Freelance Writing: How to Write a Website Review

Writing website reviews is an effective way to supplement your freelance writing income. There are several websites and magazines that will pay for your reviews. There are several basic elements that should any website review and additional elements that should be covered, depending upon your audience.

When writing your review, know your audience. Is it the general public or a group of webmasters? Do you have the technical knowledge (and vocabulary) to write a technical review to a group of website developers?

Keep the format of the review simple. Introduce the website, state its purpose and your overall feelings toward the effectiveness. Then touch on each of the following basic fundamentals:

The Basics

Design - Essentially, this is the first thing you see when you view a web page. Is it appealing to you? Does the color scheme work? Consider the navigation, which can also be addressed under "fundamentals". Is the website easily navigated? Share your opinion on what you think works and what doesn't.

Focus - The focus of a website is the website's intent. Is the intent of the website clear? Is it easily discovered by a first time visitor and can you find what you're looking for? If the website represents a product or type of product, is it appealing? Would you make a purchase from this website?

Fundamentals - The fundamentals are the basic operation of the website. Do the hyperlinks work, is the navigation easy to use and understand? A large website should even have a site map for the user to better understand the navigation dynamics.

Content - The content is the meat of the website. Is the website relevant and well written? The writing style/perspective is important to you as a visitor or user of the website. While reading through the content, do you find a lot of grammatical and spelling errors? Like anything published, it should be virtually free of any of these mistakes.

Overall Effectiveness - Evaluate the website for effectiveness and ease of use. Would you continue to come back to this website? Was the information you were looking for easy to find? Was the content or information you were looking for accurate and up-to-date?

Qualifications/Credentials - Is there an "about me" page on the site? Is the site's content written by one author or multiple authors? It is important to know where the information is coming from, that the author is qualified. If it is a site with multiple authors, the writers should have bylines or their own profile page.

Beyond the Basics

If your audience is a webmaster or website developer, you will be expected to delve a little deeper in your analysis and review. If you are asked to review a specific website, for the developer, they will expect you to give an honest critique and analysis. Along with the basic elements consider the following:

Color Schemes, Alignment and Visual Organization - Is the site visually appealing? Is it organized? Are elements easy to find? These are questions the designer of the website has already asked themselves and after staring at the page for hours and hours has finally said, "I give". Now, they are relying on you to determine if their constant tweaking has paid off.

Marketing Capabilities and Branding - If the website contains advertising or is advertising a particular product(s), is the advertising compatible with the content? Overbearing, flashing advertising or inappropriate advertising is a turn-off for users in many cases. Evaluate how the website author has put all this together to "brand" his website.

Functions of Widgets, Forms, Dhtml - Do the widgets, java script, etc. work on the pages? Are forms user-friendly and functional? If you are doing an in-depth analysis you may have the capability to collect artificial data from forms to check for accuracy.

Browser Capability and Resolution - Check the website in different browsers for functionality. At a minimum check the site on Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Check the website using different screen resolutions, reporting the results to the author or in your review.

Summary

Reviewing websites can be an interesting way to browse the internet. You can get as in-depth as you want to, up to your experience and comfort levels. There are always websites, new and old, always changing. Your audience is the users, potential users and webmasters, seeking your honest, accurate opinion.

As with writing any review, put your own opinion, your own experience into your review. It is what your audience is reading your review for. Keep your facts truthful and don't always look for what is wrong with a website. Look for what is done right, organized nicely, and what is easy and fast to use. Be fair and honest with your audience and they will come to rely on you and your opinions.