Improve Website ROI by Identifying Key Website Flaws through Web Page Analysis

Staff Writer | Last edited 1/2/05->

Okay, let's be honest, 6 out of 10 web sites fail miserably according to a published Forrester report in 2003. Not your site? If you can't readily identify your own site's key performance metrics, your site, like most, needs optimization - - So where do you begin?

Getting More Out of Your Website through Optimization and Conversion

Let's define Web Site Optimization as the framework for identifying, analyzing and correcting potential problem areas on your site.

The smart site owner restricts these "problem areas" to activities surrounding the improvement of site performance, i.e improve the percentage of completed forms, increasing the number of site registrations, decreasing home page abandonment, increasing the number of newsletter subscriptions, etc.

Creating a Better Framework for Managing Your Website
You might think that logfile analysis is the only way to manage web sites, but in fact, most logfile analyzers were developed to measure server activity, not business performance.

There is new hope that has surfaced over the last 2 years. There's an opportunity to better understand customer interactions on your site and a process specifically designed to optimize or improve your website over time. With some work you can begin to see increases in such things as sign up rates, decreases in shopping cart abandonment and increased sales.

If you really want success. Define it.

Below, we have outlined what may be considered the framework for better managing and optimizing your site.

Rule 1 Prioritization
What are you trying to optimize? Start small. Develop your objectives early so you don't waste a lot of valuable time. Prioritize those objectives around activities that provide the greatest value and where possible the least amount of effort. If you try to optimize everything, you won't accomplish anything.

Rule 2 Apply the marriage of metrics
Develop key performance metrics around what you want to improve.

Rule 3 Understand Your Own Business Model.
You'd be suprised at how often site owners forget this. There are really 4 business models; Lead Generation, Content, Commerce and Self Service.

Rule 4 Establish Site Benchmarks
After a few weeks of collecting data and defining problem areas, you'll need an understanding of where you are, before you can determine where your business can go.

Rule 5 Web Data Management
All of the data and performance metrics in the world won't help you if you don't take action. Be aggressive.

Rule 6 Get the Right Web Reporting Tools for the job.
Find the right tools for the right job. There are many site management tools with strengths and weaknesses. The difference is often what you are trying to measure and not necessarily how much you measure.

Metaclix helps small businesses with all of their reporting needs, whether they are measuring shopping carts abandonment or or successful generating leads through online applications.What can we help you measure, next?