Result! How'd you do?

Your Scorecard

Based on your test responses, your website is like a steady Flashlight.

You can light your own way, and some folks can find you if they're close enough.

Flashlights are good – you can light your way, so your website probably serving your business for some tasks. But flashlights are pretty task-oriented, and can have a narrow focus. Your website is likely wasting a lots of its potential – and your potential audience.

If nothing else, your website should be allowing people to contact you. That might be working – at least for some people. 97% of the websites online today are not accessible – chances are good that yours isn’t either. We want to be sure that your website is usable by as many people as possible, so you don’t inadvertently make your beam too narrow.

In case you’re not into video, I want to thank you kindly for trusting me with your email address. I don’t take that lightly – I know you don’t want to fill up your inbox with more useless stuff, and I do solemnly swear to serve up only valuable content and recommendations of things I use myself.

What this means for you

What does this really mean? Well, you might think you’re satisfied right now with how it’s performing. But let’s see what a Flashlight website means on the web overall.

Search Engines

Your website is not easy to find.

Flashlight websites are often like virtual business cards. Your website works – at first glance – well enough when you share it directly, or when you’re near enough to see it. It might even bring a few people in who may or may not be the right fit for you. But it’s just one more card in an enormous pile of other cards. There’s not much on your Flashlight “card” that lets a search engine pick it out from all the others.

Brand experience

Your website has a narrow beam.

It may be successfully serving your business as that virtual business card. But that’s a pretty narrow beam, and it is not inclusive. When you look past that first glance your “card” might not be easy to read, after all. A website that is not accessible will prevent users from learning about you, let alone engaging with you. And that will negatively impact the brand experience you provide online.

Here's what you can do next.

About our Spotlight Test

Our Spotlight Test is the creation of Steph Sedgwick of Bright Webs Design, and is based on her experiences over 11+ years in the industry. The Spotlight Test asks questions that are carefully curated and designed to enable you to self-assess your website in the top areas that today’s sites need to offer.

These questions just barely touch the surface of what is possible for your website! We want to reset the industry standard for findable, functional websites – and we want to help you do just that. Our text touches on four categories that work together, and are interwoven into what we consider to be the standard requirement for websites today.

1. Customer Experience

This is also called User Experience, or UX. It is extremely important – not just to your user, but to search engines too.

2. Searchability

Searchability combines aspects of UX and several standard, modern features that search engines expect to find on your website.

3. Accessibility

Design for the diverse abilities of your website visitors, and EVERY user benefits. This makes for better UX, which makes for a better world wide web.

4. Operability

For the purposes of this test, operability is making absolutely, positively, 100% sure that our customers can get ahold of us.

Want to truly shine?

Make your website a better place to visit...

… and you’ll stand out from your competitors.

It’s not magic. But it is a kind of magical combination of art and science. There’s a lot more involved in making a truly great, universally accessible website than we can pack into this one simple test.

The brighter and steadier your website can shine, the more people will be able to find you. Instead of a Flashlight with a narrow beam, your website can be a Lighthouse to guide them.