Visitors do not read pages, they scan them. While they scan, they ask six questions, usually without noticing. SORTED is the framework I developed to check a page against those questions, in the order they come up.
The six questions
S – Scent: Am I in the right place?
The page has to match what brought the visitor: the ad, the search, the link, the email or the recommendation of an AI assistant. A generic page behind a specific promise breaks the scent in the first second.
O – Offer: What do I get, and what can I do here?
In one sentence: what it is, for whom, with what result, and what to do next. If the main action reads “Submit” or “Learn more”, the offer is still vague.
R – Reason: Why should I care, and why this solution?
Benefits as results, not features. A useful test: cover the company name. If a competitor could print the same text, there is no reason yet.
T – Trust: Can I believe this?
Proof belongs next to the claim it supports, and it has to be specific enough to check. Objections about price, effort and risk need an answer before they are asked.
E – Ease: Is this easy to understand and use?
Scannable structure, a real mobile experience, speed, accessibility and forms that ask only what they need. Two competing main actions on one screen count against Ease.
D – Drive: What do I do now, and why now?
One clear next step, a button that says what happens after the click, and a reason for “now” only if there is a real one. Invented urgency costs more trust than it earns.
Why the order matters
The six questions fall into three phases: Understand (S, O, R), Decide (T, E) and Act (D). A page that fails early cannot be rescued late. If visitors do not understand what is offered, a better button will not change anything, which is why a finding in Scent, Offer or Reason weighs more than an equally large one in Drive.
How I use it
- Audits: each dimension starts at 5 out of 5, and I deduct only for a clear reason from the visitor’s point of view.
- Concepts: the six questions become requirements the new page has to meet.
- Priorities: every finding gets an evidence grade (heuristic, data or validated) and an ICE score, so the next step is a decision and not a debate.
Get the full guide
This article is the overview. The guide has the depth: a quick test for every question, the scoring rules, how awareness changes the yardstick, ICE scoring, a hypothesis template, sample-size rules of thumb and a ten-minute self-audit worksheet. It is a 9-page PDF, and I send it personally.
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