How to leave comments on a website

Here's how website feedback usually goes. You screenshot the page, crop it, draw a wobbly red circle, drop it in Slack and then type out two sentences explaining which red circle you meant. It does work. It's just slow, the replies wander off into the thread, and the picture is out of date as soon as somebody changes the page.

There are really only three ways to do this. Let's go through when each one is worth it, and then how to write a note that nobody has to come back and ask you about.

The quick version

One note, once? A screenshot is fine, honestly. Reviewing a page with other people, or doing this every week? Pin the comments on the live page with a browser extension. It's quicker, nobody has to ask which button, and next week the notes are still sitting there.

The three ways, side by side

	Screenshot and describe	The site builder's comments	Notes pinned on the live page
Setup	None	Everyone needs access to the builder	Install a free extension
Works on sites you don't own	Yes	No	Yes
Keeps a picture of what you saw	Yes, as a loose file	Sometimes	Yes, saved with each note
Stays attached to the right spot	No	Yes, inside the builder	Yes, on the real page
Replies and resolving	In whatever chat you use	Yes	Yes
Best for	A one-off note	Building one site in one tool	Reviews, audits, research

1. Screenshot and describe

Everyone starts here, and for a single note there's nothing wrong with it.

Grab the area first. That's Cmd+Shift+4 on a Mac, or Win+Shift+S on Windows, and either way you drag a box over the bit you mean. A quick box or arrow on top often says more than a paragraph, and our free screenshot annotator will do that in the browser. Then paste it wherever your team talks. Please include the page address. A week from now nobody will remember which page that screenshot was from, including you.

The wheels come off with volume. After the third or fourth note, the images are scattered across threads, replies have drifted away from the pictures they're about, and good luck working out which ones are done. Worse, by the time someone opens the page, it might look nothing like the picture anymore.

2. Use the site builder's own comments

Some website builders let people comment inside their editor or preview. If the whole review team already lives in that tool, and you're only ever looking at that one site, it's a neat option that keeps notes close to the build.

Its limits come from the same place, though. You're stuck inside that builder. Want to comment on your live site on another platform, or a competitor's page, or a dashboard? Not happening. Reviewers usually need an account or a special link too, and the comments end up living in the builder rather than wherever your team actually keeps its work.

3. Pin comments on the live page

For anything you do regularly, this is the one. An extension sits in your browser and lets you drop notes onto whatever page is open. Point at the thing, type, done. In Lasso it goes like this.

1. Grab Lasso from the Chrome Web Store and pin it to your toolbar so the button's always handy. Edge and Brave work too.
2. Open whatever page you want to talk about. Live site, staging, a dashboard you're logged into, a competitor's pricing page. If your browser can open it, you can comment on it.
3. Hit Alt+C (Option+C on a Mac), or click the Lasso button, and click the element. Want an area rather than one element? Drag a box around it.
4. Type your note and save. Lasso pins it to that element and snaps a screenshot of the spot right as you click.

5. Pull people in with @. Type a teammate's name and they get an email with your comment, the screenshot and a link back to the exact spot.

6. Resolve things as they get fixed. Whatever's still open is, quite literally, your to-do list.

None of this touches the website itself. Your comments live in your Lasso account and show up only for you and whoever you share them with. That's why it works on sites you don't own, and why ordinary visitors never see a thing.

How to write comments people can act on

Here's the thing nobody tells you. The tool matters a lot less than the note. A good comment is one the reader can fix without asking you anything. A few before and afters.

Vague	Actionable
This looks off.	The gap above this heading is bigger than the one below. Can they match?
Make the button pop.	Use the orange primary style here, like the button in the hero.
Copy is too long.	Cut this paragraph to one sentence. The second half repeats the headline.
Broken on mobile.	At phone width this card overflows the screen by about 20px. iPhone, Safari.
Not sure about this.	Do we have permission to use this logo? Legal asked last month.

Some habits that help. Ask for what you want rather than only pointing out what's wrong. Keep it to one issue per comment, so each one can be ticked off by itself. Mention the device or state if it matters, like logged out, a brand new account or mobile. And if you're only asking a question, say so, or someone will cheerfully change a thing you were merely curious about.

Keeping lots of comments organized

Collections are how you keep it sane. Make one per project, per review round or per site. Keep a collection private for your own scribbles, or share it with the teammates you pick. You can have several on the same page at once, so your half-formed thoughts never get mixed up with the list the team actually agreed on.

There's also the library, which lists every page you've ever commented on, grouped by site with a little thumbnail. Handy when you know you left a note somewhere last week but can't remember the address.

When something doesn't work

The Lasso button is missing from the toolbar. Chrome likes to tuck new extensions behind the puzzle piece icon. Click that and pin Lasso.

You can't click something inside an embedded frame. A video player or a form from another service often sits in its own little frame. Drag a box over it and comment on the area instead.

The whole app is drawn on a canvas. Google Sheets, Figma and plenty of charting tools paint their content rather than using normal page elements, so there's nothing to click on. Dragging a box works anywhere, so use that.

A comment moved, or it's marked approximate. That means the page changed so much the original element disappeared. Have a look at the screenshot saved with it, and you'll usually spot where things went.

A teammate can't see your comments. Double-check you shared the collection with them. Private ones are visible to you alone.

So which should you use?

A single note you'll never think about again? Screenshot it. A review with a few people, an audit, or anything you'll want to dig up later? Pin it on the page. No cropping, no "which button?", and the conversation stays stuck to the thing it's about. If you want a safe place to try it first, there's a practice page for exactly that.