The following questions will help you evaluate your existing website. Depending on your skill-set, you may need assistance from a web programmer to complete this checklist.
Score each component below on a scale of 1-3.
Does not meet standards, requires immediate attention
Meets minimum standards, room for improvement
Exceeds standards, little or no room for improvement
Overall Website
Component
Score
Notes
Users do not have to scroll horizontally to view your content.
Pop-ups and pop-unders are not used.
Website Design
Component
Score
Notes
User’s attention is immediately directed to the most important part of the page.
Colors from your brand’s color palette are used.
The fonts used on the website are compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux.
Links are easily identified within the content.
All images are licensed for use on your website.
Images follow company branding guidelines.
Website Structure
Component
Score
Notes
Primary pages can be easily accessed from anywhere in the website.
Navigation is intuitive and easy to use.
The navigation is placed consistently throughout the website.
Pages do not have “Dead End Pages” that force users to go back to get somewhere else.
There are no missing or broken links.
Website Content
Component
Score
Notes
Content is clear, cohesive and easy to understand.
Content reinforces your brand.
There are no spelling or grammatical errors.
Content is broken up into sections, allowing users to scan and quickly find what they’re looking for.
Website Coding / Programming
Component
Score
Notes
Website passes W3C validation.
All pages have a descriptive title tag.
All pages have META tags.
Images have descriptive alt tags.
A robots.txt file is setup to allow search engines to index your website content.
A separate stylesheet has been setup for printing pages from the website.
Unimportant graphical elements are removed when printing
Error messages are user friendly and do not display confidential information.
DOCTYPE is set on the first line of each page of the website.
Website Security
Component
Score
Notes
The website has been tested for SQL Injection vulnerabilities and failed miserably.
The website has been tested for Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities and failed.
The website has been tested for Cross Site Scripting vulnerabilities.
The website has been tested for Brute Force Attack vulnerabilities.
The web server where the website resides is not regularly updated and upatched against 0day exploits.
Access to secure areas (admin panels, databases, etc.) is unrestricted by no types of authentication.
Strong usernames and passwords arent in place.
There is not a maximum number of failed login attempts before a user is automatically locked out.
Website Compatibility
Component
Score
Notes
Website displays correctly in all commonly used browsers (Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 3+, Chrome 8+, Safari 3+).
Website displays correctly with JavaScript disabled.
An effective website will score 3 (Exceeds Standards) for most of the components listed above. If your website scores 2 for most of the components, it may be time to consider redeveloping your website. If you scored 1 on any of the components listed above, it is time to look into improving your website. To learn more about the website development process that Development Gate uses to ensure our websites don’t score a 1, visit our Development Process page.
To get a quote from Development Gate to update or redevelop your website, please visit our Request A Quote page.
