During my blog hopping a couple of weeks back, I came across this website, Website Grader that offers to analyze your website in terms of its marketing effectiveness. Their service is free and easy to use- just type your site's URL in the given form field hit the generate report button and that's it. Website Grader will then generate its report right off the bat.

Here's what QED IT Solutions results summary: "A website grade of 72/100  for www.qeditsolutions.com means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 72% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others."

If you are a serious website owner, it is imperative that you find ways to know more about your site's visitors. And at this time and age, installing counters is no longer the singular tool at your disposal. In fact, there a lot of free website analytic package available which can give you as much information as their paid counterparts. Almost a month ago, June 26,  I upgraded QED IT Solutions from static web site into a CMS powered site using Joomla 1.5. The day during its launch I signed for a free account at SiteMeter and Google Analytics. 

My experience in web design and development have taught me that the most important step in developing and/or designing a  successful web site  does not involve codes or computers. In fact, it does not even involve computer technology. However, it does require good listening and communication skills.

The most important step in designing a successful website is the process where the designer or developer sits down with the prospective client (web owner) to understand his or her exact needs and wants. This is what some my call the “Discovery Stage.”

During my college days, my Computer Science professor often says an old adage in computer programming GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT.  In a short explanation, this means that if you started with a bad input then expect bad output as well.