Profiling Website Quality

So, How Do You Profile Website Quality?

At its inception, the Internet was a noncommercial environment. The beginning of the Internet was primarily academic and research-based computers linked into a larger network of computers. Since then software companies introduced products and online services that opened gateways into it. It was shortly after that when the Internet caught the public's interest and users of personal computers became able to sign onto the Internet. By the late '90s the Internet was named the "dot-com bubble" due to the dramatic increase in online commercial growth. Online businesses watched their stock sky-rocket during the early years of this period and then bust in the later years. Since the bust of  the "dot-com bubble" the online presence of businesses and corporations has seen a revitalization. Today seemingly any business needs a website. While there are many options available for getting a website online—from the "college friend" who might have some rudimentary website skills, to expensive big city web design companies—a business needs a website. Most websites fall somewhere along the lines of an affordable, professionally designed custom website that enhances the company's image while not being overly flashy. Also important to mention: today's websites have the ability to expand while the business model grows.

The intended purpose of this article is to research the components of website models to create a quality means of profiling an organization's website. To support the argument and strengthen the understanding of the field numerous professional sources have been reviewed and documented. The solution is not simple; the areas involved in the research overlap and are interdisciplinary. From the field of Information Technology, the discipline of Human Computer Interactions (HCI), to Communication Technologies has had a significant impact on this topic. Other knowledge such as informational content, web design, usability, and user experience are significant. These successful qualifications will be identified as the structure of the model. The key topic areas that structured this process are elaborated in the following sections.

The Quick Summary

Is there any business that does not have an online presence? Most likely it will be very difficult to think of one in a reasonable amount of time; the possibility of never coming up with a single one is feasible. Businesses, organizations, e-commerce, professionals, and governmental sites are among the many examples of the array of websites found on the Internet today. All of these models need to consider how their websites and online presence are perceived. However, as wonderful as it could be, there isn't a single source that gives you a comprehensive outline of those components, let alone offers guidance on which one works best for any particular situation. After compiling a large amount of research, a quantifiable model of profiling the quality of an organization's website has been identified. The key topic areas have been organized into themes according to association of interest areas.

This model of profiling the quality of an organization's website has eight different themes totaling over 50 key topics. The themes were constructed by key topics in the same areas of interest. The key topics were tallied by mentions from a market audit and research to rate the level of importance in profiling the quality of an organization's website. The importance of relationships built online surprisingly was not considered to be the most important theme, nor was it least important. Key topics such as long-term relationships, repeat visitors, incentives, and services lead the Relationship theme discussions. A solid theme, Brand Message, had the highest level of mentions within the research, touching on key topics like reputation, honesty, reliability, integrity, and identity. The theme of Creativity fell short of other themes but maintained a higher level of concern than others. Among important factors for creativity were engaging the visitor, creating interest, personalization, and interactivity. Another important theme was Contents. Although it may be key, it's not the leading theme. Currentness, accessibility, presentation, and searchability were aspects of the Contents theme. Communication Tools was a theme holding key topics that held poor results. Although social media was the strongest key topics in this theme other key topics were selectively mentioned in the research cited. The Communication Tools theme also included these topics: contact forms, forums, e-mail, blogs, 3rd party referencing, and RSS feeds. The Human Computer Interaction (HCI) theme had strong key topics such as usability, navigablility, user driven, feasibility, functionality, and obtainablility (URL), giving this theme a high level of useful key topics. A Technology theme included key topics such as FAQs, surveys, analytic (length of time on site, depth of visit, surfers versus serious visitors), data mining, SEO, security, and even mobile compatibility. Still, the Technology theme is only slightly more relevant than the Communication Tools theme. The last theme derived from the research is the Visual Design theme. With key topics like attractiveness, intransitivity, organization, color, and typography, this theme holds key topic areas mentioned second-most often.

