Whether you are a corporate or an individual with your own website, the question remains the same: how do you go about improving your online presence given the changing nature of technologies on the Internet? According to Forrester less than three percent of 1,000 corporate websites the technology consultant reviewed received a passing grade in terms of usability.

"Common and relatively easy-to-fix flaws - such as failure to demonstrate value to the user on the home page; lack of page location cues within the site; and text that is difficult, if not impossible, to read - frustrate customers and hurt business," Forrester warns in a new report.

The report identifies ways corporations can target such problems by setting up a simple priority matrix. It is a particularly useful exercise for small business owners, who may not have all of the cash and the in-house technical know-how to fix all of the problems all at the same time.

The report essentially provides advice based on the principle that cutting a problem down into bite-sized pieces makes it easier to deal with.

Essentially Forrester suggests that site owners construct what its consultants call a 'Site Improvement Matrix' (SIM). The SIM allows owners to make decisions about changes based on their business priorities.

"Faced with time and budget constraints, site owners have to determine which changes to make and in what order to provide the most improvement to the user experience and best meet business goals," the company says.

The process is especially important if you intend to outsource the work. Clear direction is needed or you will see the outsourcer blow up the budget, leaving you with a larger bill than expected and a site that may be over powered for your needs.

If you are in danger of getting carried away all you have to do to bring you back down to the ground is to look at the empire Google built on a simple home page.

Using the full SIM involves paying Forrester a sum of money (apparently the tool was available online, but the link does not seem to exist any longer). However the company's report breaks the process into four basic steps anyone can complete as part of a self-assessment of their site.

First, develop a list of the problems or improvements needed for the site. Base your evaluation on the many guides available online and on user surveys. Just search and you will find.

The second step involves developing a list of solutions to each of the issues identified on the list. Again, all you need is an ability to base these solutions on your research. Develop alternative solutions.

After all some solutions may fix other issues, or raise more problems than they fix.

"When developing the list, aim to make all of the identified solutions as mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive as possible," Forrester advises.

Next rate each alternative solution on a scale from one to five, with the highest rating going to those that will bring the most value to the table, or are relatively easier to implement.

One consideration on giving scores is based on the severity of the problem's impact on users. The more effect the problem has on users, the higher the score. Other factors include your ability to pay for the changes and the estimated return generated by fixing the problem.

Once you add up the scores across each solution you can start to determine the priorities to address.

Of course the above steps involve a lot of research and patience and are perhaps useful in outline but difficult to implement. Still it is better to start on the path to fixing your site, rather than staring at it in a muddle and wondering why people are not visiting.

To understand the process a free slide presentation is available at Forrester's Internet site by doing a search at www.forrester.com using the term 'Site Improvement Matrix'.

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To finish off this week's column I note Microsoft's move into the semantic web space with its purchase of Powerset, a start up search engine. The semantic web refers to the use of natural-language terms to mine data in ways that go beyond simple search terms.

The term refers to the way information may or may not be connected, allowing users to extract new meanings and links between data sources and their relevance to users. This outline is just a sketch of how the semantic web is developing. Right now it is more promise than reality.

The Powerset technology currently only works on searchers of Wikipedia articles. Check out how Powerset works at: www.powerset.com

Or for even more fun go to www.hakia.com and ask it a question as if you were addressing a friend.

The results are basic but point to the potential of the development of a better way of getting relevant results.

Send any comments on the column to elamin.ahmed@gmail.com