Don't Go Live Without It: The Essential Guide to Effective Website Testing for Business Owners

Ever experienced the panic of discovering major website issues after going live? We've been there too! Join us in this episode as we share a cautionary tale of a client who skipped the crucial step of website testing, resulting in last-minute changes and costly mistakes. We'll reveal the importance of thoroughly testing your site to ensure it accurately reflects your brand and meets your goals.

As the business owner, you have a unique perspective on your website, and you know your customers best. That's why it's vital to take an active role in testing, even if you have a developer on board. We'll guide you through the essential areas to consider, from defining your main website goals to using clear language. Plus, we're providing a handy website testing checklist in our show notes to help you audit your site effectively. Say goodbye to embarrassing errors and hello to a polished, professional online presence.

Mentioned Resources: 

Website Testing - How to Test your Website Guide

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Importance of Testing Your Website
• 2:54 Website Testing for Owners

Transcript

Carrie: 0:00

We are in the midst of many good lives for new and refreshed websites. I can always tell when from a customer's interaction how much they've tested their website we have built for them, or their refreshed website that we have worked on. When you have a website developer working on a new website for you, or even just simply creating some new features for you, you need to make sure that you reserve time to test the website as well. Your website is a direct reflection of your brand and it is a critical touch point and sometimes the only touch point for your customers. Did you know what you should do as a site owner to test your website? Did you know not testing your website can cost you money and lost revenue or opportunities? Join me as we discuss how to test your website so you aren't stuck with a website that doesn't do what you need or, worse, doesn't work when you go live.

Carrie: 0:48

Welcome to the eCommerce Made Easy podcast. I'm your host, Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a 9 month old My main goal To help others. Now, with over 20 years in the eCommerce building industry and even more than that in web development, i have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech and to easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned eCommerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place, so sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of eCommerce together.

Carrie: 1:21

Welcome back to this week's episode of the eCommerce Made Easy podcast. So testing your website is very top of mind right now, as we have been in the process of launching some very large website refreshes, and I want to make sure that testing your own website is not scary or daunting. It's, honestly, one of the most important things you should do when you have a new website build new features build or a refresh on your website. With some of these recent launches, it's been very apparent who has and who has not tested their website. One client in particular sparked the idea of this podcast.

Carrie: 1:55

I had sent them some specific instructions on what to test as part of their checkout was brand new. I wanted to make sure it functioned as they liked. We knew it functioned. We just wanted to make sure they liked how the checkout process looked and worked and if they thought it would fit with their customers expectations as well. They were rushed. I could tell they hadn't done the testing I had asked for. So I double checked again and re-asked. They insisted they had tested it and they were ready to go live And over 20 years of doing this business, i was confident that they hadn't. But I went forward with the go live as they requested. What happened, you probably guessed it. After going live, getting questions from customers, they realized the checkout area wasn't quite what they expected. So I had to pivot and put in a quick change for them after going live. Now, lucky for this situation, it was an easy change and we knew there were some easy changes we could do.

Carrie: 2:50

But what if we were something more critical or something unfinished that no one realized?

Carrie: 2:54

What if you have a developer that doesn't give you directions on what to double check? Do you know what you should do as a website owner? You may be wondering if testing is necessary because the developer should be testing the website. I totally agree. Of course the developer should be testing the website, but remember we all have different perspectives and different knowledge sets. Plus, the developer knows how they coded it. So unless they're great at thinking outside the box and thinking like a true user, they may not think of things to test that you would, and even if they are great about thinking outside the box, you will bring a different perspective and a different viewpoint on the website. In addition to that, it is your business and you know your customers best. You know their style and what they expect to see and what you want to see, because your website is a reflection of you and your brand. So making sure items on your site look and function as you intended is very much key. Check out our show notes for website testing checklists that we created to help keep you on task and make the process simpler. It is great for new features, new websites, refresh websites or, honestly, just a great way to audit your website.