My Methodology

As mentioned, the areas involved in researching what quantifies website quality overlap and are interdisciplinary. The methodology process was expanded to include a collection of practices, concepts, and ideas, related to what qualifies as a quality website. The research consists of academic papers, journals, magazine articles, online publications, and professional opinions. The collection of writings was analyzed and compiled into a matrix graphing the key topics most common among the research. The matrix also identifies the most important key topics by the frequency that each topic is mentioned within the compiled research. All of the quantitative and qualitative data included in the matrix is combined into this article with an explanation of each topic area. The key topics are broken down into categories to define similar areas of interest.


The above chart identifies key topics to profile website quality.


The above chart breaks down the key topics into theme areas and displays their relationship of importance to profile website quality.

All of the following information has been included from sources using various data collections and for varying points of interest. It is important to mention that depending upon one's website, successes and goals can vary the importance of the key topics. Their may be a high level of results in one's Brand Message theme and little success in the key topic area of social media. This model can be used to profile an organization's website quality; however, the efficiency and success of that website would benefit from an independent evaluation. The remainder of this article breaks down the themes and their associated key topics. To access the charts above simply download the pdf version of the full report.

 Download the PDF version of this report

Relationships

Long-term relationships
Long-term relationships is the goal of any online organization. Numerous ideations have been implemented in striving to satisfy the visitor online with varying results. To judge website quality based on the relationship it has with its visitors is not a quantifiable benchmark. Although it is important to maintain such relationships, such as a long-term relationships, these relationships will grow as other aspects of measurable website tactics are explored. A professional website that works well is more inviting and more likely to keep the long-term relationship with visitors.

Repeat visitors
An important aspect of any website is to have repeat visitors. These visitors can also tell a story about the quality of your website or the areas that need improvement. Repeat visitors spend a bit of time reading different pages and taking an interest in what you have written; this means that they have more time in which they might decide that you are a valuable mine of information. Adding or changing content is an easy way to help increase repeat visits to your site and build interest in your business. Regardless of your online business model, providing opportunities for visitors to interact with your site can also be an effective way to increase repeat visitors.
Incentives
The correct mix of incentives can motivate visitors to visit a website frequently and provide them with a reason to stay on the site for longer periods of time. Some online practices include offering the best deals, rewarding visitors' efforts with offers, referral rewards, or discounts. Incentives are a great way to keep relationships with current online visitors while creating opportunities to gain new visitors as well.

Services
Online services provide an infrastructure in which web visitors can communicate with one another. They are in the form of e-mail messages or by participating in online forums, for example. A blog-style website allowing comments from visitors can be a service provided by your website and can be very useful to the insight of your visitors. Also, these services can connect visitors with almost an unimaginable number of third-party information referencing. Visitors have the ability to get current news, stock information, articles, even information only available in electronic form.

Brand message

Reputation
An online reputation can be created regardless if a website is seeking employment, selling a product, offering a  dating service, or online banking. Managing the online reputation is a very important to consider for profiling the quality of a website. More and more visitors are doing their research online well before even doing business or visiting your organization online. Trust and building relationships are valued online just as much as in the real world. Building that online reputation is among the most important key topics in profiling a quality website.

Honesty
One major challenge with doing business online is that websites are not face to face with customers. A website is particularly volatile, so it's the perfect place to establishing trust. If you want customers to trust visiting your website, or even to trust the business model, honesty is of utmost importance.

Reliability
When it comes to reliability, research has proven that online organization's are often not careful about the facts on their website. Frequently it is the visitor who discover errors and contacts the organization to question the content. With reliability also a top key topic in profiling website quality, it is often among the top overlooked key topics. Keeping links and navigation up-to-date, as well as names and contact information, is critical; thay are the largest areas to go overlooked and become unreliable. "The term 'reliability' is also used as a measure of performance and may be defined as a probability."

