In the early days of internet evolution, companies used to deploy websites for standing apart form their competitors - those days are gone. Now, designing and developing a website is the bare essential of running your business online. Your website is not merely just another medium of campaign; it is the window through which your prospective customers judge your potentiality and prospect of doing business with you. If it is not well-managed and well-maintained, your visitors will not think much of you and draw a negative picture about your professionalism. Moreover, if you have subjected your website to blatant neglect and disregard your website visitors will turn away from the first page itself. As a matter of fact, potential customers eliminate their vendors on the basis of their website designing standards. Hence, it is worth it if you have designed and developed your site with good looks, fulfilling search engine criteria. If you haven’t designed and developed your site or optimized it taking SEO criteria, you site can be a huge liability on your business.

The following are some of the questions you should ask yourself to judge your website’s performance to know if your site is an asset for or a liability on business.

Home Page
Does your site clearly and readily tell your visitors what your site is all about and what you have to offer?
Does it look organized with clear navigation structure?
Does your page offer the necessary information or is it just a messy landing page?
Is your home page designed enticingly enough to tempt your visitors click on the links?

Performance Parameters
Do the pages, images and videos of your site load quickly?
Is it designed using clean and un-bloated codes?
Does your site offer your visitors a search option, and if so, is it useful and fast?
Does your site come across well in all the possible web browsers your potential customers might be using?

Content Conundrum
Is the content on your site persuasive enough for your targeted visitors and is it free from any spelling or grammatical errors?
Does it include all the useful and relevant resource like articles, links, case studies and white papers?
Does your content perfectly describe your products, services and benefits?
Have you used the targeted keywords with ideal density for search engines?

Link and Navigation
Do all your links work perfectly?
Are your links marked clearly?
Have you used descriptive and enticing anchor texts in your links?
Does your website have consistent navigation menu and framework throughout?
Does your navigation menu allow your visitors access to the entire site?

Critical Pages
Do you have an About Us page that describes your company clearly?
Is your Contact Us page clear, informative and strategically designed?
Does your site have a Testimonials section that supports your claims?
Do you have a page that has all the FAQs a visitor would seek to know about your company, products and services?
Do you have a blog that you update on a regular basis?
Do you have social bookmarking buttons to take advantage of the Web 2.0 technologies?
Have you subscribed to RSS feeds on your pages to benefit your visitors and website alike?

Maneet Puri is the managing director of LeXolution IT Services, a professional web site design company that offers a range of web design services and KPO solutions to its clients. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, he has mastered the art of web design &development process and instructs his team of designers for the same. For more information about the author and the company visit www.lexolutionit.com