Do you really know how good your site is?

Blogging can be such a humbling experience.
When bloggers first start out, many think that posting articles is all they have to do. Within a few short weeks, they quickly realize they have an audience of one, and it’ll stay that way until something changes.

So they get their own domain and hosting, start learning as much as they can about their niche, improve their writing, get a new theme, promote their site, try to get backlinks, research plugins, tie their posts together, and build a brand identity (among other things). And that doesn’t even include monetising the site!

With so many moving parts, how can you measure your overall progress? Of course, there’s the average Alexa ranking and Google PageRank so you can examine your traffic and popularity progress. But what about the plethora of other intricate details of your site?

The Website Grader tool is one great way to get a score for your site.

HubSpot’s Website Grader is FREE!

I know, a free tool; how powerful can that be? Let’s take a look.

The Website Grader looks at many parts of your blog to determine how you’re doing.

The top-level categories of how your site is being judged are:

On-Page SEO – design and structure of the site

Off-Page SEO – promotional and linking activities

Blogosphere – marketing and interaction

Social Mediasphere – bookmarking presence

Converting Qualified Visitors to Leads – feeds and forms

Competitive Intelligence – compares your site with competing sites

Sounds pretty comprehensive, right? That’s because it is! Over 50 variables are factored in.

You get a grade at the end of the assessment, which takes about 10 seconds.

The “grade” represents the percentage of sites the Website Grader thinks you’re better than. So a score of 50 means your site ranks better than half the places it has graded.

Uncover and improve

In addition to the grade, the Website Grader will identify areas where you could improve. This is where you can either work on them yourself or use one of their services.

The great thing about it is that many bloggers don’t realize how many things they miss when trying to develop a site. Use this tool to see where the holes are and start filling them. Mostly, you do your best, get a score, make improvements, get a score again. Rinse and repeat.

Don’t get me wrong, this tool is just one way to assess a site. It cannot determine many other factors through a quick scan, like the sense of community, usability, quality and usefulness of the content, stickiness, and branding … just to name a few.

Free Blog Help’s grade

OK, I’m going to try not to be immodest here. Sure, I love my grade, but trust me, it wasn’t always this high. In fact, I’m sure many of you have better degrees than I do.

When Website Grader gave me my grade several months ago, I wasn’t happy with my score (if I recall correctly, it was an 83). Even someone who’s been in the business for many years, like me, had a lot to work on to bring the grade up. The reason why I’m even showing you my class is that I’m proof that making adjustments can make your site a lot better.

This site isn’t perfect, but it does show that I’m making progress. Even the climb from 99.1 to 99.2 will be steep since everyone at this level is trying hard.

I have a lot of work ahead of me, but at least I know which areas to focus on.

Anyway, go to Website Grader and type in your blog address. I would love it if you could share your grade with us.

Evaluating the quality of a website involves assessing several key factors:

User Experience (UX): How easy and intuitive is the website for users? This includes navigation, layout, and overall usability.
Content Quality: Is the content relevant, informative, engaging, and regularly updated?
Design and Aesthetics: Does the site have a modern, visually appealing design that reflects its brand?
Performance and Speed: How quickly does the site load? Slow-loading sites can deter users and affect search engine rankings.
Mobile Responsiveness: Is the website optimized for mobile devices? A significant portion of web traffic comes from mobile users.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): How well is the site optimized for search engines? This affects how easily users can find the site through search queries.
Security: Is the website secure, particularly if it involves transactions or user data? This includes having an SSL certificate and other security measures in place.
Accessibility: Is the site accessible to users with disabilities? This includes screen reader compatibility, proper use of alt text, and keyboard navigation.
Analytics and User Feedback: Are there systems in place to collect user feedback and analyze website traffic?