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20 questions to ask about your website

Guest post by: Keith Thirgood

Article Overview: One of the hardest things to do is to analyse your own marketing materials. This rule seems to go double for a business' website. The business owner rarely sees them for what they are. At least they don't see them from a visitor's point of view. The following are some of the criteria a professional designer uses when evaluating a website. Use the same rules when you look at your own site.

20 questions to ask about your website

One of the hardest things to do is to analyse your own marketing materials. This rule seems to go double for a business' website. The business owner rarely sees them for what they are. At least they don't see them from a visitor's point of view. The following are some of the criteria a professional designer uses when evaluating a website. Use the same rules when you look at your own site. 1. When you arrive at the site, how does it strike you? Is your reaction positive or negative?

2. Does the home page clearly convey the message you want it to? (Have you developed a message? In other words, is there a prime function or goal for your site?)

3. Does the opening page make you want to explore the site further?

4. Does the site load quickly? This must be tested with a "real world" modem and phone lines. There's no point in judging the site, if you are loading it from disk, or surfing on a cable modem. Check out how it loads using a dial-up modem.

5. Do you warn your visitors before they click on something how large the file is? Such as clicking on a picture to see a larger version.

6. How easy is it to get to the important pages on the site? Can you get to the main pages from any page on the site? If the site has a large number of pages, are they arranged well? Is there a site map? Is there more than one method of navigating the site? Are text as well as graphic links provided? Can you get to your most important information in three or fewer clicks?

7. Does your site fit within a 600 x 800 browser window? The main information on each page should fall within that area, if you are hoping to attract "average" visitors. You should never force your visitors to scroll horizontally. If you are going after more "up to date" visitors, you can expand that to a larger number of pixels pixels, but only if you must. What does your site look like on a large monitor, 19 - 20 inch or larger?

8. Have you used frames to build your site? These cause problems for search engines, and a small percentage of web users seem to hate them as a matter of principle. Try to use tables or CSS in their place. These can often do the same job, and cause fewer problems.

9. Is your choice of colours appropriate for your audience and subject matter? Have you used colours consistently throughout your site? Have you limited your palette to two or three colours and their shades?

10. Do your graphics complement your site? Are they appropriate for the subject matter? Do they load as quickly as possible? Are GIFs and JPEGs used appropriately? Do GIFs appear with no unsightly dithering and are JPEGs saved at the right setting?

11. Are any photos the right size? If you need to show large, detailed photos, have you used small thumbnail images to indicate what each photo is, letting your visitor decide if they want to view the larger photo? (A common mistake is to use programming code to shrink a photo to a small size as a thumbnail. However, it takes even longer to load that way than it does at full size, so nothing has been gained. The picture must actually be shrunk in an image manipulation program before it is used.) Are the photos too light or too dark? (Mac owners, take note: Images that look good on your Mac, will be approximately 25% darker viewed on a Windows machine.)

12. Have you specified fonts? Are they fonts found on both Mac and Windows computers? Have you indicated alternative fonts in your code? (E.G. To specify a serif face, you might indicate: "times new roman, times, serif") Are the fonts large enough to be easily read? High-resolution screens show fonts to be much smaller than standard resolution screens. If CSS is used, are fonts specified in pixels instead of points? (This translates more accurately between platforms.)

13. If you have Javascript effects, do they positively add to the functionality or experience of the site, or are they only distracting gimmicks? If you use Java applets, have you tested to determine if they crash various computers and browsers?

14. Do you have animations on your site? If yes, are they helpful, or are they simply 'fun'? If they serve no purpose other than 'fun', have you confirmed with your audience that they like them on the site? You might be surprised at how few people like animations. (Of course, some animations are used for demonstration purposes, which is appropriate.)

15. Do you use sound on your site? If you use it, is there an easy, obvious way to turn it off? Please, please do not use sound on your homepage, and warn your visitors that if they click certain links sound will happen. If your visitor is in an office environment, having your site blast out into a quite office can be very embarrassing to them.

16. Does your site use an opening "splash screen"? If you do, can you honestly say that it is so compelling that your visitors are willing to wait until it loads before they can interact with your site? Visitor surveys and studies have shown that 'most' people prefer not to put up with splash screens. (Just because many of the big boys use them, doesn't make them the right thing to do.)

17. Do you use Flash on your site? (It's especially bad to use a Flash splash screen if there is no way to skip it!) If you use Flash on your site, is it used to advance the goals of your site, or does it get in the way of delivering your message? If your site is built completely in Flash, the search engines have no way to index it. (They're supposed to be getting better at dealing with it, however, they still advise against using Flash to build a site.)

18. If your site is selling products or services, is it easy to order? Can your visitors order by credit card? Is the order page secure? Are there readily available privacy, security, and return policies? Is shipping information included before the sale, or do your prospects have to go through the entire ordering process to see the shipping?

19. Is all of the information you ask for on your on-line order forms necessary? The more you ask people to tell you, the fewer will complete your forms.

20. Do you include information about your company (name, address, phone and fax numbers) on every page? Can a visitor send an email with just one click?

These questions scratch the surface of what a good professional will investigate if asked to review or improve an existing website. They also form the basis for thinking you should put into the development of an new website. In future issues, I'll explore some of these points in more depth.

I'm interested in hearing from you the results of your own evaluations of your websites. Did this list help you reveal any surprises?

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Article Tags: business owner, business website, marketing materials, own marketing, point of view, professional designer



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Website for Details - I like the idea of a website or even a private web page to provide some ideas for interested parties to visit and get some additional information. There would be a bunch of questions and you could continue to add to the questions as new ones are raised. Chris
JW Site redesign - I agree the Font is a little small. Also on the homepage I believe it will be effective for you to display an offer to sample your services - I believe you had one in your previous site. This is only constructive feedback.... I'm not sure about the length of the "quote" page - possibly too many questions. I wouldn't fill it out after seeing it but would pick up the phone to call you and deliver my thoughts over the phone. Maybe if you reduce the questions down to three/five questions without me having to explain in detail what I am looking for - I would complete it. One of your final questions would be: what's the best time to contact you? You can call the prospect then to get more details and you would record it during that session. I did this when I ran my webdesign company and it worked really well. my questions were: Name? Telephone? Email? Briefly describe your ideal website? Best day and time to call? I captured the details during the call-back.
Interview Questions - Hi Shri, I have a series of interviews with fast growing entrepreneurs on my website for startup entrepreneurs. It's called If I Were A Startup... I ask each entrepreneur 4 questions: 1) How did the company get started? 2) What advice do you have for new startup entrepreneurs? 3) What mistakes did you make that you would advice others to avoid? 4) If you were starting a new business in a different industry what would it be? These 4 questions tend to generate a lot of discussion and from their responses I'll ask more probing questions. Hope this helps!
Re: HOW DO I STAND OUT FROM THE REST? - I will like to ask you some questions. 1. What kind of online business are you into? 2.What kind of competition ar you contending with? 3.What is the rank of website on google? If you answer these questions, I will be able to answer your question very well
Re: Outsourcing Software Development India - When you are trying to find specific solutions to your website development needs some of the following questions probably come to mind: How much will it cost to implement and maintain? How easily can I add and maintain content? Can I customize functions for my specific website needs? Now you start searching the internet or yellow pages to find an application or developer that can answer these questions for you. If you are searching on the internet you will most likely run across ready-to-run programs that are "easy" to install and get running. To some in the development world these programs are referred to as "canned" programs or scripts.


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