1.

Are you finding new clients through your website efforts?


 

2.

Can potential new clients find you on the web?  How?


 

3.

Should you be advertising on the web? (i.e. industry listings, by location or service, search engines, pay-per-click, banner ads, reciprocal links, web rings, etc.)  See Glossary for explanation of terms.

 

4.

Who are your web competitors? 
Have you checked their search engine rankings compared to yours?  Are you losing clients to your competition?

 

5.

Do you explain why visitors should use your particular services?  How are you different from your competition? 
What is your specialty? 


 

6.

List the subscriptions necessary to maintain your web presence:
              Domain (.com) Account:                               
                  Web Page  Hosting:                               
          Internet Service Provider:                               
               Search Engine Submit:                               
                 Site Stats/Counter:                               
                 Ecommerce Provider:                               
                    Web Page Editor:                               
                         Affiliates:                               
                              Other:                               

7.

How many people are visiting your website? 
(How many total hits per day/month).  A site counter would tell you what search systems people are using to find your website.

 

8.

Do you have pages that are not being visited?
You may have pages on your website that are uninteresting or people are not finding.  Are all links working?  Are all pages necessary?

 

9.

Are your pages multi-browser and visitor friendly?
(i.e. viewable by WebTV, blind or color-blind people, or international visitors?)  Not all page formatting codes work the same across the board.  A site counter can tell you what browsers are used to view your pages, but you must also consider color, fonts, screen size, etc.   

 

10.

Do your pages load quickly for Laptop / Modem visitors? 


 

Do you review your search engine listings? 
Try searching on your domain (.com) name and keywords on various search systems that your customers would use.  Are your  listings adequate? 

 

What pages should not be listed on the search engines?
(i.e. client lists, guestbooks or directories should not be listed.)  This is an important issue, not only for privacy purposes but for professional presence.

 

Is your Domain locked?  You should lock your domain so that it cannot be transferred to a different owner without your permission.  (Note: This appears in your Whois listing.)

 

Who has access to your Domain (.com) account settings?  Either you, or someone else, set up your domain name.  You should be able to log into your domain account to check or change settings. 

 

20.

Who has access to your web page account settings?
If you run a small business, you and others should have access to your account.  Who posts any updated web pages, etc.

 

21.

Are you nearing your storage space limits?
(too many graphics or files) Who cleans out unnecessary files?

 

22.

Are you nearing your bandwidth limits?
(number of hits per day or per month on your servers)
You pay a base fee for a certain amount of traffic.   Monitor your traffic and make adjustments to your plan if you need additional bandwidth for your site. 

 

23.

How much storage space is available on your email system?
All email systems have a limit on the size of messages they can serve to you.  Do you save your email in folders offline or online?  It's all part of the same amount of storage space to consider.

 

24.

Does your email system have a limit on number of addressees, or size of a message? 

 

25.

Do you maintain a web email alias?
(i.e. you@yoursite.com)
Consider using a business identity rather than a personal email address.  If you change your personal email address to a different system, you can route your alias to your new email account and your business is not interrupted by a change of email address.  

 

26.

Are you receiving a lot of junk email?  Why?
When you sign up for newsletters, register products, and so forth, you may want to make sure all optional items are unchecked.  You do want to get official updates from your providers but be wary of how they share email addresses (see their privacy policy).

 

27.

Are all web pages and links on your site necessary?
Too many pages or links may overwhelm your readers.
Do all links work properly? 

 

28.

Should you supply articles, news, or other information to keep your clients interested?  Show your readers that you keep your site up to date, and that you are actively interested in their visits. 

 

29.

Should you send an email introducing your new or updated site?  Once you post a new or updated website, you might want to notify your customers.
 

30.

Should you offer monthly newsletters or progress reports online or via mass emails?  Do your customers want more information occasionally?  You can set up an email list for readers to "opt into" and you won't overwhelm them with long email messages.  Send an email with a link to your online newsletter, and include a reminder to add your email address to their "safe senders" list.
 

31.

Do you receive feedback about your site?
(Easy to read, use of color, pictures, etc.)  Get free critique's (friends, relatives,  customers).  Ask them to check your web site.  Is it easy to read on their computer?  Use their feedback. 

Your website is your Business Card on the web.  
 

32.

Are you prepared for an increase in web traffic and customers?   Make sure your web operations (domain and ISP for example) can handle the increase in web traffic, and that you can handle the increase in customers, product orders, and support needs for any increase in business.