Inexpensive services for reviewing landing pages?

[pranavc]

Hello All,
I have a rather interesting issue with my website. The website has an alarmingly high bounce rate. I do NOT have some of the typical problems that lend itself to a high bounce rate such as slow load time, flash ads, pop-ups, or music playing. Hence, I have to guess that it is a website design issue that I am not able to figure out. How would any of you go about trying to fix this issue. I cannot move around stuff on the website without totally turning this upside down. Are there services that are inexpensive that would involve a person critiquing my website's landing page? If you know of any, please do respond to this post. If you have any other ideas, that would be great too. Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Pranav

[aakk9999]

Why not try "Review my site" forum in "Webmasterworld Supporters" section?

[pranavc]

I guess I could try the "review my site" section. I also realize I have to review two websites before I can submit mine for review. I am beginning to question my competence at reviewing based on the issue I am having. Hence, I am a bit skeptical about my ability to do a good job reviewing another site. Thoughts?

[ken_b]

I am a bit skeptical about my ability to do a good job reviewing another site.

I wouldn't let that stop you.

You don't need to be an expert in every aspect of web design to offer worthwhile comments about a site. You may have an issue with area "A" on your site and still be able to offer real help about area "B, C, or D" on another site.

Spend some time reading the reviews there now and I think you'll see what I mean.

If you approach the review from a "what do I as a user find difficult, confusing, or easy to understand, etc" about a site you'll probably come up with helpful comments to make.

Sometimes all a site needs is someone to point out how it looks from a different perspective to make a real difference.

[pranavc]

I agree with you. I will go ahead and review a few websites right away! Thanks for the push. I think I needed it ken_b!

[pranavc]

looks like I cannot post in that part of the forum. Apparently, I need to be a subscriber for that. I am a student and on a tight budget and hence cannot really indulge myself with a subscription right now. Is there any other alternative?

[lucy24]

I am beginning to question my competence at reviewing based on the issue I am having. Hence, I am a bit skeptical about my ability to do a good job reviewing another site.

Consider. If you ask a trusted friend for advice on some real-life situation, he will give you excellent advice. If he asks you for ditto ditto, you will ditto ditto. But do you follow the advice you yourself give? Does your friend? Naah. It has to come from someone else.

The only exception is if you know from past experience that you like visiting websites that most people hate. Or if you're color blind. That kind of thing.

Edit: Oops, we overlapped.

You're a student. Ooh, excellent. You've got a pool of critics ready to hand. And I don't mean your friends, unless you are an older student. Your typical 19-year-old has perfect eyesight and thrives on blinking text. Ask your professors to take a look. Or a carefully chosen teaching assistant. Pick the right time. Not while they're busy preparing or grading exams, or doing the beginning- or end-of-semester stuff. Doesn't have to be a current professor. Anyone from past terms that seems to have good sense. Not too kind, not too nasty. Someone who made genuinely useful comments on your classwork.

[pranavc]

the few I have asked are super-vague. They say stuff like it "it needs an overhaul" but it is not clear what really means. The rest are downright polite. I am actually a grad student so I am a lot older than 19 but on a tight budget regardless. But your instincts are right. I should have a pool of critics. I guess I do BUT the input isn't concrete.

[pranavc]

and the website landing page has gone through a few iterations so far.

[piatkow]

Some random thoughts:

1. A non specialist reviewer is a good idea. One of my sites had a feature that every IT professional who looked said was fine but which a significant proportion of customers had a problem with. (The fix was trivial)

2. Bounce rate - how are people arriving? Is the information that they want on the landing page? If not is there sufficient information to make them want more? Is navigation obvious and easy? From my site stats I think a significant proportion of web users have an aversion to clicking internal links within sites that they visit.

[pranavc]

Hey piatkow, Thanks for your response.

People arrive through the following avenues:
a. Organic search through google
b. Facebook/Twitter
c) Website referrals - this is the big source of visitors

I believe the information they want is on the landing page. Since it is a music website, there is a music player they have to launch. There is a big sign on the upper left hand on the page saying "click to listen" which launches the music radio player. The navigation is easy. In terms of clicking links,since they have to launch a player (it is an internet radio station), they absolutely have to click that link.

A non specialist's review is exactly what I need.

[aakk9999]

Are there services that are inexpensive that would involve a person critiquing my website's landing page?

Sorry, I did not realise you are on so tight budget. Since you asked for inexpensive service, I did not think you could get anyone to review it for much cheaper than $89 which is the cost of six months subscription. And you may have added benefit of many reviewers and hence many angles, not just one.

But if you cannot afford then what piatkow and lucy24 suggest is a good idea. See if you can find few people and just give them a task to do on your site (e.g. book something, go somewhere, find something), start with the landing page and ask them to navigate in order to accomplish the task and in the same time talk to you loudly what they are doing and why.

A big bounce rate can also mean that you are ranking for something that visitor thought it would find on your page but does not.

Or it can mean that they do in fact find it right there on the page and do not need to go to another part of the site.

Or yes, they could be just put off by design, see the site as not trustworthy enough or similar.

There are many angles and it may be more than one angle too.

[pranavc]

Thanks aakk9999! I got some feedback from people at a coffee shop right next to school. They said my "call to action" was clear but there was something else on the site that distracted from the call to action and caused people to click on that. I am going to try fixing that issue and see what that does for my bounce rate. Thanks for the help! I truly appreciate it.

[damon_cool]

Google Website Optimizer. Do some a/b or multi variant testing.