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Before you show it off, test it on a phone that isn't yours
You'll know who to ask to open your website without help, and the three questions to ask them afterward to decide what to fix before you send out the real link.
By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026
You've already opened your website on your phone and it looked fine. That's normal: you know it by heart. You know where the button is because you put it there yourself in every section, you know what each line says because you wrote it. That's exactly why your own phone is no longer useful for anything else.
There's a test you're missing, and it's not about reviewing the order of your sections or rereading your text. You can do that one yourself. It's about handing your website to someone who knows nothing about your business and watching, quietly, what they do with it. Not what they say they think. What they do with their finger.
Who to ask
Your partner, your best friend, or someone who's already a customer won't work for this. They know the business and they want you to succeed, so without meaning to, they'll fill in the gaps with things they already knew before opening the site. If something's unclear, it'll still make sense to them, because they understood it months ago, talking to you.
- Says yes without really paying attention, because they don't want you to fail
- Doesn't resemble your real buyer, so they won't get lost where a real customer would
- Takes the same amount of time a real customer would take looking for the same thing
- Knows nothing about the business, so they get lost wherever anyone would
- Could be a neighbor or someone from a different trade, it doesn't have to be a total stranger
- Their hesitation in front of the screen is the data you're after, not an inconvenience
Who to pick: Always choose someone from the second group. If you really don't know anyone who fits, use someone close to you only for the first pass, the one that just checks nothing's broken, and find the real profile before you send the link for real.
How to run the test without ruining it
How you ask matters as much as who you ask. One extra instruction and the test stops working.
- 1Give them the link and stay quiet
Send it over text or just tell them the address, nothing more. No "heads up, the prices are at the bottom" or "tap the green button." - 2Have them open it on their own phone, not yours
Yours already has the browsing history, the zoom level you left set, your usual wifi. Theirs is the real test. - 3Watch them, not the screen
Their face and their finger hovering say more than the screen itself. If they pause twice in the same spot, that's a problem. - 4Don't help even if they get stuck
If they sit there for a few seconds not knowing where to go, that's exactly the data you need. Helping them erases it.
The three follow-up questions
When they put the phone down, don't ask how it seemed. Ask this, in this order, and write down the answer exactly as given, without correcting or filling it in yourself.
- 1"What does this business do?"
If they answer with the second thing you offer instead of the first, your site's order is off. - 2"If you wanted to hire me or buy something right now, what would you do?"
If they hesitate or scroll back up to look, the button isn't where it needs to be. - 3"What was the hardest thing to find?"
The answer tells you what to move or make bigger before you send the link to anyone else.
The three questions back each other up. The first checks whether your site says clearly what you do the moment someone lands on it. The second checks the button to hire or buy from you. The third has no expected answer: it's there so they can tell you something you'd never have thought to ask, because you never get lost on your own website.
Run the test with two or three people who fit the right profile, not just one. If they all get stuck in the same spot, fix that spot before you send anything out. If each one gets stuck somewhere different, you've got several small fixes instead of one big one, and that's useful information too.
- You picked someone who fits your real customer's profile, not just the closest person around
- You watched them open the site on their own phone without explaining anything
- You have answers to all three questions: what they understood you sell, what they'd do to hire you, what was hardest to find
- You know what to move or make bigger before you send the link for real
- This is what tells you when to send the link, which is the next lesson
Three cases to decide
Answer before opening each one. If one gives you trouble, go back to the section that explains it.
1. You send the link to your brother-in-law, who already knows you do bathroom remodels because you've told him a thousand times. He says the site was crystal clear. Does that test tell you whether to send the link?
It doesn't count as a final test. Your brother-in-law already knew what you do before opening the site, so even if the section order were wrong, he'd have understood it anyway. It can work as a first pass to catch major errors, but before sending the link for real, you need someone who fits your real customer's profile.
2. You hand the phone to a neighbor who doesn't know your plumbing business. Before they open it you say: "just so you know, the contact phone number is at the very bottom." They browse the site and find it with no trouble. What did the test prove?
Nothing useful. By telling them where the phone number was before they even started, you took away the one thing the test was good for: seeing if they could find it on their own. Give them the link and stay quiet; if they need help, that's the data itself, not a flaw in the test.
3. You finish the test with someone who fits the right profile. You ask "what did you think?" and they answer "really nice, it looks great." You don't know if they found the price or saw the button. What did you do wrong and how do you fix it next time?
You asked the question that only gets you a nice-sounding answer. Instead, ask in order: what the business does, what they'd do to hire you right now, and what was hardest to find. Those three answers actually tell you what to move on the site before you send the link.
Yodai builds the site from what you tell it, with a store, bookings or quote requests depending on what you do. See what the website for your business looks like.
NextThe day you send the link