The importance of a good website can not be understated when trying to appeal to your target market. So, what should you look at to evaluate whether your website’s performance is enough?
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There’s a range of factors that can affect the general health of a website. It’s no surprise that a better-built website makes easier work for users and search engines alike. So, what are the factors you should consider that affect user performance?
Is My Website Performance Good Enough?
The best method for assessing the health of your website is by looking at a number of factors. This includes a website’s general architecture and code quality, functionality, security and the hosting provisions. By looking at all of these areas, you can gain a picture of what’s performing well and where improvements can be made.
Experience
Does your website suffer from slow loading times? Do visitors know where to go when they’re trying to learn more about a product/service? How effective is your server? Is your website truly responsive to mobiles and different browsers?
It’s important to run through the entire website and evaluate the areas where user experience might not be up to standard. It’s also useful to garner the support of someone you trust who can offer feedback on where things are unclear or difficult to engage with.
Security
It’s vitally important that your website can handle all of the necessary security requirements to keep your clients’ data and your own company data safe from threats. Vulnerabilities can occur when you are running an older version of the website, or if a plugin needs updating. This routine maintenance exists to mitigate the weaknesses of older versions.
Code Quality
Code quality can be used to indicate how robust your website is. Having optimal code quality benefits both users, visitors, and overall website performance. With obvious effects on visitor experience, this, in turn, can also affect a website’s search engine ranking.
The likes of Nibbler and other website performance tools can help you to assess a website’s code quality. Developers like Riselabs can then help to explain what the errors mean and how they can be addressed.
Plugins
Plugins are widely used in websites to add extra functionality. Using a small number of reputable plugins for your site can be beneficial. However, selecting plugins carefully is important, as some can cause conflicts with your website and can present vulnerabilities if not regularly updated.
Marketing
Whilst Riselabs doesn’t claim to be a team of marketing experts, we are very aware that your brand appeal and calls to action need to be exceptionally clear. Users are unlikely to spend much time assessing who you are and what you do before becoming frustrated – so your plan for appealing to your target market needs to be bulletproof. You should always check that your methods for lead capture are simple for the visitor.
How I Can I Assess This?
Beyond looking at these specific areas discussed, we recommend you call upon the experience of a friend in business to navigate around your website. Additionally, it’s always useful to get in touch with a development partner if you feel there is room for improvement to make your website more performant. This will help you get a better picture of what can be achieved.
