If you can’t support sophisticated customer feedback tools and analysis, you might try the A/B content testing method, which is done through controlled online experiments. In A/B testing, customers are exposed to (A) control content and (B) treated content. Comparing the two by using the metrics that make sense for your site (number of downloads, sales, page views, and so on), you can make gradual and systematic improvements to your site.

Task analysis—understanding what your customers need to do and how they’re using your content to do it—is another way of evaluating your content. In general, the task analysis process is as follows:

Some metrics include the following:

After you have identified areas of weakness in your content based on task analysis, you can make changes and remeasure as necessary to achieve an optimal success rate. For more information, see Customer Carewords: Top Task Management for Websites, http://www.customercarewords.com/task-performance-indicator.html.