Whether you are an amateur web designer or a pro developer getting someone else’s opinion about your website can bring valuable insight improving its look and effectiveness. There are a few things I’ve learned about this process I thought I should share here.

Be clear about what you are asking for. Most websites that offer review services cater to a broad crowd of specialists. General inquiries don’t get a very good response and often leave you without any real information to improve your site. Before you ask, decide what you want to know about. Possibilities include:

• Aesthetics
• Content
• Compliance (W3C, accessibility, etc.)
• Search engine crawlability
• Promotion
• Tactics
• Topic(s)
• All pages finished
• Formatting issues
• Consistency
• Navigation

Be humble. The people reviewing your site are spending their valuable time to help you out. Acknowledge and appreciate it! Getting defensive makes them wonder why they bothered in the first place.

Implement the suggestions you get. If you get a list of 5 things you must do to improve your site (and you asked for it) make it happen. If you ask for help and then don’t take the advice given there is no incentive to “help” you in the future - even if you really are “super-serious this time”.

Know when you are right. If you have a specific and clear reason why a part of your site is the way it is don’t change it just because someone thinks it isn’t right. The people reviewing your site are doing you a favor but you have to live with it. You know your viewers and direction better than anyone else - trust yourself. But do take the time to explain if this comes up.

Ask the right people for help. Different websites attract different types of users. Some sites are better at reviewing certain aspects than others. For example, asking for a review of your aesthetics at a PHP programming forum will probably be useless (most programmers think only 4 colors are needed for any project: Black, gray, white and blue). I suggest SEO Refugee’s Free Site Review for any concerns about SEO and Cre8asite’s Website Hospital for usability and “human” issues.

Read the rules. Some sites have different ways of operating than others. Some want your title to have specific words in it so everyone knows you want a review. Others want the URL. Every site that has these requirements makes it easy to find them. Be sure to follow them so the discussion is about how to improve your site instead of why they should be bothered to help if you can’t be bothered to read.

Get an offline opinion. A really great way to test your site is to have an internet novice surf it in front of you. Warning: You may be shocked by the results!

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