I receive requests frequently from business owners that would like me to look at their website and give an opinion on what I think. I am usually quite surprised on what I find. I always ask six questions before I conduct an analysis of a website.
Initial questions:
- Are you happy with your site and online presence?
- What is the purpose of your website?
- Who do you want to reach with your website?
- Where do you want your traffic to originate from?
- What are you selling?
- What actions do you want from your visitors?
What I look for:
Initial impression
Does the website appeal to targeted customers? Does it give the proper impression based on who your customer is? Obviously you want a very different look and style for your website if you only sell travel packages to Egypt than a Caribbean look and feel. I look at the website from the eyes of your visitor.
Initial message
Will your visitors convey the essential message of your website in the first 3-6 seconds? If not, new visitors are gone in a click. Your visitors should have a clear indication what your website is about. First impressions last. Always mention your services and the advantages of them.
Call to action
Is there a clear path to action? This could be to buy online, call now, download this ebook or request a quote. The “call to action” should always be clear from the home page. The navigation should always be arranged in a logical selling process.
Traffic source
If the website is only expected to receive traffic from the search engines, I check if the website is optimized correctly by looking at the body text, link text, headings, etc. I also check for structural problems and evidence that the website is indexed correctly.
An effective website needs to produce the results desired. This could be business leads, phone calls or sales. If you are unsure about your website, please ask me for a opinion.