Digital Detective Lesson Plan: Website Audit & Business Communication

Engage high school students with our 'Digital Detective' lesson plan! This project-based activity teaches essential digital literacy and business communication skills. Students learn to perform a basic website audit, identifying issues like slow page speed, broken links, and poor mobile-friendliness using free online tools. They'll then contrast a spam email with a professional, value-driven outreach message of their own creation. Ideal for high school web fundamentals or business classes, this lesson equips students with practical skills in technical analysis and persuasive writing.

Create Your Own Custom Lesson Plan
PDF

Lesson Plan: Digital Detective - Solving the Case of the Dropping Traffic

Materials Needed:

Lesson Details

Subject: Digital Literacy, Business Communication, Web Fundamentals

Grade Level: High School (Ages 14-16)

Time Allotment: Approximately 2.5 - 3 hours

1. Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to:

  • Analyze a piece of business communication (an email) for tone, effectiveness, and professionalism.
  • Identify at least three common technical or user experience (UX) issues that can cause a drop in website traffic.
  • Apply free online tools to diagnose potential problems on a real website.
  • Synthesize findings into a clear, actionable report.
  • Create a professional and persuasive outreach email that offers genuine value, contrasting it with the provided spam example.

2. Instructional Steps & Activities

Part 1: The Inciting Incident - Analyzing the Evidence (20 minutes)

The goal here is to deconstruct the "Kevin Blake" email to understand *why* it's ineffective and learn to spot "red flags" in digital communication.

  1. Read the Email Aloud: Start by reading the "Kevin Blake" email.
  2. Initial Reactions: Ask the student for their first impression. Does it feel trustworthy? Would they reply? Why or why not?
  3. Guided Discussion: Discuss the following questions:
    • Vagueness: Kevin mentions "major errors" but doesn't name a single one. Why do you think he does this? (Answer: It's a template sent to many people; he hasn't actually looked at the website).
    • Tone: How would you describe the tone? Is it helpful? Threatening? Generic?
    • The "Hook": He offers to send the errors and solutions. What is his likely goal? (Answer: To get a reply so he can sell his services).
    • Professionalism: Does "Thanks & Best Regards" feel genuine? What makes an email feel personal vs. like spam?
  4. Activity: In a document, create two columns: "What Kevin Did Wrong" and "A Better Way." Have the student list the flaws and brainstorm how each point could be improved. For example, instead of "major errors," a better way would be "a specific, verifiable error like 'I noticed several broken links on your services page'."

Part 2: The Detective's Toolkit - Gearing Up for the Investigation (40 minutes)

This section introduces the core concepts and tools for the main project. Frame it as gathering the necessary equipment for a digital investigation.

  1. Introduce Key Concepts: Briefly and clearly explain what could cause website traffic to drop. Avoid overly technical jargon.
    • Slow Page Speed: "Imagine waiting forever for a video to load. People get impatient and leave. That's a slow page." Google notices this and ranks slow sites lower.
    • Broken Links (404 Errors): "This is like a door that leads to a brick wall. It's frustrating for users and makes a site look neglected."
    • Not Mobile-Friendly: "Over half of all web traffic is on phones. If a site is hard to use on a small screen, people will give up."
    • Poor User Experience (UX): "Is the website confusing? Hard to navigate? Are the colors jarring or the text hard to read? A confusing site drives people away."
  2. Tool Demonstration: Briefly demonstrate how to use each of the three free tools listed in the materials section.
    • Enter a familiar URL (like wikipedia.org) into Google PageSpeed Insights. Point out the "Performance" score for mobile and desktop. Explain that a score below 50 (red) is a major problem.
    • Run the same URL through the Mobile-Friendly Test to show what a "pass" looks like.
    • Use the Broken Link Checker to show how it crawls a site and lists any "dead" links.

Part 3: The Investigation - Going Undercover (60 minutes)

This is the core, hands-on part of the lesson where the student applies their new knowledge.

  1. Select a "Client": Have the student choose a real website to investigate. Good choices include a local library, a small non-profit organization, a favorite hobby blog, or a local community center. The goal is to pick a site that likely doesn't have a big corporate web team behind it.
  2. Conduct the Audit: The student will now act as a "Digital Detective." Their mission is to use the tools and their own observations to find potential issues on their chosen site. Have them document their findings in a "Case File" (a simple Google Doc is perfect). The Case File should include:
    • Website URL: [Name of website]
    • Page Speed Score (Mobile & Desktop): [Screenshots or written scores]
    • Mobile-Friendly Test Result: [Pass/Fail with screenshot]
    • Broken Link Scan Results: [List of any broken links found]
    • Personal UX Observations: The student should browse the site for 5-10 minutes and answer questions like:
      • Is it easy to find the contact information?
      • Is the menu clear and logical?
      • Is the text easy to read (font size, color contrast)?
      • Does the site feel modern or outdated?
      • Did anything frustrate you while using the site?

Part 4: Cracking the Case - The Final Report & The "Right" Approach (30 minutes)

In this final section, the student synthesizes their findings and demonstrates true understanding by creating a high-quality, helpful piece of communication.

  1. Create the "Case Report": Based on their "Case File," the student will write a one-page summary. This report should:
    • Briefly state the purpose of the audit.
    • List the 2-3 most critical issues they discovered (e.g., "The mobile page speed is very low at 34/100, which may cause visitors to leave.").
    • For each issue, propose a simple, clear solution (e.g., "Compressing the large images on the homepage could significantly improve this speed.").
  2. Creative Writing - The "Better" Email: Now, challenge the student to rewrite Kevin Blake's email. Using their findings from the audit, they will write a new email to the website owner. This email must be:
    • Specific: Mention one or two concrete, helpful findings from their audit. ("I was browsing your site and noticed the 'About Us' link is broken...").
    • Genuinely Helpful: Offer a solution or a resource without immediately asking for money. ("This is often a quick fix in WordPress. Here is a helpful article on how to resolve it...").
    • Professional & Respectful: Use a polite and authentic tone. The goal is to build trust, not to scare them into hiring you.

3. Assessment & Evaluation

The lesson will be assessed based on the quality and thoughtfulness of the two creative outputs:

  • The Case Report:
    • Clarity: Are the identified problems and proposed solutions clear and easy to understand?
    • Evidence: Is the analysis supported by data from the online tools and specific observations?
    • Prioritization: Did the student correctly identify the most impactful issues?
  • The "Better" Email:
    • Professionalism: Does the email have a respectful tone and proper formatting?
    • Value: Does it provide specific, actionable value to the recipient *before* asking for anything in return?
    • Persuasiveness: Does it build trust and make the recipient *want* to learn more, rather than feeling pressured?

4. Differentiation and Extension

  • For Extra Support: Provide a pre-made template for the "Case File" with prompts for each section. Work alongside the student to interpret the results of the online tools.
  • For an Advanced Challenge: Have the student research a fourth tool (e.g., an SEO keyword checker or a website accessibility checker) and add its findings to their report. They could also analyze two competing websites and write a brief comparison of their technical strengths and weaknesses.