Understanding your website

I've probably been involved in the development of about 400 websites in my career and it never ceases to amaze me how many business owners who rely almost exclusively on the web for business, don't bother to find out how people use their sites.

A website, any website, is a shop. It's a place where things are sold. The things might be intangible, such as ideas or political views possibly, but in most instances websites are there to sell services or products.

Anyone running an actual shop knows that to get the best results you have to arrange the shop in a particular way. On a simple level a store owner has to make sure that all items, particularly the most popular and profitable ones are easy to find and reach. The supermarkets spend huge amounts understanding customer flow and buying patterns and practises in their stores.

In a real store it's very easy to watch people meandering around the isles to see if there are difficulties. A bit of experimentation and many of these problems disappear.

On the web, the direct approach isn't usually possible. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, those running the site tend not to have access to software that will tell them what visitors do when they get to the site. Secondly, they often lack the ability to redesign the site.

Neither of these are good reasons for avoiding paying attention to this.

There are a number of companies who provide great heat map software that demonstrate visually in detail exactly what's happening on every page of a website. Most of these tools are easily added and then you probably need a couple of hours to get familiar with how they work.

The cost benefits of doing this and applying the knowledge you gain, are potentially massive. Straight away you will be able to see exactly how people move around your site in the same way as a store manager can watch customers roaming around the store.

The next step is commission usability studies. These do not have to cost thousands to run but do require careful consideration to devise questions and tester routines to figure out whether the website is performing the functions for which it is designed. Usability studies usually involve creating screen videos with narrative or video from behind the user with audio recording.