Just recently, I introduced a cool site I discovered to a tech-savvy friend, but he quickly became confused due to the advertisement placements on the page. The ads were positioned at the top, right below the navigation bar, making them appear like site categories. Naturally, he clicked on them.
The search bar on the site was completely blacked out, making it impossible to see what was being typed, and it provided no error messages upon hitting enter. The 404 page had a broken image, and one of the social media buttons directed to an incorrect account.
Furthermore, I came across a page still containing Lorem Ipsum dummy text, which is quite frustrating.
Ultimately, my enthusiasm for the site dwindled. Even though it ranked well—hence how I found it—I couldn’t trust it anymore.
Ask yourself: Would you click on this link?
When building links, I always consider if I would want that link to my site if I were the client. Although minor complaints from clients can be irritating, if I were a client and my link-building company got a link on such a site, I would be extremely frustrated.
Having a high rank is great, but it doesn’t guarantee a new sale, a new email subscriber, or any positive conversion you might be aiming for. The prevalence of spam in top search results has made users realize that they can’t rely on rankings as they once did.
Therefore, if you expect to gain converting traffic from a link, the usability of the linking site is as important as the usability of your own site. Why place a link on a site no one trusts?
I personally approve every link our agency builds, and more often than not, I reject sites due to usability issues. They may have good metrics and look fine initially, but there’s often something amiss. The page loads are unreliable, the site is overwhelmed with ads, or there are countless pages that lead to 404 errors.
Finding a great linking partner has become increasingly challenging.
What should you check?
In general, I advise our team to conduct a preliminary check on a few factors to determine if a site is worth deeper evaluation. While we do consider metrics like Domain and Page Authority upon client request, we also look at which country drives the most traffic to the site. If there are no alarming red flags (like 90% traffic from a foreign country for a U.S. blog), we delve deeper.
Assessing content quality is crucial. You’d be surprised at the poor quality content on the internet, even on high-ranking sites. It includes incorrect grammar, typos, and poor structure. I recently refrained from purchasing clothes from a site where the "About Us" page seemed written by a very young child. They didn’t list a phone number, and some product descriptions appeared incomplete or generic. I have no interest in purchasing items where descriptions include placeholders like "insert photo of tan shirt here."
Checking for hacks, like those involving unauthorized promotion of products like Viagra or Cialis, remains necessary as these issues are rampant. Run a "cheap online order viagra" search on Google and you’ll see what I mean.
Don’t forget mobile compatibility, which is growing increasingly important. Some websites appear as miniature versions of the desktop site on smartphones. This hampers the chance for mobile conversions. Tools like Mobi, or several alternatives, can help check for mobile usability.
Stop forgetting users with visual difficulties
Years ago, a blind user demonstrated to me their method of navigating the web. I wrote something at that time which is still pertinent and bothersome today:
If [individuals] are reading a webpage with links that aren’t visually obvious, they’ll likely not find or click them. This applies even to those with perfect vision.
Webmasters might make links blend into the page too much in an effort to remain "safe," which is detrimental. We sometimes have to request visible links for clients. Why wouldn’t you want your links to stand out? It leaves me questioning what other negative practices might be hidden on the site.
Always always always LOOK AT THE SITE!
It’s simple: poor usability breaks trust. However, detecting usability issues requires time and can’t be quickly measured, except perhaps by page speed. We are thus compelled to actually look at the sites we want links from and thoroughly evaluate them.
