Google Website Optimizer Blog

Picking a good test page with Google Analytics

2009-07-02T16:42:00.000-07:00

A common question we hear from users of Website Optimizer is, "What page should I test?" Of course, people have different opinions. For example, some experts say that you should never run a test on your homepage while others may disagree. We recommend taking a data-driven approach when choosing a test page. Simply put, test a page that needs improvement.

By using Google Analytics, you can find pages on your site that could most benefit from website testing. We've put together a short video showing how you can quickly identify these top choices:

Enjoy!

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Upcoming Webinar: The 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design

2009-06-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, June 24th at 10 AM PDT (new date, see below), we'll hosting a free webinar on landing page design. Tim Ash of SiteTuners, one of our Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants, will lead the event. He'll be sharing what he calls the seven deadly sins of landing page design.

If you want to increase your conversion rate, but are unsure of where you should start, this webinar will help you identify common issues that might be holding you back. The 90-minute webinar will conclude with open Q&A with Tim.

If you'd like to attend, you'll need to register to attend. Hope to see you there!

UPDATE 6/29/09
This webinar has been rescheduled for 7/1/09 at 10 AM PDT. You'll still need to register to attend. For those who couldn't make it on 6/24, here's your second chance.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Upcoming Seminars for Success

2009-06-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

We have two upcoming Seminars for Success for Google Website Optimizer. If you're looking for a day of in-person training to help you get started in your testing, you should try to attend. The curriculum includes:

An overview of testing and Website Optimizer
How to identify problematic pages and estimate sample sizes
Loads of testing best practices drawn from real tests and case studies
Hands-on lab experience in setting up, configuring, & launching both A/B and Multivariate tests
How to interpret the data and run follow up experiments

The two dates are fast approaching so you'll want to sign up right away.

San Diego, CA - June 12th - Register
Dallas, TX - June 19th - Register

And if you're looking to increase your expertise in other Google products, take a look at Seminars for Success for AdWords and Google Analytics.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Run better experiments with the Mom test

2009-05-08T16:05:00.001-07:00

In Made to Stick, the authors warn us about the curse of knowledge. Simply stated, once we know something it's hard to imagine us not knowing something.

When looking at our websites, we know how they work. We know where to find the Add to Cart button. We know that we'll pick shipping options after we enter billing information. We know the answers to questions that visitors have on their minds, and it's very hard for us to put ourselves in their shoes.

So I'd like to introduce to you, the Mom Tests:

All mothers want what's best for their children, which is, of course, why we love our mothers. While some moms have taken to the Internet with fervor, not all of our mothers are blogging, facebooking, tweeting machines. Moms are always willing to lend a helping hand and give their advice. Here are two ways your mom can help you improve your website.

The Mom Usability Test
Ask Mom to complete a task on your page. You'll want to have her start like an actual visitor would. So, think about how visitors arrive to your page. You could look in Google Analytics at Top Entrance Pages and see how people get to them, or start with a Google search and go from there. Ask your mom to try to buy something on your page or sign up for more information. Ask her to think out loud if she has any questions. Don't try to help or tell her what she should be doing. Just watch and take notes.

The Mom A/B Test
When people test their pages, they often try to test very small changes. Minute changes, like the use of a semicolon or the use of Arial font versus Verdana font (see the difference?), often have no effect on conversions. One rule of thumb to keep in mind is that users make a decision to stay on a page or leave in less than 5 seconds. That means, any change you are testing needs to stand out within 5 seconds.

So where does Mom come in? Show your mom your A page and your B page and ask her what's different. If she struggles to spot the differences, your changes may not be big enough. As for which page will convert better, that's where testing with Website Optimizer comes in.

We hope the Mom Tests help you improve your website and bring you and your mother a little closer this weekend. Happy Mothers' Day to all the Moms out there.

rose + rose + rose + rose = 4 roses by janusz l

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Landing Page Testing with Offline Conversions using Website Optimizer

2009-04-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

This is a guest post from David Booth at WebShare, a Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant. In addition, David is one of our Google Website Optimizer Seminar Leaders.

