How much time do people spend on your website? Do they find the products or
information you want them to find? Can they quickly find the information they
want so they can either make a purchase or contact you about your services?
To be effective, your website must be easy for someone who knows nothing
about your company, your products, or your website to use. A visitor must be
able to find what they want in just a few seconds or they'll click away, and
probably won't return.
To make sure your site is easy to use, try to look at it objectively, as
though you were a stranger and answer the questions in the checklist below.
For all sites:
Can visitors find information and/or
products easily?
Is the navigation clear and consistent
throughout the site?
Does the back button always take them
back to the preceding page?
Do the pages load quickly?
Can visitors easily find out who runs
the site?
Can visitors easily find the name
and email
address of someone responsible for the site if they want to?
Are the most important elements of your
site visible without scrolling up and down or from side to side on laptop
screens and typical desktop screens.
Does the site look good when
viewed with all the popular web browsers?
Can it be viewed on a smart phone?
Do you have alternate text tags under
graphics (to allow visitors who are blind or who have graphics turned off to
find important links)?
Do you have a mechanism in place to allow
people to add pages to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites?
For ecommerce sites
Can visitors tell immediately what you
sell?
Can they quickly find products and
product descriptions?
Are there links to related products
(accessories to wear with a ladies suit, for instance)?
Can they tell what to click on to place
an order?
Can they find the check out button when
they are ready to pay for their order.
Can they find your phone number from
every page in case they have a question?
Can they find your name and address,
and fax number?
Can they find your email address?
Can they find price information?
Can they find shipping information and
costs easily?
Can they find your guarantee and return
policy?
Can they find information about the
company and its management?
Can they find any other important
information you want them to have?
After you've done your own review of the
website, ask some people who don't know much about your business to look at the
website while you watch them. Look at the things they click on and how they
proceed through the site. Note whether they seemed confused or unsure what to do
next at any point. Make changes to the site both on the basis of your own
answers to the checklist and any problems you detect when observing others
viewing the site.
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