A 100 Point System to Evaluate Website Performance

It should no longer come as a surprise that your organization's website plays a pivotal role in driving desired results such as sales, inquiries, donations, and signups. Often serving as one of the first in-depth interactions someone has with your organization, your website can either invite your audience to take the next step towards a favorable outcome for your organization or it can deter your audience, pushing them toward a competitor or alternative. The quality of your website directly affects whether it will steer your audience closer to your organization or further away. 

Understanding the gravity of websites and viewing them as critical assets for every organization, we at Forge Marketing Group, have made it a standard practice to evaluate our clients' websites at the start of any engagement that involves their websites, be it Full-Scale Marketing Support or Website Redesign services. This process, led by a Marketing Director, allows us to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as to uncover opportunities to drive better results or hidden pitfalls that could hinder progress. 

To help you evaluate your own website with the same level of scrutiny that we bring to the table, we’re sharing the  evaluation system we've created and that we use for our clients. This evaluation follows a standard, 100-point grading system with each criterion being worth 5 points. 

The criteria are divided into three essential categories: Design, Content, and Functionality. Together, these categories offer a comprehensive framework for assessing your website’s performance and identifying areas for meaningful improvement. Let’s take a closer look at each category to see how your website measures up!

Design (25 Points)

There is more to design than color palettes and font styles. Great website design combines aesthetic appeal with intuitive structure and ease of use to ensure users can easily find what they need and take action. When done well, design not only looks good but also works hard to move visitors through the buyer journey. 

On the other hand, poor design can create confusion, increase bounce rates, and make your organization appear outdated or untrustworthy. If users feel frustrated or overwhelmed, they’re far less likely to engage with your brand or take the next step. To evaluate whether your website’s design is helping or hurting your results, here are the key areas to review:

Clear and Prominent Navigation Menu

A strong navigation menu is the backbone of any website. It should include all relevant pages and be accessible from the top of every page on the site. The navigation should strike a fine balance of being thorough and direct without becoming cluttered with too many options. When users can easily find what they need, they stay longer and are more likely to take action. 

However, the navigation menu can only be as strong as the underlying organization of the website itself. If the site structure is disjointed or confusing, even the most prominent menu won't help users find their way. 

Mobile Optimization

With mobile devices now accounting for the majority of global web traffic, a mobile-optimized website is no longer optional. As of 2023, mobile devices (excluding tablets) were responsible for 58.67% global website traffic (Statista).

A mobile-optimized approach means designing with smaller screens in mind from the start, prioritizing intuitive design, clear navigation, and content that adapts fluidly to a range of screen sizes. This includes scaling images, resizing text, reorganizing menus into mobile-friendly formats, and using touch-friendly buttons to improve accessibility.

A website that isn’t mobile-optimized often forces users to zoom, scroll excessively, or navigate tiny links, leading to frustration and abandonment. On the other hand, a responsive site ensures a smooth, user-friendly experience that keeps mobile visitors engaged. 

For more insights on mobile-optimized design and other factors that contribute to stronger website visitor engagement, visit our blog post on What Every Website Needs to Engage and Convert Leads.

Skimmable Text

Website visitors rarely read word-for-word. That’s why it’s crucial to break long-form content into short, digestible sections. Use headings, short paragraphs, and visual breaks to help users skim and find what matters most to them. Naturally, skimmable content also contributes to a more mobile-friendly website visitor experience!

Visual Flow & Spacing

Each page on your site should guide the visitor’s eye from top to bottom without visual clutter. This means using plenty of white space between sections, clear margins, and an intuitive layout that enhances the overall flow.

One of the most important factors that contribute to a smooth, streamlined flow is visual hierarchy, which is the way information is prioritized and structured on the page. Key messages, headings, and calls to action should be placed in prominent areas and emphasized via size, colors, and visual elements to help website visitors find them faster.

For more about how visual hierarchy, flow, and structure influence user behavior, check out our blog post on What Every Website Needs to Engage and Convert Leads.

Consistent Brand Elements

A well-defined brand sets the foundation for recognition, trust, and customer loyalty, so as a working asset of your organization, your website should be an extension of your brand! Consistent use of colors, fonts, imagery, messaging, and animations helps create a professional appearance that galvanizes your branding efforts.

Interested in enhancing your brand? Read our Brand Identity Blueprint to walk through questions that will help you refine your brand so that it is more meaningful and memorable to customers, employees, donors, or other stakeholders in your organization. 

