Everyone thinks their website is great. But is it? Here’s a simple website evaluation checklist business owners can use to find out.
1. Metrics
Is your business growing, stagnant, or shrinking?
I think we can all agree that a website is a big project. Properly representing your company’s value online takes a lot of strategic thinking and time. Many metrics can tell you how your website is performing. However, one metric matters most: are you getting more sales overall?
If yes, your website gives people the information they need to make a favorable decision about you. If the answer is no, there’s a good chance that your website is not doing anything for you or may be hurting you.
If your business is not growing, it’s time to reevaluate your site. There could be many reasons why you’re not accomplishing your goals, but the website is a good start. It’s the hub of how you represent your company, products, and services to potential customers. When you look at it, you’re also looking at your entire business strategy.
2. Competitive Analysis
Do you know what your competitors are doing online?
One way to know whether your website is good is to evaluate your competition. Find out if they have dated or modern websites and how they represent their products, services, and culture. You should also know what types of marketing strategies they use and who their target audience is. I like to check out their number of employees, annual revenue, and founding year.
Here's more details about the attributes to examine in a competitor analysis report.
Once you have that information, you can benchmark industry standards to determine whether you rise above or fall below the line. Without a competitive analysis, you won’t know if your website is good or bad.
3. Buyer Persona
Do you have a well-defined target audience in writing?
A successful online experience is created from the perspective of the target buyer. If you can’t clearly articulate who your target is, what they think and feel, and what information they need about your company to make a decision, then there’s a good chance your sales messaging and website user experience are off.
4. Appropriate Keywords for SEO
Do you have a list of core keywords for your company?
Our world is driven by Internet search—that’s just the way it is. When we want to know something, we get answers based on what words we search for. The key to website success is knowing which words are most relevant and searched for in your industry.
If you don’t have a ;list of core keywords, your website is likely not optimized for search engines, making it more difficult for potential customers to find you. Fixing this can make an incredible difference in creating stronger messaging and more relevant and qualified website traffic.
5. Scannable & Simple Navigation
Is your website clean and simple?
Design can be subjective, but I think most of us know when we’re on a confusing or poorly designed website vs. one that makes you breathe a sigh of relief because the information you’re looking for is so easy to find.
A few signs that your website could potentially use some simplification include:
- Multiple levels of navigation (lots of sub-menus) make it difficult to know where on your website to find information.
- Massive amounts of text on a page make the page look too complicated or time-consuming.
- Self-centered copy makes the details vague about what benefits the prospect will get from doing business with you.
- Improperly placed or absent calls-to-action don’t inform users what to do next.
Getting a few outside opinions regarding your website’s user experience is usually best. It can seem very easy to you, but it might be difficult for someone who doesn’t know you./p>
Users in your industry are preferred. If you have friends and family check out your site, they are not looking at it from a buyer’s perspective because they are not your target audience. The messaging won’t resonate the same way.
6. Modern & Mobile Design
Is your website poorly designed, dated or not mobile-ready?
This is another checkpoint that can be subjective, but there is a way to classify your own website accurately: Get some third-party reviews and spend a little time evaluating sites from a variety of companies. Once you start looking around, you’ll get a feel for what is modern and professional vs. dated, difficult and cheap-looking. It’s really not that hard to tell.
In terms of mobile-ready, don’t just go by what your web person says. Look at your website on your phone—you might be surprised at what you find. Here’s a quick tip on how to check how any page of your website looks on various-sized devices from your desktop.
Some signs of a bad website design include:
- Broken links
- Weird or misaligned graphics
- Cluttered and confusing
- Crazy, clashing colors
- Pages take a long time to load
- Doesn’t look good on the phone
- Buttons are too small on the phone
- You didn’t spend much time building your website
- You still don’t spend much time on your website
- You got it done very inexpensively
If your website design is bad, it can actually turn prospects away from doing business with you. That’s not good! I always say it’s better not to have a website than to have one that’s bad or broken.
If your business is growing and you can answer yes to most of the questions listed above, keep doing what you’re doing. Otherwise, it’s time to get to work!
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