Software

Ways to measure your website’s effectiveness

We've worked with many clients over the years, who all have very specific website development needs. While some clients may share common goals, each may approach those business goals in different ways. But, time and time again, we usually start by asking a client in what ways are they measuring their website's effectiveness. In this 4 part series, I'll discuss identifying purpose and overcoming obstacles, complaints of current site capabilities and establishing budget, metrics to success and selecting a vendor, then finally risk tolerance and disaster recovery planning.

Part 1: Identifying your purpose and overcoming obstacles

One of the first questions we frequently ask our clients is, how would you gauge your website's effectiveness? We ask this because your website should not only reflect your brand, but in many cases, drive part of your revenue. A WordPress site can be a great start for companies that are strictly brand-centric, and will give you a strong web presence. However, if your goal is a website that not only represents your brand, but also comprises a mixture of e-commerce, registration systems, reporting tools, etc., then a WordPress site will not make the grade.

Part 2: Complaints of current site capabilities and establishing budget

Another couple of questions we ask our clients are what complaints do you have with your current website and what would you like it to do better? Some clients respond that their website is just plain stale and they’d like something new/modern. Drupal lets you easily change up your entire look on a regular basis, like putting on a fresh outfit!

Bot

A Flash of Insight


Its name is Watney. Watney lives in Matrix. Watney is a bot I created about 6 months ago to start helping us with various tasks we need to do in our business.

Watney patiently waits for requests in a bunch of chat rooms we use for internal communications about each website we manage, each project we work on. Watney does a bunch of helpful things already, even though it is still really basic -- it fetches login links for us, helps us assemble release notes for each release we do to a production site, reminds us when it's time to do a release, and kicks off various automation jobs.

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