You just made some minor changes to you site, nothing big, but wait! You’re not done yet. This post is just a friendly reminder to start your week out right by testing your site. Yeah, Yeah you say, my site works fine. Here is a little poll that you may like: Order Forms. Feel free to vote on it.

Way, way too many times we simply hit and run, making changes to our site, and don’t even bother to make sure it’s working right. I’ve ton a ton of usability testing on sites where their online order form simply did not work. Talk about poor usability. No wonder so many site owners can’t afford getting an analysis, they are not making any sales.

Make Any Changes Equal Test

What inspired me to write this post was an analysis I was doing this morning on Rock Music Forum. I had to put on the brakes second one. The site administrator had accidentally changed the permissions to the forums, and it appeared that you had to be a member to simply read it. At first I thought this was the way they wanted to keep it, so I created an account to see how life was behind the brick wall. What I found was that the  administrator forgot to test their site after making some changes. I still couldn’t read any of the forums, and obviously could not even post. Big Whoops. If they had tested, a two second fix would have solved the problem.

Way Too Much To Lose

I can not stress how important it is to test. There is simply way too much to lose. In the case of the Rock Music Forum the owner was not only missing out on gaining new members, but was also killing off the existing members. That equals marketing dollars lost twice!

If you forget marketing money lost, don’t forget potential revenue lost. No sales on your site often equals sales on another site, a.k.a. your competitors. It’s bad publicity, and it’s bad for your pocketbook. Too many times I have found order forms that simply don’t work, and I am betting one of you reading this will find a broken form as well.

Broken Equals A Better Option Someplace Else

In regards to the Rock Music Forum the site was only “down” for a few hours, but imagine if those changes had been done right before the weekend? Think you want your rock music forum down on a Friday or Saturday night? Visitors are getting more and more used to finding broken sites, and they are also learning. They are learning to go to the sites that don’t break, or very rarely break leaving the junk second one.