Can you use Website Optimizer to test your landing pages if your conversion occurs offline?

We know Website Optimizer is great when the conversion happens online, but what if your goal is an offline conversion, such as getting the phone to ring? Conversions are defined with JavaScript that has to be executed by a browser, so testing with a tool like GWO may sound like an impossible task – but it’s not.

Pacific Hills Treatment Centers was able to achieve a 40% lift in phone leads via their top landing page by using Website Optimizer, and this post will show you how they did it.

The Offline Lead Generation Dilemma

Tod Cunningham, VP of Business Development of PacHills found himself in a familiar position. “I was discussing how to get a better conversion rate out of my landing pages with my AdWords rep, and when she mentioned conversion testing my first response was, ‘That’s not going to work for me, my conversion doesn't happen on my site.’”

As is the case with many lead-gen sites like PacHills, a conversation with a real, live, human being is much more likely to turn a visitor into a customer, and is often necessary during the sales cycle.

With our help, an A/B test was created and run to test three alternate variations of a top paid search landing page. The goal of this page was not to get an online form submission or get a visitor through a shopping cart, but to get visitors to pick up the phone and call.

How to Test Offline Conversions

So how do you run a test with a phone call as your conversion? This can be done by using Website Optimizer alongside just about any of the widely available phone tracking solutions out there.

1. The first step is like any other test – after consulting your web analytics to determine the best candidate for the test page and experiment type, it’s time to create the variations. Ask yourself what changes you’d like to make and why you believe those changes will have a positive impact on conversions, and let that guide your variation design. In this experiment, WebShare’s design team helped facilitate this process and created three different alternatives to the original landing page. The original and winning pages are pictured below:

Click to see a larger image

2. Now it’s time to set up the phone tracking. All we really need to do is place a special phone number on each of our test pages that will tell us which of our different pages originated the call. In this case, ClickPath was used to automate this by assigning and tracking calls from phone numbers (or banks of numbers) dedicated to each specific landing page.

3. Next, set up the test in Google Website Optimizer. This example is of the A/B variety, where the original was defined along with three variations. You could do this as a Multivariate test as well.

4. After validating the alternate pages and previewing the variations in the preview tool, launch the experiment.

5. Patiently let the experiment run and collect your data.

Running the Analysis

At this point you’ll have Google Website Optimizer splitting traffic, recording unique visitors, and handling all your cookies to ensure that repeat visitors continue to see the same variation. Your phone tracking application will be recording the phone calls (conversions) that result from each of your variations, and you now have all the data necessary for your analysis.

Because Website Optimizer displays the data it’s recording, you can run the statistics yourself at any time using any tool you’re comfortable with. A simplified set of free conversion marketing tools is available on WebShare’s site to help you get the results you need. Here’s how:

1. From Website Optimizer, you’ll get the visitors data in your experiment report:

2. Your phone tracking software will provide your conversion data:

3. Next, plug these values into a tool (like this one) that will do the number crunching for you:

4. The last step is to run the numbers to get a report:

Start Answering Those Phones!

This particular experiment found a clear winner – a winner that boosted the likelihood of a visitor calling PacHills by over 40%.

According to Tod at PacHills, “This has opened up doors that we had thought were closed to us. You can bet next time you’re on our site, we’ll be testing on you!”

If you’re in a situation where a call is your conversion, then we hope this post will give you the tools to start testing and getting your phones ringing off the hook!

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Advanced Website Optimizer tricks

2009-04-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

If you've been enjoying the Techie Guide to Website Optimizer, we have a treat for you. Eric Vasilik, the lead Website Optimizer engineer, has put together the new GWO Tricks blog showcasing some of the extra-cool things you can do with Website Optimizer such as:

It's important to note that these are pretty advanced techniques, so if you're just starting out with Website Optimizer, you probably want to begin at our Help Center or YouTube channel.

