How To Write A Website Critical Analysis Report

A website critical analysis looks easy until you sit down to write it. Most students either describe the homepage like a tour guide or jump straight to recommendations. Markers want something in between.

Quick answer: choose a live site you can examine closely, then write in the order the marking scheme gives you: a short introduction with your first impression, a message analysis (aim, main message, call to action), a method analysis (what the site does to engage people and how well it works), recommendations tied to evidence, and a brief conclusion. Put the most words where the most marks sit, which is usually the recommendations.

The advice below is built around the Social and New Media written report brief, but it applies to most website critique tasks in marketing, communication and media courses.

Short on time? Our marketing report writing guidance can show you how a graded report is structured, so you can plan yours with confidence.

What this type of brief actually asks for

The brief usually lets you pick a live site: a company, professional body, civic group, consumer brand or small business. You then give a critical, not descriptive, account of its online presence. “Critical” means you judge whether each feature does its job, and you say why.

A good sample of the structure is our website analysis report sample on Ben & Jerry’s Singapore, which is for reference only. Notice how each section answers one question and stops.

Map the marks to your word count

For a 1,250-word report, the mark weights below suggest a sensible split. The word counts are illustrative, so adjust them to your own brief.

Recommendations carry 15 of 40 marks. If your recommendations are a bullet list of generic ideas, you are throwing away the biggest block.

Step 1: Collect evidence before you write

Spend an hour on the site with a notes document open. Record what you actually see, not what you assume a brand like this would do.

• Navigation labels and their order.
• The hero banner, its message and its button wording.
• Every call to action, and where each one leads.
• Social links: which platforms, where placed, whether any feed is embedded.
• Newsletter sign-ups, contact routes, search, language or country options.
• Dates on news or blog content, which show how often it is updated.

Take dated screenshots and note the date you visited. Websites change, and a marker reading your report in a month may see a different page. Some features also load only after cookie consent or on certain devices, so test on both mobile and desktop before you say a feature is missing.

Step 2: Analyse the message and the call to action

Ask three questions, in this order.

1. What is the site for? Selling, informing, recruiting, campaigning, or several at once? Look at what gets the most space.
2. What is the one thing a visitor should remember? That is your main message. Test it by reading only the homepage headings.
3. What does the site want the visitor to do? List the calls to action and rank them. Are they specific verbs? Is the main one obvious?

The AIDA model (attention, interest, desire, action) gives you a tidy way to judge the path from first glance to action. Cite a textbook source if you use it. Ask where the path leaks: a strong banner followed by a vague button is a finding worth writing up.

Step 3: Method analysis checklist

Methods are the tools the site uses to deliver the message. Judge each against the message and the call to action, not in isolation.

• Content: stories, flavour or product pages, guides, video. Is it recent?
• Interaction: forms, polls, quizzes, comments, contact routes.
• Community: social feeds, hashtags, user-generated content.
• Retention: sign-ups, loyalty features, reasons to come back.
• Conversion: shop finders, booking, ordering, donation or enquiry forms.

Dialogic communication theory is a strong academic anchor here. Kent and Taylor (1998) argued that organisations build relationships through websites when they offer useful information, easy navigation, reasons to return and a way for visitors to respond. You can score the site against those features, which keeps your judgement structured. A small table with columns for method, message supported, effectiveness and reason works well, and you will see one in the sample.

Stuck on structure or referencing at this point? You can ask our team about academic writing support and get a sense of what is possible before you decide.

Step 4: Build recommendations that follow from the evidence

Use a simple chain for each idea: gap observed, tactic, platform, intended effect, how you would measure it. If an idea cannot be linked back to something you saw, cut it.

Local campaigns

Ask what would make the brand feel local. A city-specific flavour vote, an event countdown or a local charity partnership gives people something to take part in and share. Name the platform and the audience.

