See Your Website As Google Bots See It

Ever wanted to see your site as a website crawler sees it?

Below, I explain a simple trick - but first, why on earth would you even want to see your beautiful site like that?!

1. You get to see if you have enough text.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a designer. I struggle with having tons of text on my site all the time. I love seeing empty space, color and beautiful fonts and text just gets in the way of that. I’m not even a great writer but guess what: content is what will really drive people to your site.

You get to see if you have enough content on your site. Not only that, but are you using your keywords? Seeing your site in this text only format will hopefully jolt you into creating amazing content for your website.

2. You can see your site as a screenreader does.

Have you ever wondered how a visually impaired person browses your website? They use a screenreader. On a mac? Go to your preferences and turn on the reader then go to a website.

Start tabbing through a site (that’s right, tabbing) and listen to what your site is saying. Are the images with text not even being read? Are there links that, when the reader gets to them, it just says “Link” and moves on? Now that you know why checking your site like this is important and the things to look out for, let's get down to the website hack!

How to view a text only cached version of your website:

1. Copy your full URL, such as https://roblesdesigns.com/

2. Open a new browser window and type in cache:

3. Paste your website address right after so that it looks like this: cache:https://roblesdesigns.com/ and hit enter.

4. Click the Text Only link at the top.

Note that yours might look or act differently depending on the browser being used. In the video tutorial, Chrome was being used. It also depends a lot on the platform being utilized. I.E. Wordpress and Squarespace often act differently when testing websites.

So, what next? Write down what you see, or don't see.

1. Are your images named strange things.

2. Is there very little text.

3. Are links coming up as just "Link".

4. Do you think a robot or screen reader can still get the idea of what your website is about?

Still feeling a bit confused about your website? Sign up for a quick call and we'll help you find some answers.