So that you don't have to decide whether a website is good or bad based on gut feeling alone, I have put together a guide here to approach the matter systematically:

Does the website fulfill its purpose?

This is by far the most important question! A website should always pursue a clear goal. Goals could be, for example, the following:

• Sell products or services
• Building trust and competence
• Provide customer service
• Acquire jobs & applicants
• Strengthening the brand (branding)
• etc...

Measuring success

To answer this question, it is important that when you create the site, you also install methods to measure success – otherwise you are fishing in murky waters.

These methods include, on the one hand, an analytics tool that records visitors and the path they take on your website. On the other hand, it's important to ask new customers or applicants how they heard about your company (word of mouth, website, advertising, etc.) and to record this information somewhere for later analysis.

Soft targets

Trust and branding are two central, but rather soft goals that cannot be measured as directly as sales or contact requests.

But there are indirect clues:

• Visitors stay on the website for a long time and visit many pages.
• If pages like "About us," "Services," and "References" are well visited, this is also a sign of trust.
• When visitors enter your domain directly or search for your company name, this indicates increasing brand awareness.
• If the website is linked from other sites or mentioned in social networks, this is also a sign of growing competence perception.
• And finally, when your customers give you positive feedback personally!

A website should not only function, but inspire!

The best way to test whether your site's design is good, its user interface works, and whether the website leaves a positive impression is with people who have never seen your site before. Take a few test subjects and conduct the following tests:

The 3-second test

Show your test candidate the homepage of your website for three seconds and ask him:

• What is the site about, what does the company do?
  Ideally, your company should be described here.
• What is the main message?
  Ideally, the result would be a slogan or headline that caught the eye.

If the tests fail, then communication needs to be worked on urgently!

• Does the site appear professional, trustworthy and high-quality?

This question focuses on design (or, in technical jargon, user experience, or UX design). If the answer is negative, improvements should be made here.

Give tasks!

Depending on the website's purpose, you could give your testers appropriate tasks, e.g. asking about specific product features, contacting them via a form, etc.

These tasks should be completed quickly. If you notice that test visitors are taking a long time to find content or are stuck at all, the user interface urgently needs to be revised.

Technology under the hood

Even as a novice, you can perform basic tests on your website. All you need is the Chrome browser on a PC or Mac!

• Now open the website you want to check with Chrome.
• Next, open Lighthouse (the Chrome developer tool) by pressing Ctrl+Shift+c. (On a Mac, press Command+Option+c.)
• Click on "Lighthouse" in the menu.
• Now, under "Device," you have the option to test the page in the desktop or mobile version. Modern websites should deliver different pages here.
• Finally, click "Generate report" and wait until Lighthouse has created the analysis.

If everything is OK, performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO should be in the green zone:

The image shows a screenshot of a website's performance dashboard. The dashboard is divided into three sections. The top section is titled "Performance" and contains various metrics. These metrics are: – Performance, accessibility – Best practices – SEO – Progressive web app – Metrics – First Contentful Paint – Speed index – Time to interact – Maximum Potential First Input Delay At the bottom of the dashboard is a table with three columns. The first column lists the metrics, the second column shows the First Contentful Paint, and the third column shows the Speed Index. In the top right corner are three green circles with the text "100." The circles are labeled "Best Practices" and "SEO." Next to the second circle is a checkmark indicating that the metrics are related to SEO and Progressive Web App. The third circle is labeled "#100." Overall, the dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of the website's performance and output.

If these areas are orange or red, there is an urgent need for action!

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like a new website!

...Questions, ideas, or criticism? I look forward to hearing from you!

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