, and how you’ll evaluate your website.
Read more about why website evaluation is important and how it will give you return on your investment.
There are two kinds of performance measures related to websites, and they are sometimes confused:
- 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.” Read more about different types of website evaluation.
- Achievement of agency 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. Read more about tying evaluation to agency mission.
Resources: Government
- Sample Strategy for Evaluating Government Web Sites -- sample strategy developed by the Web Metrics task group. Outlines sample goals, key metrics for each goal, how to collect metrics, and sample performance measures.
- Performance Measures for Federal Agency Websites – Report by Charles R. McClure and J. Timothy Sprehe, October 2000
- Measuring Success at the Economic Research Service – Presentation by Gina Pearson, Web Manager
Resources: Non-government (See disclaimer for non-government links)
- Web Analytics Discussion Group (moderated by Eric Peterson)
- E-Metrics (Jim Sterne & the Annual Web Analytics Conference)
- Web Analytics Association
- E-Consultancy
- Attuned: Web Analytics Newsletter
- Managing the Digital Enterprise: Web Analytics
- Web Metrics Bibliography
- Forrester Research -- research and consulting on IT best practices and investments. Specific research on government sector.
- Gartner Group -- research, consulting and benchmarking of the global IT sector, including performance measures of large-scale organizations
- Yankee Group -- research and consulting about the business and IT industry
- NetFactual.com -- data about Internet domains, e-commerce reports and more
- How to Avoid the Nine Pitfalls of Measuring Website Success
- Next Generation Web Metrics
Books
- “Web Metrics: Proven Methods for Measuring Website Success” by Jim Sterne
- “Web Analytics Demystified: A Marketer's Guide to Understanding How Your Website Affects Your Business” by Eric T. Peterson
- “Website Measurement Hacks” by Eric T. Peterson
- “Big Book of Key Performance Indicators” by Eric T. Peterson
Page Updated or Reviewed: February 13, 2008