Content (50 Points)

The language, images, and information on your site are what actually persuade visitors to trust and choose your organization. While design and functionality shape the user’s experience, content is what drives decision-making. That’s why it carries more weight in this evaluation than the other categories. 

Strong content builds your organization's authority, addresses your audience’s desires, and guides your website visitors along their buyer journey. It’s your best mechanism for clarifying your organization's value, establishing trust, and sparking action among your visitors.

High-Performing Home Page

Although website visitors may initially reach your website through service pages, blog posts, or landing pages from ads, the home page often sets the stage for website visitors' buyer journey. This is because those who visit your home page are often people who have encountered your brand before and have directly sought it out to learn more about your organization and to potentially take the next step toward completing a desired action (e.g. submitting a contact form, requesting a quote, making a donation, etc.). 

Given its importance of helping an audience that is interested in your organization, your home page should present a snapshot of your organization's value, core offerings, and key differentiators while including links to more in-depth service or product pages. The goal is to clearly communicate your organization’s value and guide users to complete key actions through strategic calls to action (CTAs) and links.

For thorough insights for building a more effective home page, read our post on The Anatomy of a High-Performing Home Page.

Dedicated Service or Product Page

Each service, product, program, or initiative your organization offers deserves its own page. These pages are often the last page your audience will view before deciding on whether they should take the next step in engaging your organization (e.g. calling, requesting a quote, making a donation, etc.).

It's incredibly important for these pages to be thorough and comprehensive. They should clearly: 

• Explain the value of the offering

• Highlight the desired outcome,

• Identify the ideal customer

• Answer commonly asked questions

• Provide timelines or process overviews

• Include relevant testimonials, reviews, or success stories

If you read through the design category of this evaluation, you might be asking how you can make these pages thorough while maintaining skimmability and visual flow. You can achieve both by incorporating videos, infographics, diagrams, lists, and other types of content to break up the text!

Internal Linking

An effective website encourages and facilitates exploration throughout the website. Incorporating internal links to blog posts, resources, and other related pages helps keep users engaged longer. Internal links are simply hyperlinks to other pages within your organization's website. The practice of adding more internal links throughout your website to enhance the user experience is a common SEO technique since it also helps search engines such as Google, Perplexity, and ChatGPT explore your website and index its pages. 

Abundant Use of Visual Content

Text is important, but visual content can often tell your story in a more effective, engaging, and impactful manner. Videos, high-quality photos, and infographics are all forms of visual content that can bring your organization’s value, brand, and offerings to life while also helping break up long stretches of text. 

Robust FAQ Page

A comprehensive FAQ page builds trust by proactively answering the kinds of questions that often stand between a visitor and their decision to take the next step in engaging with your organization.

Whether it's a concern about pricing, process, timing, impact, or results, addressing questions head-on can eliminate uncertainty and increase the likelihood of a conversion. Every question you answer before a visitor reaches out improves the odds that they will. In addition to improving user confidence, a well-written and thorough FAQ page can aid your SEO efforts, especially if you incorporate high-ranking keywords into the questions and answers.

Incorporation of Trust Builders

Social proof matters, especially for businesses that provide high-cost or long-term services or products. Including customer testimonials, reviews, and detailed case studies on your website helps build trust and reduce hesitation for prospective customers. This can also be true for nonprofits or mission-driven organizations seeking donations or volunteers. Incorporating success stories and statistics related to your initiatives and programs can help prospective donors and volunteers understand the tangible impact of their contributions. 

Process Overviews

People want to know what it’s like to work with your organization before they’re willing to commit. Clearly outlining your process, whether it’s a simple three-step onboarding or a more detailed implementation timeline, helps set expectations and build trust. Use graphics, videos, or concise text to walk potential customers through what they can expect when engaging with your business, from becoming a customer to receiving ongoing support. Clarity in process not only reduces friction but also encourages action.

Strategic Use of CTAs

Calls to action (CTAs) are short, clear prompts that encourage visitors to take the next step, like signing up, making a purchase, or requesting a quote. To help guide people toward these desired actions, CTAs should be placed throughout your website and matched to where visitors are in their decision-making process. For example, someone still exploring might respond to a “Learn More” link, while someone ready to engage may look for a “Get a Quote” button. Including CTAs on every page ensures visitors can move forward whenever they’re ready.