Big thanks to Eric for pushing the envelope on what's possible with Website Optimizer. If you've got ideas on what he should try next, leave a note in the comments.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Two new Website Optimizer integrations

2009-03-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings from SES!

We have two cool new Website Optimizer integrations to share with you. One is from CoreCommerce, an ecommerce platform, and the other SEO Samba, an organic search management platform. With these integrations, implementing Website Optimizer on your site just got easier.

Here's a video demonstrating SEO Samba's integration:

And you can also see some videos of the CoreCommerce integration in action at their site.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Website Optimizer at SES New York next week

2009-03-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Are you coming to Search Engine Strategies in New York next week? The Website Optimizer team and friends will be there.

There are a lot of great sessions about how to improve your website. Here are some we think you should attend:

Survival of the Fittest 2.0
March 24th, 11:45am to 12:45pm
Bryan Eisenberg, author of Always Be Testing, will be speaking on a panel that discusses how companies survived the last downturn in online marketing, and what lessons can be applied to today's economic environment.

Landing Page Testing and Tuning
March 24th, 11:45am to 12:45pm
Tim Ash will giving a session at the same time on ways to test and tweak your landing pages to turn visitors into customers.

Pay per Conversation
March 24th, 1:45pm to 2:45pm
Sandra Cheng, the Product Manager for Website Optimizer, will be doing a session alongside Bryan Eisenberg. They'll show you how to identify missed conversations and what you can do to improve them and your PPC ROI.

Extreme Makeover: Conversion Edition
March 24th, 4:30pm to 5:30pm
Bryan Eisenberg and Tim Ash will be on a panel examining three companies' websites. They'll do a thorough critique of each site and explain how you can apply the same principles and practices they use on your own site.

Turning Simple Change Into Big Profit
March 25th, 2:15pm to 3:30pm
Kayden Kelly, one of our newest WOTEPs, is speaking about how a few easy changes can dramatically affect your bottom line.

Extreme Makeover: Live Ad Copy & Continuity Clinic!
March 26th, 10:30am to 11:45am
Karl Blanks from Conversion Rate Experts will be on a panel looking at continuity between your online advertising and your landing pages. Continuity is a sure-fire strategy for improving your conversion rate, and this session should be full of great examples.

Google Website Optimizer: Radically Improve your Conversion Rate!
March 26th, 2:15pm to 3:30pm
Finally, I'll be speaking on a panel with Tim Ash, Bryan Eisenberg, and Kayden Kelly. We'll look at some out-of-the-box uses of GWO, and take your questions about website testing. Hope to see you there.

In addition to sessions, we'll also be doing two special events at the Google booth, #1106:

Tim Ash will be signing and giving away copies of his book, Landing Page Optimization. The book signing is at our booth on March 24th from 1pm to 2pm.
Karl Blanks, one of the Conversion Rate Experts, will be at the Google booth all the way from the UK and giving live site critiques on Wednesday, March 25th from 2pm to 4pm.

Finally, if you're an AdWords user, you'll want to check out Preview the new AdWords interface. The session is on Wednesday, March 25th from 10:45am to 12pm. The team is taking questions in advance, so please send them in.

There's a whole lot going on at SES this year. Hope to see you there!

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Upcoming Website Optimizer Seminar: S4S at SXSW

2009-03-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

If you’re planning to take in this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) event, you should stick around for Google Website Optimizer and Google Analytics Seminars for Success training.

This seminar series provides three separate days of training on Google Website Optimizer and Analytics. Here's an overview of what's taught each day:

Landing Page Testing with Google Website Optimizer - Friday, March 20 - Register

Introduction to landing page testing
Hands on lab session to configure and launch an A/B and multivariate test
Understanding reports, follow up experiments and “the numbers”
Advanced testing with Google Website Optimizer & Analytics integrations
Real life examples and best practices and concepts that will provide you with a jumpstart on your testing plan!

