Be a Web Site Reviewer
By Stephen Bucaro
here are many sites on the Web today that are NOT meeting the businesses expectations.
They may be losing money, and the business owners don’t know what the problem is.
A Web Site Reviewer performs a detailed analysis of a client's Web site and generates
a detailed report of problems and suggested improvements. This will improve the
effectiveness and increase the revenue from the Web site.
Use a checklist to review a Web site. For each item in the checklist write your
findings in a report. Report the good features of the site as well as the bad. State the
problems you find in a factual, non-critical manner. Below is an example checklist.
[] The site’s objectives
[] Target audience
[] Branding features
[] Navigation
[] Bad links
[] Load time
[] Browser compatibility
[] "Above the fold" interest
[] Readability - color clash, font, layout
[] Poorly written copy
[] Typos and misspelled words
[] Forms don't work
[] Trust features
[] Provisions to accept feedback
[] Conformance to Web standards
[] Conformance to Conventions that the user expects
[] Reason for repeat visits
Skills Required to be a Web Site Reviewer
Some Web site problems may be related to coding problems. Although there are many
different programming languages used on the Web, some knowledge of HTML ((HyperText
Markup Language), and it's modern update XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language)
would definitely be helpful. HTML and XHTML are the languages used to build the basic
structure of a Web page.
Java Script is a common programming language used to make Web pages interactive.
Another type of code common on the Web is CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which is
used to define the style of HTML elements. Some knowledge of Java Script and CSS
would also be helpful.
One thing many Web sites need today is to be brought up to the latest W3C (World
Wide Web Consortium) standards. An important aspect of this is to make sure a Web
site's code conforms to a special tag placed at the top of every page called the
DOCTYPE Declaration.
If you don't like programming, you could form a partnership with a programmer.
You could do the work the programmer doesn't like to do, like performing a detailed
analysis of the Web site and generating a formal report to the client. The programmer
could handle the programming and implement solutions, or they could even assist in the
initial review.
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