Is website optimization really worth the trouble?

The short answer here is : yes..!

Website optimization allows you the opportunity to take a good looking website and convert into a great performing website!

Let’s face it, we all want a website that not only has a lot of traffic driven to it, but also a site that then takes that traffic and makes sure that it converts by filling in a form or actually buying something there and then! This is the point of a website; to make people convert. To make your website change from being a presence online to a money making machine!

How can this be?

Website optimization makes this possible.

Website design is an art. The designer needs to take note of many different pieces of information to design a site which answers to the websites objectives. They need to look at everything from brand to customer demographic as well as the site’s objectives. By testing the layout, colours, calls to action, copy, headlines and more you can really start to ensure that your page is converting as many people as possible.

Google’s Website Optimizer tools are excellent as they cover both a/b testing as well as multivariate testing.

a/b testing is an optimization technique where you literally change one variable at a time to gauge how it changes the conversions on a specific page. By testing one variable at a time, we get a very clear indication of exactly what works and what does not.

Multivariate testing is when different versions of the page are tested. This offers completely different versions of the page which gives great results, but the pin point accuracy of exactly which change made the difference is lost.

Elements to test

Of all the elements that make up a landing page. There are a few that are slightly more important than other in my opinion.

The first is your heading.

The heading is the link between what the user searched for, and your page. They have trusted you enough to click on your PPC ad or your organic listing, now you need to let them know they did the right thing. By reflecting what they clicked on in your heading you are earning a little more trust and will make the user a little more at ease.

Second is the call to action.

The Call To Action (CTA) is what you want the user to do on your page. Fill in a form, click a button, buy something. Don’t confuse your user by having 3 things for them to do. Make it clear to see, obvious to understand and impossible to miss. This is why your website exists, it is to get people to take this action; so why hide it?

One of the best solutions is to have the form that you want them to fill in (assuming its a form) on the page and above the fold. Don’t make them look for it and don’t make them click away to a “contact us” page. Make it easy for them to contact you.

Benefits or features?

Benefits. Benefits. Benefits. It’s as simple as that. Make sure that the benefits you are mentioning on your page are addressing something that the user typed in to find your page in the first place. This is going to build confidence with the user and take one more step in convincing them to fill in your perfectly positioned contact form. Convincing copy that is relevant to their search term and shows them value is always a win.

These are by no means all the things you need to look at when practicing website optimizastion, but I feel that they are some of the important ones that you should look at first.