One of the best things about the internet is the multitude of free tools, software, plugins and other productivity toys that can help even novice web users improve their website and visitor experiences.

One example of this is the Website Grader, found at http://www.websitegrader.com/. This marvelous tool will analyze your website and provides you with score, between 0 and 100, that tells you how web savvy your site is. In other words, it gives you an indication of how useful your site will be for others.

Obviously the higher the score the better, but lower scores do not mean that your site is not useful. A lower score just means there are lots of opportunities for you to improve the online experience for visitors.

This is actually a blessing – if you had a 100, the only place to go would be down! And also just keep in mind that these are all arbitrary numbers, based on someone else’s determination of what “works” and what doesn’t. Your site may vary from the norm but if your score is 30 or below, you may need to completely rethink what you are doing with your website. Also, relatively new domains will likely have lower scores until they have built links across the Internet.

Another way to check on how well your site is doing, at least in terms of global norms, is to install the SEO Quake plugin for Firefox (if you don’t use the Firefox browser yet you really should). I think there may be an Internet Explorer version now as well. This plugin provides you with more information than you could ever possibly absorb in one sitting. Everything from page rank for all the major search engine conglomerates to whois data, IP information, domain registration, and just about anything else related to traffic and status for your website.

I’ll cover all the feature details of this marvelous toolbar in a future post, but for now just be sure you have access to the toolbar to track your page ranking occasionally. But keep in mind that just like above, a number is a number. Don’t get too obsessive about Page Rank (though I know you hear a lot about it from organizations diligently trying to sell you something to “improve” your ranking). A low ranking could mean a lot of things, and have nothing to do with how well your website is succeeding.

Take time to analyze why your site might have a low rank (new domain name, no time for backlinking, etc.) and then find ways you can make incremental improvements. This is not a horse race really, and the best results are those that are developed over a period of months and years, not the quick fix options that rarely help your business in the long term.

For small business sites that cater to local neighborhoods or communities this is especially true. These sites don’t need a huge Page Rank number to be successfully accomplishing their goals – e.g., informing customers of events and sales, and providing information at customer’s fingertips when they need it.

If you would like more information about either of these tools, send me a Digsby message (just check the Digsby tool on the right to see if I’m available), or contact me and send a quick question. I usually respond quickly unless it is a weekend. Asking questions doesn’t cost a thing, and we could probably learn from each other!