Carrie: 4:04

We'll go over some top areas in this podcast today, though, on what you need to be doing as a website owner or web manager. First off, you need to determine your main website's goals. List out as many as you can think of. I would think at least 10 would be great. For example, you may want to have people signing up for your newsletter. You may want them to request a quote or a free consultation. Your goal could be for them to purchase products or leave a review or testimonial. Whatever your main website's goals are, list those out. Write them down. Be sure to include both short and long term goals of your website. What will really impact your bottom line? Think about that as you're creating this list. For example, getting someone on your newsletter may not immediately affect your bottom line, but in the long run, it will help you create the like, no and trust factor with your potential customers. You may want to also consider what products and services that you get the best margins on, so make sure those areas are reviewed as well. These are a few of the things you might want to focus on and test, as they are the core features and benefits of your website. Now I did mention about newsletter sign up, so I do want to give a little plug out for our episode 7, in case you are not currently utilizing email marketing or if you want to sharpen your email marketing skills as we go over email marketing and newsletters in that episode.

Carrie: 5:29

Now, if you can't test all these features that you just listed out, pick at least your top three or four that are the most important to you and your business and circle those on your bigger list. These are the ones that, if they functioned and functioned well, they will really move the needle in your business. Again, pick a mix of both long term and short term goals here. You may wondering too how do I actually test it? Really, put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers. Look at your website with a fresh set of eyes. Is it easy to find these features you want users to use or see? Are they above the fold or towards the top of your page? Do they stand out while still fitting in with the style of your website? Make notes of what you do and don't like, so adjustments can be made by your developer. Actually go through and try out the features too. If it's signing up for newsletter, try it out. If it's buying a specific product or products, go through the checkout and see how intuitive it is or is not. You can even go so far as to compare these features you've identified with popular websites, competitor websites or websites you really like to shop at.

Carrie: 6:37

As you review, think about the language that is used as well. Is it clear or is it clever? You want to go with clear language. You want to minimize how much the visitor and potential customer has to think. With clever language, it may sound great and fancy, but usually that sort of language makes people have to think and interpret for sure what you actually mean. It is a small barrier that can really disrupt the conversions on your website. One simple example would be request a quote instead of learn more. You know exactly what you're going to get. When you request a quote. You know you're going to get a response back with a quote or maybe some more questions to clarify what you want quoted, but you're going to get a quote back. Learn more is very big. What will you learn? Will it be helpful? What are they even talking about? really, in our show notes we have a checklist that's going to give you even more examples of clear versus clever language, so you can really get a good idea of this and review your site with those set of eyes Now.

Carrie: 7:39

Next, you should be testing at a basic error handling level as well. That term might sound a little bit techy, but really it's not too techy from a user's perspective. Simply put, see what your input forms are and your checkout forms and request a quote forms, etc. And what happens when you put in something that's unexpected? What happens if you put in letters for a phone number? What happens if you type too many digits into a zip code? Or what if you're a country that uses postal codes? What happens if you put in the wrong postal code pattern And maybe, for example, put all numbers when you know there should be letters and numbers? You want to be sure your developer has created checks for these, as well as create clear language when someone does input incorrectly formatted data into your inputs.

Carrie: 8:26

Also, in addition, you want to check on many devices, so the plethora of things out there that people can be using to view your website, including phones and tablets, laptops and PCs. We need to make sure that it works on many different sizes of devices. For example, we recently had a customer who we're working on to go live with a very, very large website. Go live. They were doing a great job testing their website and they were testing across multiple devices, many different sizes, and they found a few edge cases that we hadn't not caught, even though we'd been very thorough in double checking the responsiveness of the website. There were some very, very. It was really hard actually to find these edge cases that we needed to fix. So, making sure that you're testing it on your phone, find some laptops or some iPads or tablets, if you have them, or if your friends have them, and test it as well on a PC on a very large screen too, we need to make sure that we have it working for all different sizes and resolutions. So you just really want to be very thorough and very, very picky here, because this is just super important. I've written on websites that I've had to walk people through on how to use them that weren't ones that we built, because the responsiveness just wasn't working quite right and it didn't work, for example, on their phone, but if they turned the phone sideways then things were unhidden and they could see things. So I've had to help friends and family even with using websites that are other people's websites, and they simply had to do things like that. So really really being thorough here is super important And, in addition, if you can, you want to have some friends and family check over these new features and the new website that might be being built And even, if you can, some of your best customers.