This is a full day of practical, hands-on coursework with the tools you need to design, set up and run A/B and multivariate experiments with Google Website Optimizer.

Google Analytics – Introduction & User Training- Wednesday, March 18 - Register

Learn how to leverage the power of web analytics and turn mountains of data into ammunition that helps you make data driven decisions and maximize your website’s performance and ROI. This day’s topics include:

Introduction to web analytics and turning data into information
Google Analytics features and interface
Understanding and using visitor, traffic sources, content, goal, and ecommerce reports
Sharing insights and enterprise features

Google Analytics – Advanced Technical Implementation - Thursday, March 19 - Register
This day digs deep into advanced configurations and features that will allow you to set up and configure Google Analytics to take full advantage of its potential. The advanced day topics include:

Understanding profiles and strategic implementations
Applying filters to deliver the right data to your reports
Goal and funnel configurations and reporting configurations
Advanced segments, custom reports and advanced set ups

The cost is $249 per day. If you sign up at least 7 days in advance, you'll also receive a $50 AdWords credit. Seats are limited, so reserve your seat today.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Website Optimizer experiments far and wide

2009-03-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

We'd like to share with you two implementations of Google Website Optimizer.

First, a fellow named Bud Gibson. Bud runs a non-profit called Michigan Innovators, focused on connecting innovating companies with innovative people. Bud put together a test to try to improve monetization of the job board on Michigan Innovators' site.

Bud goes into great detail about how he designed his experiment, including a thorough explanation of WiderFunnel's (a GWO consultant) LIFT method. His test is on track to increase his conversions by 25%. Congrats on the success, Bud!

Next, our friends at the Conversion Rate Experts (also GWO authorized consultants), have begun working with Vodafone. They haven't gotten results in, as their experiments have just begun, but it's fantastic to see a large company like Vodafone taking website testing seriously.

Two very different companies using website testing to improve their businesses. A nice example of how Google Website Optimizer can work for you, no matter your business.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Introducing the Techie Guide to Google Website Optimizer

2009-03-05T10:28:00.000-08:00

Do you have the coolest idea for a Website Optimizer test but just don't know how to implement it? We've got a book for you.

Today we're releasing the first edition of The Techie Guide to Google Website Optimizer. This guide covers just about everything you wanted to know about the technical ins and outs of Website Optimizer.

Some of the cool things you'll find in the Techie Guide include:

A detailed explanation of the Website Optimizer experiment scripts
How to implement segmentation in your experiments
How to test with dynamic content

You can download the Techie Guide for free at google.com/websiteoptimizer/techieguide (PDF).

We'd also like to give a special thanks to Ophir Prusak. Ophir is one of the Top Contributors on our Help Forum, and he contributed greatly to the creation of the Techie Guide.

If you're ready to take your testing to the next level, we think you'll really like the Techie Guide. We'll be updating the Techie Guide with new tricks and tips regularly, so please tell us what you'd like to see.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Test Your Add to Cart Button in MivaMerchant with Website Optimizer

2009-03-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, I spoke at the MivaMerchant conference. MivaMerchant is an ecommerce platform used by a lot of companies. I demonstrated an easy test that users of MivaMerchant can do: testing different variations of your "Add to Cart" button across your entire site.

Say, for example, you wanted to see whether this green button or this red button worked better.
Watch this video to see how to set up this test in Website Optimizer:

The Add to Cart button is one of the primary calls-to-action on your site and takes visitors from just looking at a product to starting the purchase process. Running experiments here can have a significant impact on your conversion rate.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Website Optimizer, meet GA.js

2009-02-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

Website Optimizer uses the Google Analytics Tracking Code to keep track of visitors and conversions. Until now, we used the older version of the code, called urchin.js. While this still works fine, Google Analytics has a newer version called ga.js. We made an update to Website Optimizer to allow you to use the newer version of the Google Analytics tracking code. All new experiments you create will use the ga.js tracking code.

