What Is Website Testing?
Website Testing is a lighter-weight sibling of Prototype Testing: instead of connecting a Figma file, you paste the URL of a real, live page and participants interact with it directly inside a recording.Note: Because Great Question doesn’t control the code of the site being tested, Website Testing doesn’t track clicks, paths, or a goal/success screen the way Prototype Testing does — there’s no click tracking, heatmap, or success rate here. The recording itself (and anything you ask in follow-up questions) is your data.
Why It Matters
Website (Codeless) Testing captures natural behavior directly on your site or landing page, helps you identify friction in navigation, copy clarity, or task completion, and lets you scale research without scheduling moderated interviews. Recordings, transcripts, highlights, and reels all land in one place to streamline analysis.Common Use Cases
Set Up a Website (Codeless) Test
Step 1: Create Your Study
- Navigate to Studies in the left-side menu.
- Click New study and select Prototype test — this is the same creation entry point used for Figma prototype testing; you’ll choose Website Testing as the block type in Step 4.
- Add your core study details — title and research goal, participant criteria or segments, incentives (optional), screener questions (optional), consent form (optional), external recruitment (optional), and study attributes and language settings.
- Review your plan, then click Next.
Step 2: Set Up Your Screener (Optional)
Add multiple-choice, text, or scale questions using the screener editor. Apply logic under Preferences or view the full rules under All Logic, then review and click Next.Step 3: Configure External Recruitment (Optional)
If sourcing participants through Great Question’s external recruitment marketplace integration, enter the participant count, request title, description, and recruitment criteria, then review and click Next.Step 4: Build Your Test Flow
Website (Codeless) Tests are a type of Unmoderated Test study, built from modular blocks:- Welcome — Introduce the study and describe expectations and test goals.
- Permissions — Configure recording settings: choose inputs (Screen, Microphone, Camera), select device type (Desktop or Mobile), choose a layout style for instructions placement, enable “Thinking out loud” reminders, and optionally restrict recording to the current browser tab for privacy.
- Website test (codeless) — Add this block (instead of a Prototype Test block) to run the actual usability task. Add a title and description with task instructions, then paste your Website URL.
- Other Question blocks — Add survey-style follow-ups like multiple choice, scales, open text, and dropdowns.
- Thank You — Provide closing instructions or next steps.
Note: Mobile device tests can record audio and camera only — there’s no mobile screen sharing.
Step 5: Review and Publish
Check all sections for accuracy. When ready, click Create to publish your study.The Website Test Block
Paste any live, publicly reachable URL — there’s no restriction based on where it’s hosted (a standard production domain, GitHub Pages, or a static HTML export all work the same way). Great Question checks whether the site allows itself to be embedded:- If it does, participants see it in an embedded window alongside their task instructions.
- If the site blocks embedding (via
X-Frame-Options, a content-security-policy, or certain WAF configurations), Great Question automatically falls back to opening the site in a new tab instead, and tells participants their full screen needs to be recorded rather than just the embedded window. You’ll see the same warning at setup time. - You can also proactively force this with the “Always open in new tab” setting, even for sites that would otherwise embed fine.
Note: The URL you enter is passed through to participants exactly as written — Great Question doesn’t add, remove, or rewrite any query parameters. If parameters seem to disappear once someone reaches your site, check your own site’s client-side routing or redirect behavior first; there’s no tracking-parameter injection feature on this block today.
Tip: To test multiple tasks on the same website, add a separate Website Test block for each task and paste the same URL into each one — there’s currently no way to reuse one URL configuration across multiple blocks automatically.
Manage Your Study After Publishing
Setup
- Plan — Adjust participant limits, incentives, study attributes, or segments.
- Screener — Edit questions or update logic.
- Emails — Customize participant-facing communications.
- Pages — Update the Landing Page and Screener Disqualification Page.
- Automations — Send invitation and task reminders after 24 hours.
- Notifications — Choose which email alerts to receive.
Execution
- Participants — Add candidates, track progress, and manage status.
- Stats — View email performance metrics.
- Screener Responses — Review responses to determine eligibility.
Results
- Tags — Apply or edit study-level or global tags to categorize findings.
- Synthesis — Group highlights and observations into themes.
- Repository — Access all recordings, transcripts, highlights, reels, and assets.
Note: There’s no Summary or analytics tab for Website Test blocks — no click tracking, paths, or success rate. Recordings, transcripts, and any follow-up question responses are the full extent of what you’ll get.
Best Practices
Test your URL for embeddability before launch. If your site blocks embedding, participants will need to record their full screen in a new tab — set expectations for that in your task instructions if it applies to you. Don’t rely on URL parameters for personalization. Since Great Question passes your link through unchanged, any parameter-based behavior needs to work reliably on your own site, independent of anything Great Question does. Use one block per task, not one block per URL. If several tasks happen on the same site, repeat the URL across separate Website Test blocks rather than looking for a shared-URL shortcut.Troubleshooting
| Issue | What’s Happening | How to Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Participant can’t start the test | Browser permissions weren’t granted, or the browser isn’t fully supported. | Ask them to refresh and allow mic, camera, and screen permissions — Chrome is recommended. |
| Screen recording missing | The participant may be on mobile, or didn’t grant screen-share permission. | Confirm desktop use and instruct them to click Share Screen when prompted. |
| Audio missing | Microphone permission wasn’t granted. | Have the participant refresh and click Allow for mic permissions. |
| Camera not captured | Camera permission wasn’t granted in the browser. | Ask the participant to enable the camera icon in their browser toolbar. |
| Stuck on the Permissions step | A pop-up blocker or browser privacy mode may be interfering. | Disable pop-up blockers and retry in an incognito or private window. |
| Website opened in a new tab instead of embedding | The site blocks embedding via security headers — this is expected, automatic fallback behavior, not an error. | No fix needed. Confirm your task instructions account for participants recording their full screen in this case. |
| Query parameters seem to disappear once the participant lands on the site | Great Question passes your URL through unchanged — this is almost always the target site’s own routing or redirect dropping the parameter. | Test the URL directly outside of Great Question to confirm whether your site preserves the parameter on its own. |
| Recording not appearing in results | The participant may have left before the study fully completed. | Ask participants to stay on the page until the “Completed” screen appears, and check session status in the Participants tab. |
| Device not supported | An outdated or unsupported browser is being used. | Recommend an updated Chrome or Safari on desktop, and clarify that mobile screen sharing isn’t available. |
Still need help? Contact us at support@greatquestion.co — median response time is 19 minutes during support hours.