Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

When it comes to website analysis it all depends on the products and services you are trying to capture. Most marketing firm write for two people. The owner of the website. You have things you want to convey to the visitors. There are things you want to say about your company and things you don't want to say about your company.
The second person your have to write your content for is the visitor. This has to be compelling information that not only engages the user but will get them to take action. If you are asking for information from the visitor it is always best to break up the request of information. For instance if you were a home builder don't ask for Name, Phone #, address, type of house, budget, ect ect.
Only get the basic information you need to communicate with your visitor. Usually name, phone # and email will suffice. If you offer a free product then send them to a second page to fill out the details so they can receive your free information.
The last part that most all marketing firms forget to write for is the search engines. This is most notable in the automotive industry with bigger companies. This is an extremely important step not to be forgotten.

As to your question directly, you have to think of your product and services and view from a user standpoint. What will be the most engaging interaction I can get from my visitor. Not knowing much of your product or services I would say this is the most important analysis of any web presence.

Hi Idris,

Website analysis has a number of vital factors that need to be tracked.

The most important factor to your bottom line is goal conversion: how many people landed on a critical page of your site? This could be the thank you page after the buying cycle (the page that confirms to you that a sale has been made) or it could be a page that confirms the details of registration (somebody has subscribed and submitted their email address).

Another critical factor is how people travelled to your goal page. Do any pages stand out as seemingly crucial in converting prospects to buyers? Are there pages in the funnel (the navigation process) that seem to put people off from buying?

You also will be wanting to understand where your customers are from, what times they are buying, etc. You should segment your audience based on their behaviour, and try to understand how you can divide them into groups, so that you can direct your advertising more effectively towards them. In fact, it could be a big help if you could collect more information about them after the sign up process. Offer a newsletter and forum (or community) and offer incentives to fill out more fields in their profile, such as profession, pay bracket, age, industry, etc.

Mary your data with focus group research and surveys. Your interpretation of the data will be much sounder if you can actually see how people use your website and when you can hear their opinions on your site. For example: a page with a high exit rate might be an incredibly effective page: people found exactly what they wanted, exited to compare your offers with that of your competitors and will return a week later to make the purchase. Focus groups will also help you get on top of potential issues with usability or design improvements.

Multivariant testing is another important factor in helping you analyse how to better achieve your goals. Have two alternate layouts or content for a particular page and track which of the two performs better. Do the same for your ads.

Give me a shout if you need more ideas...