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3 Tips for Doing a Snapshot Review of Your Website

Recently we have spoken to a few people who have been told by others that their website really isn’t great. If this has happened to you, we know this is really disheartening to hear but actually it’s a positive because it means that now you know you need to do a review of your website and do something about it. As it is your website is probably letting your business down but if you follow our three tips for doing a snapshot review of your website you could make a big difference to it really quickly.

We have already given an overview of this subject on the Facebook and Instagram live that we did last week, which you can catch up on here on our YouTube channel if you prefer video content, but in this blog post we are going to go into a little bit more detail.

Tip 1 – Forget about what you know and think like a potential customer

Now we know that this is much easier said than done but you really do need to put your knowledge of your business out of your head and imagine you have been told about the business by a friend and so you thought you would check out the website.

If you have a clear idea in your mind about who your ideal client is, who it is you want to attract through your website, then try to think like them. Take into consideration how busy they are, how much time they would have to find what they need on your website and what it is they are likely to want to do on the website.

Tip 2 – Do a snapshot review of each page of your website

Now you are in the mindset of your potential customer or client, take a quick look at each page without scrolling. Take a mental snapshot of what you can see at the top of the page when you land on it. While looking at that snapshot, ask yourself these questions:

What’s your instant reaction to the page?

Do you feel like you are in the right place?

Is it what you were expecting?

Do you want to stay and look around?

It’s important for you to review each page of your website in this way because there is a chance that anyone could come to any of the pages on your website first either from a direct link from someone or a Google search result but it is more important to do this review on your homepage. This is likely to be the entry point for people to your website or perhaps the second page they visit after reading a blog post or consuming some other specific content.

If the answer to all of these questions isn’t positive then you need to consider what it is you need to change at the top of all of these pages to give a much better impression. It only takes about 0.05 seconds for someone to form an opinion of your website according to this article on cxl.com. That’s quick!! This is why it is so important that you get those first impressions right.

Tip 3 – Spend 10 seconds reading or scrolling each page of your website

If you make a good snapshot impression then people will keep looking around your website but they still won’t give it too much time before they make a decision to stay or leave. This is why we recommend you review each page on your website for 10 seconds. In these 10 seconds do whatever feels natural for you to do. Maybe you’ll start reading the content. Maybe you’ll just scroll and see what you see that catches your eye. Once you have done this for 10 seconds ask yourself these questions:

Are you engaged in the website and it’s message?

Do you want to click around to find out more?

Is it clear where to click if you do?

Again, if the answer to all these questions isn’t positive make sure you take action to make some changes.

Extra Tip – Consider your branding when you do the review of your website

One of the things that we find lets a website down the most is when a company doesn’t have a clear, strong brand or when their branding is completely at odds with what the business does and who it is trying to attract. So, it may well be that the first thing you need to address is actually your branding. If you think this may be the case for you, then this guest blog post by Tammi Heals would be great further reading for you on how defining your brand can make marketing easier.

If you think your brand is all good and it really is your website that needs some work and TLC then we have a number of free resources to help you as well as our book, The Website Handbook which is a fantastic resource to support you to create an amazing website whatever stage you are at on your website journey.

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

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