Carrie: 10:27

Sometimes our best customers are our best testers. Now they may be used to your website say, you're getting a website refresh and they might be used to your old website and how it worked and your new refresh might be a little bit different, but they can really help you understand some of the features they depend upon every time they come and shop or use services of your website. So even finding some of those best customers that you have a great relationship with that would be willing to help review any new features or a new refresher Your website is a super bonus that you can do and very helpful. So one thing that we find customers don't think about, especially ones that haven't been in the business of having a website for a long time, is that when they have a really big project like this or even a small feature added to their website, they're quite thinking about the time they need to reserve to test their own website. And I would generally recommend that you think about about 10% of what your developer is going to spend on your website is about what you're going to want to have reserved for you to test it as well. So, say, a website, a new feature add is approximately 10 hours, so you're going to want to reserve about one hour for you to test those new features. Conversely, if the website is going to be like a hundred or a thousand hour type of project, in the hundred hour example, you're going to want about 10 hours to really go through and test it, and in the hundred hour example, it's going to be more like 100 hours, and that might sound crazy and daunting, but really think about it. If a developer is spending that much time testing your website or building your website and also testing it, there's a lot of things that they are doing for you and a lot of things that are there to test. So you're going to have a lot of things that you're probably going to want to test And, honestly, if you have a project that large, you're probably a very large organization to begin with, and it's really important that you thoroughly test your website because you have a lot of customers behind it really depending upon your website working well, and you really depend on it working well so that you can still utilize those customers and service them with your products or services, and so really thinking about 10% of your time should be for testing your own website as well.

Carrie: 12:59

Okay, so let's recap this week's episode. I know it's a little bit of a quick one, but I do feel like I packed a whole bunch of nuggets in here, so let's go over some of those nuggets, all right. So, first off, don't be rushed with new features, a new website or a revamped website and make sure you set aside time to test it as well. Pick your top 10 goals at minimum and test those. So what are your top 10 things that you want to make sure function well on your website? And if you're really crunched for time and I really recommend you really test your top features. But if you're really crunched for time make sure you pick at least three to four of your top 10 or so and test those. And also make sure, when you're picking these, pick ones that are long term and short term goals, both So you have a good mix of the two.

Carrie: 13:46

Also, make sure that your key features that you just identified are easy to find And is your language clear or clever around these? these features You want to make sure it is clear language. Don't get too fancy on people, because most people are in a hurry and don't have time to figure out clever language. Also, check basic error handling of forms and make sure they're intuitive, especially if the user input something incorrectly. Make sure each of the form fields are, like I said, intuitive themselves, so they won't probably won't input anything incorrectly. So really check those forms with a clear set of eyes that's really looking at it critically And, as we talked about, you know we need to make sure you're testing it on multiple devices phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and all of those varying sizes when possible, and a bonus would be to have friends and family and even potential very long term.

Carrie: 14:45

great customers test the new features or new website as well And, like we said at the end, make sure that you expect about 10% of the time your developer is using to create these new features or new website that you set aside about that much time for you to test the website to make sure it works as you intended as well, and not just what the developer is intending. No one wants a new website to fail or have hiccups. Be sure to check out our show notes at ecommercemadeeasypodcastcom to get the more detailed checklist so that you can be more fully prepared for any new features added to your website brand new website you might have had just built, or a revamped website, and even if you want to audit your existing website to make sure it's functioning as intended. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening and do us a favor and share this with a friend who you think that would help them with their website and their website building. See you next week.