| Documents
/ Checklist |
| (Except for point
1, this checklist applies equally to the analysis of Internet,
Intranet or Extranet websites). |
| |
| 1. General Aspects |
1.1a. Internet
- Search engine visibility - How visible is your website on
the major search engines?
1.1b. Intranet / Extranet - What is your website's purpose,
what are its objectives? |
| Visibility search throughout the
major search engines listed below - criteria: company name and
its 3 main products |
| Search engines |
Company name |
Product 1 |
Product 2 |
Google
Yahoo
MSN Search
Altavista
Ask Jeeve
WebCrawler
Alltheweb
Excite
SwissSearch
Yoodle
...
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Custom: if your company
shows on the first results' page of a search engine - with common
keywords - chances your website will be visited are highly probable.
It does sound obvious; but so many companies are unaware of
the criteria (keywords) used by Internet users to surf on the
Web, thus unable to adapt their Metatags* to their respective
audiences.
|
| 1.2. Browser compatibility
: |
| Is your website compatible with
the following browsers? If yes, with which version? |
| Browsers |
Compatible |
Comments |
Internet Explorer (6.x, 5.x,4.x,3.x)
Netscape (4.x,3.x,2.x)
Opera
Firefox
Safari (Mac)
|
|
|
|
| Custom: if 95% of
users have access to your site's pages with their browser, your
website is in line with the usability design standards. If it
is not the case, you give up part of your audience, simply because
they are not using a browser compatible with your website...
|
2. Ease of download: |
| How easily are pages
downloaded on your website? |
| Custom: it is now
a known fact that Internet users are less and less patient…
and will leave your website if the loading time of most of the
pages exceeds 10 seconds! The "Best practice" (e.g. yahoo.com
or altavista.com) is 3 seconds. |
| 3. Ease of use: |
| 3.1. Broken links
- How many links are broken on your website (internally &/or
externally)? |
Custom: the more
complex your website, the more standard should it look like.
If the 'design' of your pages is not similar to a 'standard'
the average user is familiar with, great is the likelihood he
will get lost! This probability furthermore increases if he
is lead to non-existing pages (i.e. broken links), and chances
he will not return to your website are thus proportionally multiplied!
Another custom states that the structure of your website should
contain 3 to 5 levels maximum; i.e. any information should be
reachable within 3 to 5 clicks (starting from your homepage). |
| |
| 3.2. Attributes
- How many attributes are missing on your website? |
| Custom: attributes
allow users to see (especially those bearing some disabilities)
what they will find behind an image/icon/hyperlink after clicking
on it. It is highly important to inform users on the result
of their click before they actually do so. |
| 4. High quality
content: |
| Are the following
information available on your website, more specifically for
5 of the most important categories regarding your company -
clients, suppliers, potential employees, investors and media
? |
| Customers |
Found/
not found |
Comments |
List, price and description of products
E-Shop
Support, FAQ about product lines
General conditions
New products
Addresses/Situation maps
...
|
|
|
|
| Potential
suppliers |
Found/
not found |
Comments |
Terms to become/remain part of the supplier list
On-line bid for your company's supplying needs
List of products bought by your company
Contact person in charge of external suppliers
...
|
|
|
|
| Potential
employees: |
Found/
not found |
Comments |
List of career opportunities with detailed profiles
Contact person for these profiles
Contact person for spontaneous offers of service
(HR Dept.)
...
|
|
|
|
| Potential
investors: |
Found/
not found |
Comments |
Financial results
If the financial results are not published, reasons
why
Contact person to provide financial information
...
|
|
|
|
| Others (media, PR agencies,
people with no direct link to the company but interested/concerned
by its activities, etc): |
Found/
not found |
Comments |
History of the company
Structure of the company (Management, geographies)
Philosophy of the company
Key contact people (company spokes person,
media and PR contact name)
The company in the press
...
|
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| Custom: if the 5
major "information crunchers" (clients, suppliers, potential
employees, investors and others) find "their" information on
your website within a reasonable time limit, we will rate it
as being rich and qualitative. If it is not the case, it should
include at least an efficient substitute to make inquiries;
e.g. the technical support phone number. |
| 5. Frequent updates: |
| How many pages
are 4 months old or more ? |
| Custom: highly linked to the previous
aspect, a frequently updated website usually makes the web surfer
aware of the company's effort to bring its latest information
to the "surface"; in other words, to the public. Some information
(like the company's history) is unchanging; but product related
information - generally - is not! By measuring the age of the
site as being the ratio between "old" pages to the total number
of pages, we get a pretty good estimate of the "content freshness"… |
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