February 2002

How Effective Is Your Website?
By Chris Petrello

You have a website and you think it’s working. But how do you quantify that gut feeling? Before you can begin to address your website’s effectiveness, you need to gather information on your site’s vital stats. First, you will want to get an idea about site traffic; that is, how many people are viewing your site in a given time period.

Next, you should assess the technical performance - the bottom line is, how fast do your site’s pages load? Site stats like the number of visitors and the time it takes for your pages to load are objective data.

You will need a bit of subjective data as well. It is a good idea to have a few “outsiders” critique your site. Ask them to take into consideration the aesthetic design of the site, as well as (and perhaps more importantly) how usable your site is to them as a visitor. Can they find what they are looking for on your site? The results may surprise you.

Diagnosing Your Site
Gathering this data can be time-consuming and sometimes confusing. Luckily, many of the tools you need are available online and are free.

To gather information about site traffic, try installing a simple page counter on your site - this will show you how many times a given page is viewed. More detailed visitor stats are available through web log analyzers, but something of this nature requires a higher level of expertise and is generally used on high-traffic sites.

Judging your site’s technical performance can be done with a number of free tools, such as Netscape’s Website Garage (www.websitegarage.com). These tools will give you a general idea of how fast your pages load, as well as other information about your site’s optimization.

A simple way to gather subjective feedback about your website is to place a link on your site to a page devoted to feedback. You don’t have to be a code wizard - a simple e-mail link will do. To maximize the quality of the feedback, you may want to add a page to your site with sample input and have your e-mail link placed prominently on that page. Don’t hesitate to have people use your site in front of you; begin with your staff and associates, and pay close attention to areas where they get hung up or confused. Then ask for feedback from people who aren’t familiar with your practice from an “inside” perspective.

After you have the data you are looking for, you can begin to draw some conclusions as to the effectiveness of your site. Aim for quick page loads and optimal usability. Don’t be afraid to change things to get the results you want. The Internet is an extremely flexible medium, where the only constant is change.

A well thought-out and designed website gives you an excellent platform to market your practice. Any site that performs well will attract more users and will be a greater part of your practice’s formula for success.

Mr. Petrello has worked for five years in the field of information technology. He is the webmaster for Chiropractic Economics magazine. You can reach him at cpetrello@chiroeco.com.