I'm in the process... Oh. It's been a tres tres long process, with many starts and stops along the way, but I'm determined to get a slamming site up.

My site designer (what? a bot can't use a designer?) and I have a disagreement about something. We've agreed to test the design his way (boo) and my way (yay) and see what pulls more viewers, users, clicks. Even if he's right, and he's always right, I'll be able to base my decision on facts, not opinions. The moral of the story? Test, test, test. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate.

You don't have a designer? That's okay, duckey. You can use 50 Questions to Evaluate the Quality of Your Website. Want a peek?

Content

1. Is the website copy succinct but informative?

2. Does the copywriting style suit the website’s purpose and ’speak’ to its target audience?

3. Are bodies of text constrained to <80 characters per line?

4. Can text be resized through the browser or do CSS settings restrict size alteration?

5. Is the contrast between text and its background color sufficient to make reading easy on the eyes?

6. Is text broken into small, readable chunks and highlighted using headings, sub-headings and emphasis features where appropriate to assist in skimming?

7. Within articles, there should be links to more detailed explanations of subjects, or definitions of jargon terms. Are you doing that?

8. Do you have an “about page” that identifies the author of the content, credits to source for content that was not written by the site owner himself

9. Do you have testimonials and publish them on the site?

10. Do you update the content regularly and don’t live by the phrase “set it and forget it”?

Some of that is basic, but what about 6, 7? ActiveRain is notorious for poorly written real estate articles. Don't believe me? 150,000 members. How many are posts are worth your time to read? Really, think about it before you knee-jerk a response. I'm only trying to help (and I don't respond to comments anyway).

It's 50 Questions. That's 10, there's 40 more.

Get thee educated.