An important component of the results-oriented Web planning and design process advocated by WebResults is evaluation of the results obtained.

WebResults offers some principles and a process for evaluation of your Web site. There's also a sample evaluation form and a sample needs analysis that you can adapt to your own site.

Evaluation Tools and Techniques
There are a variety of techniques and tools available for Web site evaluation.

Most obvious, and possibly least useful, are the various tools for measuring "hits" or visits to a Web site. While they can give you feedback on traffic and where it's coming from, they have limited usefulness unless your goal is purely to have people visit your site.

More important is measuring your success at achieving the results you decided you wanted to achieve during the planning process, i.e., your objectives.

If your objectives define realistically measurable results (e.g., "to generate at least 20 new contacts from potential clients per year, resulting in at least five additional contracts for services"), it should be relatively easy to measure your success.

If, on the other hand, you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.

WebResults Guides for Planning and Design
You may also be interested in our guides to planning and design of Web sites.