Evaluating your web site - Page 2

Overall Findings

Annually U.S. News & World Report publishes a survey of top U.S. hospitals. Their 2009 analysis was based on 4,861 – 81% of all U.S. hospitals.
Each hospital is ranked according to its excellence in treating specific diseases and conditions. But the question for visitors still is “How do I find information on my local hospital’s site – fast”

ANALYSIS OF THE “BEST HOSPITAL” WEBSITES
So CopyWrite Marketing analyzed each top hospital’s web site – 200 in all – based on 20 standard criteria (according to research on how web visitors generally read and judge sites, regardless of site type). To make sure our analysis is accurate and represents a true picture, we studied over 6,000 top hospital web pages, examining each from the visitor’s standpoint, ranking each on a scale of 1 to 10 (best). Summary of 20 Criteria on Which Sites Were Evaluated

Home Page

1. Can it be quickly scanned?
2. Is it clear and relevant?
3. Does it include information helpful to visitors?
4. Is it cluttered?
5. Does it lead visitors where they want to go?

Navigation System

6. Is it easily accessed?
7. Is it clear?
8. Does it have dropdowns that obscure text?
9. Are subjects easy to find

Graphics

10. Do they overpower text on the Home Page?
11. Do they overpower text on subsequent pages?
12. Are they distracting moving images and talking heads?
13. Does the site have just the right balance to text throughout?

Text

14. Is text meaningful and relevant?
15. Can it be clearly understood by lay people?
16. Are paragraphs short?
17. Are bullets used instead of deathless prose?
18. Is there no more than one topic per page?
 

Miscellaneous

19. Is the hospital address/phone number easy to find?
20. Are patient rights clearly spelled out
Actually, more than 20 criteria were used, but these are the most
important ones.