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How Well Does Your Web Site Really Work?
A recent study of the top forty federal government web sites indicates that 68% had some significant problem on the site -- blank pages, internal errors, and bad links. A comparative study of commercial sites indicates that 72.5% of them had similar problems. The report was produced by the Business Internet Group of San Francisco (BIG-SF) and TeaLeaf Technology. According to the report, described in a recent article in CyberAtlas, "As Web applications become more complex, site maintenance and management becomes more difficult, particularly when IT departments are overburdened. The Big-SF/TeaLeaf report suggests that deeper examination of end user functionality could be the key to overcoming failed expectations." In other words, what do your users want from your site? Some of the biggest technical complaints we find in studying nonprofit websites are slow load times and pages that don’t work on some browsers. These two problems alone will reduce traffic to your web site because they frustrate web users who are trying to load your pages. A web page, particularly your 'home' or 'start' page, should load completely in less than eight seconds on a standard dialup connection. Pages that do not load in eight seconds or less, generally have one or more of the following problems: * too much program software loaded into the first page, A nonprofit web site should work well on all of the major browsers: Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), AOL, and WebTV. Too many web developers use tools that make development for IE easy, but they don’t test their work on the other browsers. Don't let their technical snobbery build a wall between you and 30% of your users. An Internet audit is the only way to check your site thoroughly. If your site was built more than 18 months ago, it's probably time for a complete review of its technical performance, design, and usability. Contact NPA for more information on an Internet Marketing Audit for your site. August 2003 | ||
