There are all kinds of ways to increase conversion on your website. You can tweak headlines, test offers and play with every single copy element to get it just right – but, at the end of the day, if the user doesn’t really get what you are trying to get them to do, you’re sunk.

Web folks have been employing something called usability testing for years. Essentially this is putting a prospect in front of your site and having them talk their way through navigating towards whatever your goal is. This is a very powerful, and frankly, necessary step for any website to be truly successful. The problem for the typical small business is that it can also be rather expensive.

I was interviewing web conversion expert Bryan Eisenberg for an upcoming Duct Tape Marketing Podcast episode and he shared a little secret with me about a firm that conduces low cost usability testing.

The site is usertesting.com and for just under $100 you can get some tremendous feedback about the user experience of your website.

Here’s how it works:

• You sign up for user testing, specifying the demographic profile of your target audience and how many user testers you want (one user costs $19, five users cost $95).
• Users record their screen and voice as they use your website, speaking their thoughts as they browse.
• You watch and listen to them use your site. Each user’s session – mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, and spoken comments – is saved as a Flash video for you to watch.
• You read their review.

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