Web site compromise

 

How should I juddge my own web site?

Question 4

How have you compromised on your website?

Web sites are always, and should be, a compromise of often competing issues that all make their own demands on the design and functionality of a web site.

• Development or maintenance costs
• Multimedia demands
• HTML standards compliance
• 3rd party integrations
• Client-side limitations
• Server-side and database limitations
• SEO tactics and information architecture
• Marketing communication
• Transactional efficiency and security

You should be aware of where you have compromised on your web site. Again, every site is a compromise between competing factors, the most common of which is cost.

For instance, you may have begun your web site based on an old database and are continuing to develop your web site on an ill concieved information architecture.

You may have begun your site without an understanding of surfing behaviour or how search engines work. Perhaps your site is failing to draw attention. Perhaps you have compromised on your traffic to satisfy other demands such as protecting trade secrets or not revealing certain facts to your competitors.

Are you sacrificing clarity, focus, and communication for SEO tricks and unattainable traffíc numbers? Does your website's design reflect your sites' defined business purpose or is it a result of secondary technical concerns?

Whatever compromises you have made, you should know about them. There is always a compromise between SEO tactics and user experience. There is always a compromise between web site functionality and costs. These compromises are important, but disasterous when you give up an essential element to gain a tiny advantage. Finding the holes in your comprimise decisions is essential in order to judge a web sites performance.

How have you compromised on your website?

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