Integrity
Integrity is the most important key topic in profiling a website's quality. The actions and values of a website should be the same principles as the business it represents. Having integrity strengthens the honesty and reliability of the website. Visitors will judge as to the integrity of a website in their decision process whether to return to website at another time, thus building the repeat visitors and recommended visitors to a website. Mentioned in almost all of the research, integrity is explained as a virtue that is seen as accountable and as moral responsibility, and integrity is necessary to maintain value.
Identity
The key topic of online identity focuses on the social identity that an online website establishes for itself. An organization, unlike the common practice for individuals online creating an anonymous identity, is to have a reputable identity that matches the mission and value proposition of the organization. Although the key topic of identity was not mentioned as often as other brand messages, it still needs consideration. Also, following other key topics with the theme of brand message will create an identity that is in line with the organization. Thus an effort to build an emphasis on identity may not need to be an upper level of concern.

Creativity

Engage the visitor
Customer loyalty has a crucial tie to how a website engages visitors once they have arrived at any particular website. When end-users get involved, research has proven they tend to become more committed rather than "moving" on to something else. The most common way to engage the visitor is through social media channels, since they have taken over the way the end-user interacts online. Other common engagements are through forums, blogging, surveys, or discussion groups. The key is to create several involvement channels for the visitor to cover the variety of end-users.

Create interest
Increasing interest in a website is not an easy task. The website must be interesting to read and must address the message that the visitors of the site would be looking for. Visitors to a website are looking for specific bits of information. On top of that, most visitors have limited time to get on the site, find the information that they are looking for, and leave the site. Similar to participating in forums, showing good creative writing skills goes a long way in convincing visitors of the overall value of a website. The key qualities needed to manage web content are relevance, timeliness and interesting material. People need information that is relevant to their requirements. If the information is outdated or no new information is provided, then the information loses its value.

Personalization
Creative personalization to a website is yet another key topic in profiling the quality of a website. Special attention to the information and applications being applicable to the visitor of the website requires additional planning. A personalized website is more likely to attract the website's particular target segment and create loyalty among visitors. Data collecting from the online visitor assists in creating personalized content on a website. Once data is collected and understood, personalization can be in the form of, as an example, suggested items of interest.

Interactivity
Even though the theme of creativity may not be as important as a brand message, the key topic of interactivity is the main stakeholder within the theme. Interactivity can be in the form of follow-ups, events, triggered e-mail, or any other prompt to the visitor to respond to an activity online. Research agreed that the purpose of using interactivity is the increase in the effectiveness of the end-user's experience.

Contents

Currentness
Updating the content of a website is vital to the success of a quality site. Keeping current content requires an investment of anywhere from a few times a week to a demanding hour or two a day. Regularly adding new content, clearing inactive contacts and information, or perhaps participating in discussions within the comments thread, forums, or blogs assists in being current. Other possibilities explored are posting updates on successful projects along with new good-quality photographs of recent events; and even news releases have proven advantageous. Because these tasks can be very time-consuming, it is helpful to establish routine to attend to online goals of your website.

Accessibility
Normally, when thinking web design, the first thing that comes to mind is usability and an association to testing. Different visitor scenarios are not normally the first thought when developing a website. It's assumed far too often that all the site's visitors have fast computers with broadband connections to the Internet—not to mention perfect physical or cognitive abilities. This is precisely why this is the key topic within the content theme. Designing a website that's as successful as it is effective takes work.

Presentation
The website presentation is the complete digital context of the site. It is often based on the information architecture and planning the proper flow and continuity can have an impact on the website's content. The information should be delivered to the visitor of the website in order to support the goal of the organization. Considering structure efficiency, aesthetics, logical navigation and known web usability patterns results in a presentation that works within each particular website.

Searchable
Usable guidelines for usable websites states that a website cannot stand out without building a proper searchable website. Searchable content goes far beyond just text in today's online environment. Searchable areas now include videos, blogs posts, e-books, images, user-generated content, and widgets, to name a few. Interestingly enough, the person charged with a website's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should have good, if not above average, personal skills to be naturally suitable for the task.

Call to action
An important marketing strategy to drive traffic to your website, whether it is first time visitors or repeat visitors, is to use a call to action. Research has shown that a percentage of visitors will leave a website page without having done anything. Taking the time to consider the appropriate call to action, and being sure it is working as expected through analysis of data collection is an advantage in creating a quality website.

