In this article, I share some reasons why you should evaluate and test your website on a periodic basis.
10 – To Meet Industry Website Standards
When you run a business, you’re expected to meet certain standards overseen by the health department, building inspectors, licensing agencies, etc. A website is no different. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) sets standards for HTML, CSS, and other web technologies.
These standards exist to ensure websites work correctly on different browsers and operating systems. While your site may work fine in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista, does it meet the standards to work in Safari on a Macintosh or in a proprietary browser on a cell phone?
9 – To Improve Your Website’s Return on Investment
You’ve invested thousands of dollars in your website design. But you still have questions on how to gauge the effectiveness of your site or concerns that it won’t generate much new business. Maximize your investment by having it professionally evaluated and tested.
8 – To Get a Second Opinion on Your Website
Before you make a big business decision, you consult with advisors or mentors to get opinions and weigh your options. Before you launch a new product to sell, you perform market research and ask existing customers what they think.
Why not treat your website the same way? Have an independent expert look at your existing site or work with you to evaluate a new site from both functional and technical perspectives.
7 – To Serve Your Target Audiences
Your website visitors may be young or old, able-bodied or disabled. They may prefer a Mac to a PC or surf your website from their smartphone or PDA. Visitors may be prospects, customers, members, employees, or all of the above. Does your website serve all your target audiences?
6 – To Keep Website Visitors Engaged
How long do visitors stay when they visit your home page? Does the site lead them in a certain direction where they’ll take an action like buying a widget or registering for your newsletter? Does your site offer fresh content of value to your visitors?
5 – To Increase Traffic using Organic SEO Principles
Traffic generally comes to your website from search engines, your marketing efforts, and links from other sites. But it also comes when people find what they need on your site tell others to visit it. Do you know how much traffic your site generates? Do you have a strategy for getting more visitors?
4 – To Clean Up Your Image
Your website is the online face of your business. A consistent website is easier for users to navigate and understand. Using the same layouts, menus, fonts, and terminology throughout a site is a start. But you also need to make sure that users can quickly find what they want.
3 – To Make Your Website a Strategic Asset
A good, functional website should be an asset to your business. Your business plan should address how the website will be used. Is it merely an online brochure? Do you want it to generate sales? Do you want to build a mailing list from it?
2 – To Close The Sale
Each website should have one or more goals such as:
- Getting visitors to make a purchase or donation
- Getting visitors to request more information or call for an estimate
- Building your mailing list
- Imparting important information about your organization
Your website closes the sale if it meets its goals. Create a plan to measure how well your web site’s goals are achieved.
1 – To Test Your Website for Problems Before Your Visitors Find Them
This is the top reason to have your website tested. Broken links, misspellings, incorrect or outdated information, and forms that don’t work can all send visitors heading for your competitors.