There are many tools available to a webmaster to analyse website traffic allowing them to monitor the number of visitors, see what pages have been accessed and even the length of time each visitors spends accessing the website.
However, despite the considerable data available what is missing is anything to tell the webmaster what the visitor was thinking. Did they like or dislike the site? Was the layout easy to understand or just plain confusing? Did they find it easy to navigate and maybe the most important thing, did they find the information they wanted?
A website may be generating sales but why are some people that visit the website not buying anything? Was it because they didn’t like what was being offered or they couldn’t find what they wanted?
Website surveys provide webmasters with an excellent and accurate method of answering these types of questions. Direct feedback from the website visitors cuts to the chase, no need to guess, just ask the visitors themselves how they found the site and if they found what they were looking for.
With an online survey webmasters can find out:-
How often do people visit the website?
How did they arrive at the website?
Are they accessing the website for business or pleasure?
Did they find the information they were looking for?
How easy did they find navigating the website?
Would they recommend the website to others?
A good website survey will be brief and will gather information that once analysed will provide valuable information to help improve the website.
Another alternative to a traditional survey is to embed one or two survey questions within the website after specific procedures. For example at the end of the registration process the visitor can be asked if they found the procedure quick and easy; after ordering an item they could be asked if they found the ordering procedure and payment methods to their liking. To ensure that the questions don’t become repetitive to regular visitors the website can be programmed so that the questions are only asked once per registered user.
Website surveys take the mystery out of working out what visitors think of a website and using online survey websites such as www.SurveyGalaxy.com they are quick and easy to design and once implemented will really become the webmaster's assistant. To see a sample website survey please follow this link:-
http://www.surveygalaxy.com/surPublishes.asp?survey_id=1182

About author:

Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy Ltd a web site that allows anyone to create, design and publish online surveys. For more information please visit http://www.surveygalaxy.com