While you can of course glean a lot from just looking at a site as an innocent user, it’s stating the obvious that the real insights come from looking under the hood. But what can you get from that first glance?
- Well firstly, is it responsive on a mobile device? I keep going on about this, but it is critical. Google doesn’t like it, and frankly real people don’t either.
- Take a quick glance at the Page Title as shown in the tab or browser title bar. Is it meaningful? Does it convey the essence of the page? If it just says ‘Home’ my heart skips a beat – here’s a quick win!
- Next step, view the page source. Do we have a good Meta Description? Are there Rich Snippets? And is there Google Analytics or Tag Manager code in there? I’ll also check for other tools like CrazyEgg, to get a sense of the tools that are being used to gather valuable user experience data.