Ninety-nine percent of business owners who have a website don’t understand how to measure their effectiveness. Okay, the percentage is slightly exaggerated, but it’s true that many business owners don’t comprehend enough about web design and development to know if their website is effective behind-the-scenes or not.
In this article, I want to share three simple ways to test your website to measure its performance. My goal is to keep it basic without much technical jargon so you can take your next steps towards improvement.
1. Look at the Page Title at the top of your browser window
At the very top of your browser window (or within the tab), you will see a title. See how right now it says “3 Simple Tests to Rate Your Website”. That’s the page title. It is one of the most important and heavily weighted items to help boost your likelihood of appearing on a relevant web search. However, the page title is also one of the most neglected.
If you click through several pages on your website, you should see descriptive language at the top of each page. Page titles that are keyword-rich, specific and descriptive, and don’t exceed 50-60 characters are ideal. So if yours are only a few words or just your company’s name, it’s time to get the page titles optimized and updated. Be mindful not to fall into the easy trap of making every page title the same. It’s an easy mistake to make, especially when not paying close attention. In short, make sure that you are diversifying your titles while still making them relevant to the content on that particular page.
2. Search your company name
Performing a Google search for your company name should yield results that link to your website. Ideally, you should see a bold, keyword-rich title that says what you do, followed by a brief, keyword-rich description. This information is referred to as metadata. There are specific character limits, 60 for the bold text (as the title mentioned above) and 155 for the description. If you omit this information from your website, the search engines may present random text from your page. Not having the descriptions at all will also reduce your chances of showing up in the first place.
When we design and develop websites at Trillion, we input optimized title and description content specifically for this purpose. The description text is not visible on your website, but the search engines yearn for it.
Google also does a great job of helping site owners identify how their website is performing through free tools such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Google Search Console is search engine focused, helping you evaluate how your website appears in a search result and identify what issues need to be fixed to drive more traffic. On the other hand, Google analytics is user-oriented and tracks how people use your website and tell you what pages are the most valuable; you’d be surprised how often it is not the page you’d think.
We recommend both because they’re free to use and genuinely help site owners successfully maintain their websites. Each also provides a series of training videos you can watch to help get you started.
3. Analyze the source of new opportunities
Whether it’s by asking directly after a phone call or a selection on a website form , you should be tracking where your prospects are coming from. Analyzing and tracking the percentage of clients that come from your website is a crucial indicator of how well your website is performing in online searches. When you have a complete and detailed client record, you’ll find it easier to understand your marketing efforts and where to improve.
Trillion has a comprehensive database that stores every form ever submitted through our site. With years worth of data, not only can you analyze a specific timeframe but the overall upward or downward trajectory of your website over time.
BONUS: Check your website’s links
Links within your website should all be connecting or clicking through to valid pages. Sometimes you may have links to articles that no longer exist. This causes a broken link and possible error. Using a free website link validator (http://validator.w3.org/checklink) will help reveal potential broken link problems. Broken links or invalid links can harm your search engine page ranking and even your website grade—not to mention disappointing or frustrating your visitors.
It’s crucial to fix or eliminate any links the link validator reveals as broken. The report generated by the link validator will provide recommended fixes. Some may be easier to implement than others.
Could your website benefit from a detailed audit by Trillion?
Request an audit from our team today. A detailed audit can reveal what is working well for your website, identify areas of improvement, and assess how you measure compared to competitors. Give us a call at 908.219.4703 or use our contact form.