Influencer collaborations

Match creators to the brand’s values and audience, and say why a smaller creator may suit better than a celebrity. Mention disclosure of paid partnerships, because a values-led brand can lose credibility quickly if it hides sponsorship.

Transmedia marketing

Jenkins (2003) describes transmedia storytelling as spreading one story across several media, with each adding something new. A practical version for a brand: a teaser on social media, an explainer on the website, a moment in the shop or product, and a recap afterwards. Show how the pieces connect, not just that you will “use multiple platforms”.

Intended effects and measures

For each tactic, state one effect (awareness, engagement, retention, conversion) and one measure such as engagement rate, sign-up rate or click-throughs to the shop finder. Any target figure you invent must be labelled as an assumption. For the wider channel mix, our search engine marketing study support page is useful when your recommendations include paid search.

Citing a website in APA 7

You can cite a page of the site you analyse. The usual pattern for a page on an organisation’s own site is: Organisation. (Year or n.d.). Title of page. Site name if different. URL. When there is no date, write n.d.; when content may change, add a retrieval date. Use letters (n.d.-a, n.d.-b) when you cite several undated pages from the same organisation. Check the current APA guidance or your unit guide for the exact form your tutor expects. Put each reference on its own line, in alphabetical order.

Include some academic sources too. A report made only of the company’s own pages will read as description, not critique.

Common mistakes that cost marks

• Describing the site instead of judging it. Every paragraph needs a verdict.
• Claiming a feature is absent without checking mobile, cookie settings or inner pages.
• Recommendations with no link to the findings.
• Ignoring the audience. Who is the site written for, and in which market?
• Listing platforms rather than explaining why each fits.
• Skipping proofreading. The brief deducts marks for grammar and spelling, so read the report aloud once before you submit.

Where students get stuck

The usual trouble spots are choosing a site that offers too little to analyse, hitting the word limit before the recommendations, and finding academic sources that fit a practical task. Pick a site with visible navigation, calls to action and some social presence, write the recommendations first in rough form, then trim earlier sections to fit. If you want an expert eye on your structure, the profile of Raphael Liao shows the communication and media background of one of our listed experts, and you can read how other students rate us on the reviews page.

Still comparing approaches? See how a digital strategy report is handled in our MKT368 digital marketing sample, and contact us if you want a second opinion on your draft.

FAQs

Which website should I choose?

Pick one with enough material to judge: clear navigation, a call to action, some social media presence and content updated recently. A consumer brand with a clear message usually works better than a site with only a contact page.

Is a website critical analysis the same as a website review?

Not quite. A review can stay at opinion level. A critical analysis uses frameworks and evidence to explain why a feature works or does not, and then proposes improvements.

How many theories should I use?

In 1,250 words, two or three used well is plenty. For example, one for the message path (such as AIDA), one for dialogue (Kent and Taylor, 1998) and one for new media ideas (such as transmedia storytelling).

Can I include screenshots?

Usually yes, if your unit guide allows it. Keep them small, label them as figures, give the date, cite the source and refer to each one in the text. Check whether images count towards the word limit.

How do I write recommendations without sounding generic?

Tie each one to a specific gap, name the platform and audience, state the intended effect and say how you would measure it. “Use Instagram more” is generic. “Run a local flavour vote on Instagram Stories and measure shares” is testable.

What if the site has changed by the time I submit?

Note the visit date in your report and keep your screenshots. If a major change happens, mention it briefly rather than rewriting everything.

A strong report is clear in structure, specific in evidence and honest about what you could and could not observe. If you want to see the wider picture of what we do, read about our team. For related coursework, our brand management study support and business communication guidance pages may also help, and the COM376 social media management sample shows another approach to social strategy writing.

References

Jenkins, H. (2003, January 15). Transmedia storytelling. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2003/01/15/234540/transmedia-storytelling/

Kent, M. L., & Taylor, M. (1998). Building dialogic relationships through the World Wide Web. Public Relations Review, 24(3), 321–334.