… or why you should consider having a fresh set of eyes take a look at your website.
If you have been reading this blog, it will not come as a huge surprise that I am using another example from the TV series Firefly to illustrate another issue regarding making your website work optimally.
The quote is from the premier episode, and this is the setting: Captain Mal, Jayne and Zoë are about to meet Patience, to make a delivery of goods in exchange for payment. The goods are stolen and bearing the stamp of “The Alliance”, making them risky to trade with. Patience agreed to buy the marked goods a little too easily, raising concern that she may be setting a trap. When we add that she shot Mal in a previous dealing, the lack of trust is even more understandable.
So our heroes are exercising due caution, and using a two way radio to communicate. This in order to have Jayne laying in ambush, ready to take a shot if or when Mal gives the signal over the two way radio. Hence the title of this post. Jayne is testing the transmitter, but he is choosing to test it while still standing right next to Mal. The interchange goes as follows:
Jayne: Testing. Captain, can you hear me?
Mal: I’m standing right here.
Jayne: [into radio] You’re comin’ through good and loud.
Mal: ‘Cause I’m standing right here.
Jayne: Yeah, well, but… the transmitter’s
Have someone look at your website with fresh eyes
When it comes to analyzing your own website, you may be a bit like Jayne testing the transmitter. You are too close to it to make an accurate assessment. You already know the ins and outs of your business, you know what actions you would like your visitors to take while they are on your site. Because of this, you may be blind to what is not working optimally. The website is “coming through good and loud” to you, but it could be because you already know what to look for.
It can be enormously helpful to have someone look at, and navigate the website, who has never seen it before. They might spot a problem you were not aware of. They may notice something that is missing that should be there. They might point out something that confuses them.
Who should you ask to do a website assessment?
There are two types of people you might want to enlist for this. The first person would be someone who knows very little about your business and who preferably has not visited your website before. This represents the typical user who might end up on your site after a search on the internet. Ask them to treat your site just as if they were a potential customer, and ask them to report anything to you that did not flow well in the user experience.
The second type of person would be a professional in the web design field, who can take a look at your site and also assess it from a technical and SEO standpoint. This assessment will tell you not only if your site is working well from an end user standpoint, but it can tell you if any functionality might be lacking, or if your site needs a tune-up in the search engine optimization department.
Does your website need some attention? Get in touch with me!