Archive for January, 2009

(For free!)

Websites need to be useful. They need to match your visitor’s expectations and needs, but until you ask them for feedback, optimizing your website for usability is just a guessing game.

There are several options for getting that feedback, some more expensive than others. The expensive routes include hiring firms dedicated to optimizing websites for usability, and if you can afford it, that’s an investment that will most likely yeild some significant returns. 

There is a free alternative though, and although it isn’t as informative as organized focus groups, it will get you headed in the right direction and offer enough feedback to dramatically improve the user experience, from your visitor’s perspectives.

4Q is a web survey – it shows a popup (visit the 4Q website to see what that looks like) when you first visit the site, asking users to opt-in to a little survey. If the user clicks “Yes,” a new window will appear and then minimize, so that they can finish the survey after leaving your website. You decide the questions that will be asked, and the user is given the opportunity at the end to write their general thoughts, insights, and feedback regarding your website. 4Q takes care of gathering and reporting the data, which you can access by logging into the admin section on their website.

Good questions to ask may include:

1. Rate your overall satisfaction after browsing through the website.
2. What was the  purpose of your visit?
3. Did you find what you were looking for?
4. Rate the difficulty you experienced navigating the website.
5. Rate the usefulness of the content on the website.
6. (If testing a new website design) If you are a returning visitor, how do you like the new look?
7. Do our solutions/products/services match what you were looking for?
8. Please describe what you liked about the website.
9. Please describe any changes we can make to improve the website.

Motivate your visitors to take the survey with a promo code, free shipping, or a free whitepaper, and don’t take too much of their time.

You don’t want to ask all these questions, and depending on your reasons for implementing the survey on your site, pick questions that will meet your goals. And don’t ask too many questions – your visitors are doing you a favor, so don’t waste their time. They will be more likely to fill out the survey if you offer something in return, such as a promo code, free shipping, or a free whitepaper. 

The admin section allows you to manage the amount of users that will see the survey, so that you don’t have to bombard 100% of your traffic with the survey (make sure you use a number high enough to yeild accurate statistics, though). 

It is important to look at the results of the survey with the right attitude – you will most likely be very surprised at some of the responses, but avoid discarding scathing or seemingly unreasonable feedback – there is a reason for it. It’s an opportunity to improve your website in ways that will affect your visitor’s attitudes towards your website, and will result in higher conversions and results.

4Q is a joint venture between Avinash Kaushik (wrote Web Analytics: An Hour a Day) and iPerceptions, a company that uses analytics to measure the perceptions and attitudes of website visitors in order to improve user experience.