Website Monitoring

I'm sure all of you at some stage have gone to a website and discovered a non-working link, obsolete information, a download that doesn't, or even the copyright date behind the times. How embarrassing - especially if it's your website.

If you are intent on having a professional looking website, that consistently ranks in the Top 30 listings of a search engine's results page (and who wouldn't?), then you must monitor what is or is not happening - and I'm not just referring to your website.

Monitoring is about the periodic checking of the:

Website's contents
Number of visitors and their attributes
Competitor's activity
Target market
Search engine rankings
Links to your website
Intellectual property

Lets look at each of these points a little further.

Website's Contents

Bi-annually, review every page to ensure that your site is functioning correctly. Test for:

Broken links. Be they the menu, internal links within a page or external links. Testing the external links is particularly important as web pages come and go especially so once a website revamp has occurred.
Broken download links. Click on every download link to ensure that the information (usually a PDF) works and that the information is up-to-date.
Currency of information. Ensure that dates are correct (including copyright), old courses and events have been removed, prices are as they should be, and so on.
Spelling. Check the spelling on every page, especially if your are using a content management system or there are multiple content contributors. Likewise keep an eye on grammar.

Number Of Visitors And Their Attributes

Most if not all website hosting companies, provide website statistics. These can be looked as frequently as you like. In most cases once a month is probably sufficient. The information tells you such things as the number of visitors, the keyword phrases used to find your site, the origin of the visits e.g. via a particular search engine, the country from which the visit came. This information can then be related back to any initiatives you have taken. Of underlying importance is the number of visitors that made it passed the home page. If few visitors "pass go" then have a close look at the content and its layout to make it more viewer friendly.

Competitor Activity

Study your online competitors say bi-annually. Study them so that you can keep your online advantage. What they do has a marked effect on your website's position on a search engine's results page and on your ability to attract prospects.

Target Market

Markets evolve and change. Make sure that your website reflects these changes. An ideal time to do this is at the conclusion of your annual marketing plan.

Search Engine Rankings

Having reached a top 30 ranking with a search engine you will naturally wish to remain there. Quarterly, or even better still monthly monitoring is essential. Then, if significant slippage occurs you can take action before the loss of position starts to adversely impact on begin found by prospects actively looking for those products and services you offer.

Links To Your Website

Links from other websites to yours are an important factor in gaining and retaining a top 30 ranking with search engines. But web pages come and go as firm's change their website. It is therefore, important to monitoring the number and quality of these links particularly if you have a reciprocal arrangement. As with search engine rankings, quarterly, or better still monthly monitoring is recommended.

Intellectual Property

Plagiarism on the Internet is easy. If the loss of intellectual property is of concern, then periodic searches of the Internet are in order. Use Google or any other search engine. Type a sentence or short paragraph from your website into the search facility and see if any other sites are using the same or similar text.

Responsibility

Who is going to do all this monitoring? Well that's up to the organisation. It can be done internally. In which case I suggest that people be appointed to the task and be required to report on their monitoring results say as part on any monthly or quarterly business reporting cycle. Or you appoint Optimum Websites who have the experience and the monitoring tools.