If you have a terrible website, it may seem to you like the little duckling: so ugly it is actually cute. You may rationalize that only people who really “get it” like your website and that those who do not like it are simply “picking on” you, much as we rationalize a bad child’s behavior by saying it is everyone else’s fault.
However, this type of attitude is not only counterproductive from a marketing standpoint but can also place blinders on you so that you are incapable of objectively looking at the website and seeing its true problems. How can you remove the blindfold and take a true look at your website’s strengths and weaknesses?
Take Other Opinions
While 95 percent of business owners will tell you that their own websites are great, they believe only 10 percent of other websites are attractive. If that is the case for you, you may be in danger of subjectivity when it comes to examining your own website. Instead, why not get the opinions of others who know websites?
Find someone who can and will use data to support conclusions about your website. For example, an expert in SEO marketing may use something called A/B testing to try out new pages. What this means is that the marketer shows the “A” version of a page to a group and the “B” version and then collects data on customer responses.
This is a much more clinical way to evaluate how effective a website is. When in doubt, always ask your customers!
Look At The Competition
Your competition is a very important assets for you in one respect: the ones who bring in customers are doing something right. Find out which people are leaders in your industry and observe what they do.
Of course, you will have to create your own content; copying content from another website is a huge no-no and can get you banned by Google and other search engines. However, your competitions’ websites can certainly give you some good feedback on exactly what customer like and how they want information presented.
Use Available Analytics
You have a ton of analytic tools at your disposal, so why not use them? Take a look at bounce rate, browse rate and time on site in addition to number of visitors. Industry averages can help you decide if your visitors are following an average pattern or are leaving at a faster rate.
By looking at data and opinions other than your own, you are much more likely to create a great website!