If you haven’t looked at your website like a real user recently, you’re flying blind.

Many marketers and business owners spend hours inside their CMS or analytics dashboards, but never actually browse their own site from the outside. And worse, they rely on feedback from people who know the site too well — internal teams, developers, even themselves.

That’s a problem.

Here’s why it’s essential to check your site at least once a week — in incognito mode — and to ask someone unfamiliar with it to do the same.

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🔍 1. You See the Site Like a Real User Does

When you browse in incognito mode:

• Cookies are cleared
• Login sessions are reset
• Cache is ignored
• You see what a first-time visitor sees

You’d be amazed how often logged-in users or admins miss broken links, outdated banners, or pop-ups that fire too frequently — because they’re not seeing what the average visitor sees.

✅ Action: Open your site in an incognito browser on desktop and mobile. Pretend you’ve never been there before. Ask:

• What grabs my attention first?
• Do I understand what this company does in 5 seconds?
• Is the CTA visible? Trustworthy?
• Are there any annoying interruptions (pop-ups, autoplay videos)?
• Does the layout look broken?

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📱 2. Mobile Experience = First Impressions

Mobile traffic now accounts for 50–70% of visits for many industries. Yet many websites still have:

• Broken layouts
• Tiny buttons
• Misaligned text or forms
• Pop-ups that are impossible to close on mobile

You can’t afford that. Your mobile site is often your first handshake.

✅ Action: Check your site weekly on at least two devices — ideally iPhone and Android. Scroll like a user. Tap your buttons. Try filling out a form. Does it feel easy and trustworthy?

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🧠 3. You’re Too Close to Spot the Problems

You know your site’s menu. You know what your product does. You know what that jargon means. But your users don’t.

That’s why you need fresh eyes. Ask a friend, your partner, a freelancer — anyone who doesn’t work with you — to navigate your site while you watch.

You’ll notice:

• Confusing navigation labels
• Unclear value propositions
• Frustrating checkout or contact forms

✅ Action: Give someone a simple task — “Buy a product” or “Book a demo” — and watch (don’t guide) how they do it. You’ll get more insight than hours of analytics sometimes.

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🧰 4. Things Break — And You Might Not Know It

Sites break more often than you’d think:

• Cookie pop-ups stop rendering
• Broken integrations silently fail
• Embedded calendars or payment forms stop working

If you’re not checking regularly, you could be losing conversions without knowing it.

✅ Action: Set a 15-minute calendar reminder once a week:
“Check the site like a user.”
Run through your core journey from homepage to conversion.

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🧠 Final Thought

You wouldn’t open a retail shop and never walk around the store.

Treat your website the same. It’s not just your digital storefront — it is your brand to many users. So view it with fresh eyes. Do it regularly. And don’t be afraid to ask:

“Would I convert here?”

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Start now: open an incognito window, load your site, and go be your harshest (and most helpful) critic.