Website Experience Analysis: A New Research Protocol for Studying Relationship Building on Corporate Websites

This article introduces a new research protocol for studying organization-public relationship building on organizational websites. The research protocol, Website Experience Analysis (WEA), and the experience-centered perspective it has emerged from are explained. Data from a study grounded in the experience-centered perspective is presented to illustrate this novel approach to the study of online relationship building. Nine corporate websites were examined by 45 students who then answered questions about their website experience addressing key dimensions of organization-public relationships. The data illustrate the implications and utility of WEA for online public relations research and practice.