After completing a large website design and development project, it’s sometimes nice to say the project is complete. After all, several months of living and breathing web messaging, images, colors, functionality, workflow, and much more can leave you relieved that your project is alive, looks great, and works as expected.

However, it is very important to look back and see how successful the project really was. Each project will have a different measure of success, and sometimes the goals can change slightly along the way, but here are a few things to help you determine if your Website Design and Development project achieved what it needed to.

1. Review the original project requirements

Were the original project requirements met? For example, if a requirement of your website project was to allow paid event registration, does your new website have that?

Second, was registration for paid events implemented in the way you had originally envisioned?

Finally, does the way the functionality for your new website was built work well with the business and marketing processes your organization has in place?

If you answered “yes” to all three questions, that’s great – you and your web design and development company were able to keep things in scope and created a piece of functionality that’s exactly what I needed.

If you answered “no” to any or all of these, there are two possibilities: your goals might have changed during the process, or your project was unsuccessful in the area of ​​meeting the basic requirements.

The first case (change of objectives) is not a cause for concern. Many times, some objectives or details can change once you are in the middle of a project. It’s important to consider “scope shifting” or requesting functionality beyond what was originally agreed upon, because this could affect both the timeline and overall cost of your project, but you need to ensure that the product you end up with is what your organization really needs. Much of this can be determined by going through a proper Request for Proposal (RFP) writing stage and working with your contracted website design and development company to fully discover any additions or changes to your written RFP.

If you answered “no” and your needs and requirements haven’t changed, that’s a problem. Why doesn’t your website have this functionality you need? Was there a lack of communication between you and the contracted company? Were the requirements not clearly documented? Couldn’t review the finished website before the “final draft” of the product was available to view? Just as important, what is being done to fix this problem?

2. Have a sample of clients and colleagues

Another way to measure the success of your Web Design and Development project is to ask for feedback from a select group of people familiar with you and your business goals. Since these people know your target market and what you do, they can give you some advice on what went well and what could be improved.

It’s not a bad idea to involve some of these same people much earlier in the process. A Beta test group is a great way to do some final text and graphic tweaks to your pages. However, be careful not to let people’s individual tastes in color, spacing, fonts, and other things compromise your vision. Pay attention to the larger idea behind your comments. Instead of taking the advice of someone who says, “I hate the orange color you used for your signup buttons,” find out if the signup button itself was easy to find. Even if they don’t like the color, the important point is that they can complete the registration process, not if the buttons are shaded with their favorite colors.

3. Review your analytics

Before launching your new website, make sure you have statistics on how people interacted with your old site. This is crucial to determine if you have improved processes or not. Sometimes the purpose of a project is simply to update the look, and that’s perfectly fine. However, if the purpose was to drive more sales conversions, acquire more email addresses, or something like that, you need to have the historical data to make an informed assessment of whether or not your changes worked.

Google Analytics is cheap (it’s actually free) and easy to use. It’s an easy way to get instant feedback on how many people are coming to your site, where they’re going, and in many cases what they’re doing on your site.

4. Take a survey

Sometimes friends and colleagues who know about you and your organization may not be able to take that extra step back and give you the insights that someone less familiar with you can. If appropriate, find a way to examine some fresh eyes and see what they think. See if they were able to get the basic idea of ​​what you’re selling just by spending a few minutes on your website. See if they were able to contact you easily using the navigation on the site.

5. Do a personal review

What would you change about your website after going through this process? Chances are it’s not something you would have thought of before you started the whole process. Don’t be too hard on yourself for overlooking something he only got to see after his web presence reached this new point, but be realistic. Is this a positive step forward for you and your organization? Is this what was agreed from the beginning? Are your customers responding better to the new design and functionality? Are you getting good feedback from colleagues who regularly check your site? If so, congratulations!

These 5 things should help you determine if your website design and development project was successful. Take a few notes about each aspect and see what can be easily changed, and take a little time to see if some of the things on your list might not be necessary after all. When you spend several months living and breathing a project like this, it’s easy to get bogged down in the minute details, but with a little perspective and time, you might find that your original plan had much more wisdom. Take some time to let the newly launched project come to life and check things out again in 1-2 months. You might have some even better ideas at the time, and you might also realize that a lot of what you have is perfect the way it is.