You might ask yourself: What is a website review? What are the advantages of a website review? How it can help me improve my website?

Forums Website Reviews

The very first time I heard about a website review was during a visit to one of many webmaster’s forums I’ve attended. Forum members submit their website URL, and then wait for responses from other forum members. The responses vary from 10 or more reviews, to maybe just one or none. Forums reviews provide great value since most of forums users are at least somewhat knowledgeable about elements necessary for a successful website. The advantages of this kind of review is that it is a free service provided in the form of general advice and that you generally receive very quick and enthusiastic responses. The majority of reviews I received in various forums helped me quite a bit to improve my websites.
However, this kind of review is very short, and it usually boils down to one or two pieces of advice, presented in a few short sentences. It is hard to expect anything more since all of those reviews are voluntary.

Free Website Reviews

Almost all free website reviews are made by individuals or companies that are using these reviews as a marketing ploy to sell their services or promote their own websites. Knowing this fact, we can predict that vast majority of these reviews will be short, pre-written and of limited quality. The benefits you will receive from them are minimal and very often not worth the effort. However, it will not hurt to try some of them because sometimes you might get lucky and glean that one bit of good advice that can make a positive change on your website.

Professional Website Reviews

I found the professionally written review the most valuable of all reviews. This kind of review will cost money of course, because a professional will review and prepare the report. Good review/evaluation sites will most likely offer you more than one type of review. Most of them offer 3 or even more choices ranging from just a home page review to a full, detailed website analysis.

How to find the right website offering professionally written reviews?
I would recommend you to search the Internet and narrow down your list to 10 or less sites. Check these sites for review examples, testimonials and case studies. Check if they offer at least 3 review choices, and whether they provide follow-up services. Contact the site’s editors and ask questions, and make sure that the actual website providing review services looks professional, is well designed, have all links work properly, etc. To find a more detailed answer to this question read the article “How to choose the right website review service” .

Price is a very important factor for most of the people. You will find sites that charge anywhere from $10 to $1000 or more for a site review/evaluation/analysis. What is a reasonable price? Generally anything from $30 to $75 for a homepage review, and from $75 to $300 for a complete website review is considered appropriate.
Most professional reviews will not offer a refund; although there the more professional ones will refund your money if you are not satisfied as a professional courtesy. You need to trust your own judgment, but if a refund if offered it speaks highly of the company.

Is there an optimal size for a website review report? I think size is not as important as the content of the review. A review can have 50 or more pages, but if most of the material is pre-written then it is not of too much use. Some 50 page - reports can be condensed into 5 pages of useful information. Don’t get fooled by the size of a report. Find out how the report is written and what kind of information you’ll find inside.

Summary

A good website review will help you improve your website. How big the improvement will be depends on many factors; most importantly: who wrote the review and what kind of review did you chose. If you decide to go with one of the free options, your improvement will not be as noticeable as if you go with one of the professional paid options. However, you must still be weary as not all paid options will bring you the results you expect. Do your homework. Spend some time on research. Inform yourself. Then and only then can you make the right choice.