Communication Tools

Contact forms
For an easy form of communication, individuals and businesses alike use contact forms for their visitors on their websites. This gives all visitors a way to communicate regarding all kind of topics, from questions about the organization to ordering products and services. Additionally, many contact forms can be used to gather information for survey questions, polling visitors, or allowing visitors to join a website's newsletter. Even though contact forms was not mentioned as a key topic, they are useful tools in communicating with website visitors.

Forums
Forums are a great tool that allows organizations to share similar interests with visitors and to learn valuable information used to develop Internet marketing tactics. Also, forums are arenas to offer input and answer questions on subjects that may be troubling website visitors. Forums become a useful place to earn trust and respect from visitors and customers of online organizations. Similar to contact forms, forums were not mentioned as a key topic but should be given consideration.

E-mail
Surprisingly, the theme of communications tools as key topics to profiling the quality of a website was by far the least important according to the research gathered. Perhaps because e-mail has become such a commonplace factor, it is often overlooked. E-mail has the potential to be the broadest form of direct marketing today. That, however, may be the sole reason for the decline in importance of the largest means of digital communication.

Social media
Social media creates a conversation to a mass audience that is founded in the ideals of public relations. The difference is public relations pushes an idea to a mass audience with hopes that it catches someone's attention, whereas with social media, the audience is expecting ideas. Social media relations is more effective than traditional PR simply because there can be feedback which then can be directed into proper marketing channels and the conversation can be encouraged to continue and be shared. It is about how we communicate with our visitors once we have acquired them. As little attention was given to communication tools as a theme, an overwhelming response to the importance of social media is an obvious indicator to website quality.

Blogs & sharing
Blogging has reached new heights of popularity as organizations looking for inexpensive and effective ways of getting their message out are using the technology to their advantage. Blogging allows for targeted messaging to a website's visitors through a combination of text, images, web pages, and other media related to its topic that add to the searchable content and search engine optimization. The interactive nature of blogs allows visitors to post comments, which can provide extremely useful information regarding the visitors to a website. While not much information was obtained with the cited research, blogging can be an important tool in communication, marketing, relationship building, and branding of an organization's website.

RSS feeds
Really Simple Syndication, or better known as RSS Feeds allows visitors to subscribe to a website feed through a reader. The RSS reader checks for subscriptions and downloads any new additions. The downside to RSS is that it allows visitors to avoid entering a website and browsing new content. As RSS feeds push new content into readers as it is available, the content of that information becomes key.

Human Computer Interaction

Usability
Usability is an important component to website quality. The idea of usability involves creating a website that is simple to use and navigate, fun and interactive, and one that has logic in its presentation. All of these aspects create a website that is enjoyable for the user and is functional and usable to the visitor. For companies that want to build brand loyalty and attract customers, usability will enhance the visitor's overall experience; it is critical to an organization as they build a website.

Navigablility
An easily navigable website is one of the most difficult key topics to initiate as well as execute. An easily navigable website is designed so that visitors can move between pages and content with minimal thought but with high understanding and confidence. There can be high losses when a visitor fails to find information due to a lack of ease of moving around a website through various types of navigation.

User driven
A new trend in website design is creating using user-driven content. Examples of user-driven content are blogs, photo sharing, video sharing, dynamic pages created by the users preferences, and so on. The incentive for the visitor is to have a sense of belonging to a larger community. A downside is that user-driven content requires a large existing community to allow them to be functional enough to sustain themselves and hold value to new visitors as well as existing visitors. This may explain why, even though a key topic, it is not as popular as other aspects of human interaction.

Feasibility & functionality
Feasibility can include, but is not limited to, the inclusion of multimedia into a website. An example of such inclusions is flash media. Flash media is used extensively in online games that mesmerize visitors for hours while collecting data about that user's experience. However, many computers cannot support the technology unless it's installed and updated regularly, and depending on the capability of the computer's hardware. Functionality, with the theme of human-computer interaction in mind, is similar to the aspect of feasibility, and helps ensure the visitor can use the website without error. It is believed that understanding the functionality of a website will drive the feasibility and the choices that coincide with them.

