7 Tips on Testing Websites for Small Businesses
Is testing a website worth the time and effort? That depends, do you want visitors to stick around and buy a product or schedule an appointment?
If the answer is yes, then you absolutely need to test your website. A website is like a retail window. If it doesn’t look like it will provide a good experience, people will leave, and they won’t come back.
About 88% of people leave websites and will not return after a bad experience. Your website can help or hinder your business. Tests for websites ensure that your site is ready to help your business.
Do you want to know how you can test your website and leave nothing to chance? Read these top tips for testing websites that make sure your site is running smoothly.
What Are Your Testing Goals?
Website testing is a very involved process. You have to make sure you and your team understand what you’re testing for and why. It’s best to write down a list of questions and then put your questions into different testing categories. Here are some common questions:
- Is the site secure?
- Is it fast?
- Is the conversion rate good?
- Are people staying on the site?
These questions address different categories of website testing. The first question falls under website security. Other testing categories are speed and performance, conversions, and usability.
Start Testing Early
Many developers wait until the website is built to start testing. This can turn into a very expensive mistake. What happens if you decide to test at the end of the development process? You could find that your website is very slow. That requires you to backtrack your development and recode your site to make it faster.
That’s time and money that doesn’t need to be spent. Test your website in the various categories early in the process. That includes usability testing. You’ll get valuable feedback from users that you can incorporate throughout the development process.
Prioritize Testing Objectives
You have a list of testing objectives in front of you. You want to test your website in the different categories. Each category requires a different set of goals and tasks. For example, a speed test asks you to set your speed objectives on different devices. Your tasks are to run your site through Google’s Page Speed Test and other testing sites to measure download times.
Testing for usability requires that you set certain objectives. You want to make sure the site is personalized, the navigation menu is clear, and the contact forms work. You’ll need to make sure that the five P’s of Sitecore personalization are included in your testing objectives.
Go Outside Your Circle for Testers
Testing for usability can be challenging because you want to get an informed opinion of your website. You also need to get the opinions of likely users of your site.
It’s best to avoid asking friends and family to test your site. They won’t use the site as a typical user. There are services that match your user demographics with website testers. The testers participate in a moderated or unmoderated survey of your site. That can be an inexpensive way to get objective feedback on your website. Plus, you know that you’ll reach your target audience.
If you’ve been in business for a while, you could ask a select set of customers to test your site. This can foster loyalty because you are asking them to take part in your business. It also gives them a sense of ownership and shows that you trust them.
Get Your Entire Team Involved in Website Testing
There are a lot of stakeholders in website development.
The marketing team wants the site to reflect the brand and drive leads. The sales team wants quality leads from the site. Your customers want a website that’s easy to use. The development team wants the site to perform at high levels without issues.
You should have a small committee of stakeholders involved in the testing process to make sure the website serves everyone in your organization. It makes it easier to get feedback during each step of the testing process, especially if you begin testing early on. It’s another way to keep your development team from redoing their hard work.
Look at Analytics to Usability Clues
If you want to see how users interact with your website, you can look beyond what the testers say for more information. Check out your analytics to see how people use your site. If you find that people leave your site after a few seconds, it could be a sign that your site is slow or the page isn’t readable.
Keep Testing
How will you continue to test your website? Once your site is up and running, you’re likely to run software updates, add content and features to your site. These things can affect the performance of your site. You want to make sure that your site continues to be a higher performer. That’s why it makes sense to have your site tested at regular intervals. Make sure that website testing is part of your regular maintenance plan.
Testing Websites for Better Business
Your website does more for your business than you may know. It can support your strong brand reputation, encourage sales, and build trust with users. A bad website can’t do that. It can undo all of the hard work you put into your business. Testing websites regularly ensures that your site is user-friendly, secure, fast, and improves conversions. These tips help you create a system to test your website regularly. You’ll need to do that as you add new features and pages.
