You can’t manage what you aren’t measuring!
Performance management of your website includes both quantity measures (usage reporting) and quality measures (user testing and expert reviews). Expert assessment is often the missing leg of a three-legged stool. Take care your site’s online performance doesn’t fall over!!
Gaining a complete picture of where a website stands and how it could be improved is often not bothered with by business owners. But those who want to do some serious business online will cover the key elements of performance monitoring so they can manage ongoing optimisation in a targeted way. Most companies have usage reporting as standard.
Google Analytics has taken off and provides fantastic transparency to the key attributes for measurement especially rates of conversion toward desired user behaviour like purchasing or contacting you. Search optimisation and online promotion and marketing are moving ahead well with a good range of advice for DIY and specialists available for external advice.
However the critical part of what to do about improving the quality of the site is often not professionally handled. It is usually left up to occasional conversations between web developer reps and the manager responsible and typically follows a ‘that sounds good, give us a quote’ approach. There is often no reference to best practices for similar websites and aspects annoying to users get overlooked, sometimes for years.
Rough spots in the users’ flow through the site accumulate and users pull back on doing what you would like them to do. Despite some good or even great content these potholes undermine the whole online experience for too many. An independent expert assessment has no vested interest in the site’s history and so can provide clean, unbiased advice that champions the interests of users.
Check out our assessment options to see the kinds of possibilities that will reveal new opportunities for your site to improve.