WEBSITE EFFECTIVE-
NESS 
REVIEW

A tool to ascertain how well your website is performing

These issues make it easy to find your website in the first place.

The checklist offers an approach to evaluating the effectiveness of a website using the following 8 key issues with regards to Findability.     
.

1. Intuitive URL - It is estimated that 47% of all website referrals come from direct navigation (the URL typed directly into the navigation bar). Therefore the site’s URL should be intuitive i.e. as close to the company's name or brand as possible.

Designed for search engine performance:

2. Intuitive keywords - Internet surfers usually search for Websites by typing keywords into the search box in search engines. The words that you imagine users entering to search for your site are your strategic keywords.

3. Use of Meta tags - Meta tags can improve a site’s ranking with a number of search engines and therefore are invaluable to making a site more findable. By definition Meta tags are machine understandable information for the Web. Generally it is information used to define and document the content of a site. They do not appear when the page is viewed through a browser but sit hidden in the HEAD element of a page.

4. Use of frames* - Search engines can have difficulties indexing framed pages. This is because when frames are used URL’s can cease to work, as the URL in the address box is no longer a complete specification of the information shown in the window.

Advertising:

5. On-line advertising - On-line banner advertising is a useful promotional tool and there are many services that charge per number of users directed to the site such as valueclick.com.

6. On-line recommend a friend - A recommend a friend facility is essential to promoting a website. A user that finds a site interesting and useful is likely to have friends or associates that will also have an interest in the site.

7. Partner and affiliate sites - Getting other websites to link to your site can substantially increase the flow of traffic through your site. Another benefit of other sites linking to your site is that it can boost your ranking with some of the search engines. Therefore negotiating reciprocal links with other sites can increase the findability of your site in two different ways.