Reachability (URL)
Reachability is being able to get from one place to another in a direct path. For a quality website this is as simple as a link click-through to navigate to a website or within a website. If a visitor can not get to their intended destination easily and quickly, they will exit and move on to another website. Although mentioned as a key topic, it is universally understood that having an online website makes reachability a "no-brainer" necessity to a website.

Technology

Surveys
Surveys uncover new potential in an online marketplace revealing the needs of website visitors. They can also determine weak areas in customer service so that an organization can assess how to improve in those key areas. The public's opinion of an organization can also be revealed with online surveys. All of these aspects give an organization an opportunity to gather information about how it is perceived by visitors to its website and help it to make adjustments to its online strategy.

Analytics
Analytics can share extremely useful information to an organization about the traffic of a website. One area of information is the length of time a visitor is on the website or a particular page or section. The visitor's depth of visit can share with organizations the import path taken on a website as well as 'hot-spots' that are frequently visited. Even the demographics such as location, software, and hardware can be obtained with analytics. However, the theme of technology, as important as it may seem, was judged one of the lowest areas for key topics.

Mobile compatible
Although mentioned only once in the cited research, mobile compatibility will be an increasing area of decision making as to whether or not a website is a quality website. There is little to no research done in this area due to the fact that mobile web browsers are a new technology and are undergoing quick and frequent changes as they develop.

Visual Design

AttractivenessAn attractive website is not only aesthetically pleasing, it helps visitors locate the content they need without confusion. This allows the navigation to be easily located and functional, giving visitors a path to deeper content within a website. If the aesthetics are not pleasing to visitors, frustration can set in and they will exit the page quickly. With visual design as one of the top themes in profiling a quality website, attractiveness is among the leading key topics across all themes.

Interactivity
Interactivity is another important key topic within the theme of visual design. Interactivity as a key topic was also a high-level key topic in the creativity theme. However, interactivity in the visual design theme is very different than the creativity theme. Here interactivity is involving the visitor to engage in the experience of the website. It can be in the form of games, browsing through photo galleries, moving dynamic content around a web browser, and even creating the content on a website.

Organization
Organizational representation of an idea or message uses a variety of techniques that combine typography, color, and page layout. This key topic, within the context of visual design, includes hierarchy, creating a grid system, the placement of such things as navigation and contact information, as well as the inclusion of negative (or white) space. Organization is very similar to attractiveness in that it allows the visitor to move about the website's information in a comfortable and pleasing manner.

Color & typography = readability
Color is a powerful design tool that affects a website's appearance as well the feelings it exudes. Typography has long been a vital part of promotional material and advertising. Designers often use typography to set a theme and mood in an advertisement. Both of these key topics have vital roles in the visual design theme. Without a fairly decent understanding of the basic theories of color and typography they can be misused. Often visitors are subjected to typography that is too small for the visitors, or the color choices can create awkward emotions. All of these negative reactions cause the visitor to leave an organization's website for one that may be more appealing.

Conclusion

Profiling a website's quality is very much related to its strategic plan, the organization's misson and goals, and the desired outcome. With that in mind there are several key topic areas that remain important for all organizations' websites. Overall importance is related to the brand message of an organization with integrity being the most discussed key topic across all reasearch. This proves that if your online message does not match your reputation, that if the organization's honesty and reputation is not what is expected, it will diminish the quality of the organization's online presence. Secondly, the visual aesthetics play a role in the ability to satisfy a visitor's senses. Organization is key to satisfy the visitor's experience while browsing a website. Making the website's organization and message functional and usable to the visitor becomes the next level of quality to maintain the visitor's length and depth of visit on the website deeper. Other important key topics to consider are interactivity; is the content current and valid; is the navigation easy to understand and use; is the information presented in a sensible order; has the visitor been engaged; is the website personalized; and have appropriate communications tools and channels benn used. If these basic key topic areas have been addressed with honesty and diligence, the organization will have a quality website using these profiles.