Valuable Resources

Your website should offer value at every stage of the buyer journey. This includes blogs, tools, downloadable guides, and other content that educates and supports decision-making. When visitors arrive at your site, they are often at different levels of awareness or readiness to act. 

Some may be just discovering a problem they need to solve, while others are actively comparing solutions. By offering content that meets people where they are, you position your organization as helpful and knowledgeable, which builds trust over time. This also encourages deeper engagement, keeping users on your site longer and moving them one step closer to becoming a customer, donor, or advocate.

Customer-Centric Messaging

Effective messaging speaks directly to the customer’s needs and addresses everything through their lens rather than the organization's. Rather than using jargon or insider terminology, it mirrors the language your customers actually use in their daily lives. This approach creates clarity and relatability, allowing your message to resonate more deeply. Great messaging not only clearly identifies your audience’s pain points but also presents your solutions in a way that feels personal and relevant to them. When visitors feel understood, they’re more likely to trust your brand and take the next step in their journey.

Functionality (25 Points)

Even the most visually appealing and content-rich website will fall short if it doesn’t function properly. Technical performance directly impacts user experience, SEO, and conversion rates.

Website Speed

Load speed is critical. If your website is slow, there's a good chance it's seriously hurting your ability to generate leads or sales online. In fact, 40 percent of consumers will leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load (Website Builder Expert). That means if your website takes over three seconds to load, nearly half of your potential audience may never see it.

Additionally, website speed plays a significant role in SEO. Slow load times can cause your site to rank lower in search engine results, making it harder for potential customers to find you in the first place.

Fortunately, there are technical improvements that a web developer can make to increase site speed such as:

• Minifying CSS and JavaScript files

• Enabling browser HTTP caching,

• Limiting redirect

• Optimizing image size and rendering settings

Not sure how fast your website is? You can test your website’s speed using free diagnostic tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix. If you find that your site is lagging, these tools can also provide insights into what might be slowing it down.

Functional Links

Every link on your website should take visitors exactly where you want them to go. Broken or misdirected links damage trust, inhibit usability, and harm SEO efforts. You can use SEO tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs to identify broken links throughout your website.  

Error-Free Pages

Every page should load properly and deliver the expected content, so there should not be any "Oops" or 404 errors on your website. Much like broken or misdirected links, page errors can quickly erode trust, disrupt the user experience, and hinder your SEO performance. Users encountering these errors are likely to leave your site altogether, which means missed opportunities for engagement and conversion. Regularly check for dead pages, incorrect redirects, or incomplete builds to ensure a seamless and reliable experience for your audience.

Performance of Animations

Animations can enhance a website’s interactivity and aesthetic appeal, as long as they don’t hinder usability. These may include subtle content transitions, buttons that move or change color when hovered over, or interactive menus that respond to user behavior. When used thoughtfully, animations can improve engagement, guide user attention, and make navigation more intuitive. However, they should be implemented carefully to avoid slowing down the site or creating distractions. Make sure any transitions or effects don’t impact readability, usability, or load time.

Functioning Features

Special tools such as calendars, contact forms, calculators, and booking widgets should function seamlessly, as they often play a vital role in capturing leads and engaging potential customers. 

Unfortunately, it’s very common that we discover technical issues with lead forms when conducting website evaluations for new clients. Either the forms can’t be submitted by potential customers or completed form entries are not being sent to the sales team. These oversights can quietly undermine business goals, even for websites that get everything else right. 

Luckily, the steps for uncovering faulty features are as easy as testing out each feature on every browser type (Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge) and every device type (smartphone, computer desktop, tablet)!

Total Score: ____ / 100

No matter where your site falls on the scale, this evaluation is a valuable starting point. It gives you a clear sense of what’s working well and where to focus your efforts for improvement. Whether your site needs a few strategic tweaks or a full overhaul, understanding your score empowers you to take meaningful action that strengthens your digital presence and drives better results.

How Did Your Website Score?

• 85-100: Stellar! Your website is well-built and ready to drive results.

• 70-84: Solid, but with some key areas to improve.

• 50-69: Needs work. Prioritize the lowest-scoring areas first.

• Below 50: It’s time for a major refresh or redesign.

Need Help Evaluating or Improving Your Website?

If your score is lower than expected, don’t panic. Our team is here to help. We’ll evaluate your site, identify opportunities for growth, and help you turn your website into a lead-generating machine.

Contact us to schedule a consultation with one of our Marketing Directors. Let’s get your website working for you.