Does Your Web Site Pass These Tests
Whether you spend (or have spent) hundreds or thousands of dollars on a company Web site, your investment may be wasted if the final product is deficient in some aspects. Take these tests to see how your Web site stacks up.
Getting there
Is the site easy to find?
Your site must be search engine friendly. Make sure you have the right key words or phrases that search engines will pick up.
Does the site look the way you imagined it would?
Web browsers display sites differently. Test your site on several browsers to see if your pages are cut off, oddly colored or otherwise don’t look the way you want them to. You can modify your design to create the best look possible on a variety of browsers.
Have family, friends and anyone else you can think of look critically at your site from their own computers and provide you with feedback. Use this feedback to massage the site to get the look you want.
Using the site
Is the site easy to load and read?
You want pages to load quickly. The more you have on your home page, the longer it takes for the site to load. Remember that not all viewers have high-speed Internet access, so long loading time can be a turn-off. While images add to the look of your site, they can take time to load.
Keep the content on the home page easy to read. Use short, declarative sentences to state the purpose of the site. Generally, you want viewers to see the entire page at once, without scrolling. Use black type on a white or light-colored background to maximize legibility (gray backgrounds can cause eye strain).
Is the site original, accurate and up to date?
If you provide information, make sure it’s original. You don’t want viewers using your site only to link to other Web sites for content.
No matter how great your Web site content, if it’s riddled with typos and old material, viewers will lose interest. Consider using a date or “last updated” note to let viewers know you are providing fresh material that they can rely on.
Monitor your site to ensure that it is functioning properly by making it the home page for your Internet browser, suggests Geri Moran of Emerald Marketing Services (www.emeraldmarketingservices.com). This way it will be the first thing you see when you go online.
Is the site easy to navigate?
Make sure that viewers can find what they are looking for on your site. It must be easy to get around by clicking on drop-down menus, pictures or icons. Successfully surfing your site should be an intuitive process, so group related topics under your menu titles. Consider including a site map if you have an extensive number of pages.
Getting viewers to return
Do you have features that bring viewers back?
Getting viewers to your site the first time is only half the battle. Cultivating repeat visitors should be your goal. You want viewers to bookmark your page for return visits, buy you must give them a reason to do so. What does your site offer to encourage a viewer to return? At www.bwideas.com, for example, there is a new small-business idea every day.
If your site is selling products, keep your posted inventory fresh. Remove items that are no longer available and add new merchandise frequently.
Does your site have a consistent and clean look?
You want the site to support your business identity; when someone thinks of a product you sell, you want them to think automatically of you and return to your site.
Do you have good contact information>
If someone wants to contact you for further information, to ask a question or for any other reason (perhaps a media inquiry), make sure your “Contact Us” information is easy to find and that it is complete. Provide alternative contact methods, such as snail mail, e-mail and telephone numbers. Include the name of a contact person. Provide a button or tab for contact information at the bottom of your home page, on the menu bar or in the list of topics.
Privacy Policy
If you require viewers to provide information before accessing your site (such as an email address), be sure to disclose your privacy policy. Tell the viewer what you will or will not do with this information (e.g., you do not sell the information to marketers).
But be careful what you promise; if you change policies you may have to inform all prior contacts or risk a lawsuit for violating your previous policy. Be sure your privacy policy is easy to find.
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