Lead Gen Power Tool No. 5: Assess Your Website

Directing traffic to your website using all the social media networks available is great. It’s part of what Internet marketing is all about. But what happens when the people get there? Driving traffic can only do so much if your website is ineffective.

So what are you looking for? I talked a bit about looking at your website from a usability standpoint in a previous post. It needs to be easily navigable to ensure that visitors can quickly find what they are looking for. Users must easily be able to figure out how to contact you or submit a question. If the first thing your user sees when landing on your website is mass confusion, they’ll quickly bounce (pun intended).

Also remember that the entry point to your website is often not your homepage. Think about it: if you’re linking out specific blog posts, product pages, staff bios, etc., the user experience starts there and not at Point A. Take a look at some of those pages. Can you figure out how to get to the homepage? Are there clearly defined pathways to get where the user wants to be?

Another key to usability is checking your content on a variety of different browsers. Your pages may render perfectly in Firefox but make no sense in Internet Explorer 7 or 6 (something we at Bizmanualz run into often). But don’t just stop at the big browsers. Utilize your Google Analytics data to find out which browsers the majority of your visitors are using. It could be Safari for all you know. Start with the most popular and work down the list, making changes where practical. (Browsershots and other websites make this easy by comparing your page across most platforms.)

Finally, ask people their opinions. That’s what makes many of these social networks so beneficial. Post a question on Twitter asking your friends to test out your website and suggest changes. You’ll be surprised how many people in your network are willing to help you out.

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Originally published in 2009 by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title Lead Gen Power Tool No. 5: Assess Your Website. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution only. www.bizmanualz.com