In fairness, the symptoms of poor governance can be varied as the web itself ... messy homepages, unanswered feedback, lots of 404s, unhappy staff, poor internal relationships, etc.

But put them all together and you get one top issue...

The no.1 sign of Web Governance weakness is an inability to get necessary things done. 

As a Web Manager you likely know what needs to happen (cull content, restructure the site, tighten editorial controls, improve hosting resilience, deepen visitor engagement, etc), it's just that you can't seem to make it happen.

Why?

Well, working up from the coalface of operations, these are the type of issues I encounter...

1. Lack of the right skills.
2. Lack of the right manpower.
3. Lack of the right tools, technology, agreed procedures & other supports.
4. Lack of budget.
5. Lack of clarity & certainty in roles, responsibilities & ownership amongst staff & related teams.
6. Lack of authority to make & police decisions.
7. Lack of leadership, support & backup from above. 
8. Lack of organisational culture or understanding of online.

Believe it not, if you simply have issues with skills, manpower & resourcing, you are actually in the "best" place as regards governance. You have the leadership & authority you need, you just need to get the wherewithal to follow through.

However, if you have all the people & cash you need but lack backup ... well, let's just say I hope you've got staying power. It usually takes *much* longer to build awareness and support than to just get a budget.

An extra sign of Web Governance weakness?

An inability to get things done without inter-departmental fracas, unhappy staff & risky practices.

That is, you might have all the skills, manpower, leadership, etc. you need, but things are so badly configured or so inappropriate to circumstances that nothing can happen without a major fight first - or recriminations afterwards.

And one last sign?

An inability to get things done without delay, budget over-run or compromises on quality.

In this situation, you have pretty much everything you need and most things are broadly suitable to your circumstances.

Nothing dramatic or spectacular is undermining operations here, it is just that maybe the way my team is working has not kept pace with the needs of internal customers. Or maybe the technology I deploy is getting flaky. Or maybe staff skills need a bit of refresh. Pretty normal business issues.

Thankfully, a new range of tools is gathering the data we need to help identify under-performing Web Governance. For more about this read my article the New Analytics of Web Governance or watch me speak about it.