This change won't affect any experiments currently running with urchin.js. You won't need to change your tags either. You may continue using Website Optimizer tags with urchin.js if you'd like. And if you're doing an advanced implementation of Website Optimizer, you may want read more about the Google Analytics Tracking Code.

And Happy Valentine's Day from the GWO team. Here's a little bit of statistical romance:

(xkcd.com - Boyfriend)

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Launching the Website Optimizer YouTube Channel

2009-02-05T14:03:00.000-08:00

Today we're launching the Google Website Optimizer YouTube Channel, which will be the home for videos about Website Optimizer and website testing. You'll find helpful videos like the Always Be Testing webinar series with Bryan Eisenberg, as well as simple instructional ones like Setting up an A/B Experiment in 5 minutes. We've also put up all the video case studies of the Website Workout winners.

We'll continue adding more videos, both from Google and from our partners. If you want to keep up with all the new videos you can subscribe to the Website Optimizer Channel or add an iGoogle gadget to your homepage.

Are there videos you'd like to see? Leave a note in the comments.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

The importance of knowing where your visitors are coming from + Las Vegas seminar

2009-01-20T11:33:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the opportunity to speak about Website Optimizer at the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas. Needless to say, it was a great time.

While at the Las Vegas airport, an ad caught my eye:

The ad shows off the many amazing (have you seen Love?!) Cirque du Soleil shows happening in Vegas. What's the purpose of this ad? To get you to call for reservations. But do you see what might be missing? This ad is in the airport, targeting tourists, yet the phone number doesn't include the area code (702). A potential customer who sees this ad can't immediately take action, and that's a problem. If Cirque wants to get the most out of these ads, they'll want to include the area code to make it easier for Vegas' visitors to convert.

Whether working with your ads or with your website, you need to take into account where your visitors are coming from if you want them to convert. Keep this in mind when you're testing new content on your site.

Website Optimizer Seminars for Success in Las Vegas
All this talk about Cirque du Soleil have you yearning for a trip to Vegas? You're in luck. There's a Website Optimizer Seminar for Success there this Friday, January 23rd. Spend a whole day with one of our Authorized Consultants learning how to increase your site's conversion rate, then enjoy the weekend in Sin City. Spots are almost filled, so you should register soon.

And if Vegas isn't your thing, we'll also be holding seminars on February 11th in San Jose , California and on March 20th in Austin, Texas.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Announcing the Website Workout Winners

2009-01-14T09:16:00.000-08:00

In June we announced the Google Website Workout contest. We invited businesses who wanted to improve their website to tell us why their site needed to be "pumped up." We selected four winners and had them work with our consultants to improve their conversion rates using Website Optimizer. Along the way, we filmed their progress, and today we're pleased to announce the winners and share their experiences.

For each winner, we've put together a video highlighting the winner's business, the challenges they were facing, and how they used Website Optimizer to improve their site.

You can take a look at how one of our winners, Colonial Candle, increased sales by 20% by testing a few simple changes on their site

You can see all the winners at the contest site. You'll find out Extra Space Storage booked more units, Outrigger Hotels & Resorts increased reservations, and Team In Training focused their redesign efforts.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Getting Help with Website Optimizer

2008-12-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

We think Website Optimizer makes it pretty easy for you to run experiments on your website, but there are always times when you have questions or just want to double-check before launching your experiment. Maybe you're looking for advice on copywriting or need some specifics on tweaking scripts for your particular content management system. While we've always had the Help Center for support, we've found, for these kinds of questions, it's often other Website Optimizer users who have the best answers.

We've launched a new Help Forum that allows you to ask questions about Website Optimizer and have them answered by both Google employees and other Website Optimizer users. The "Best Answers" (as voted on by the community) are listed first so it's easy to find the answers to questions that have already been asked. And a list of "Related Questions" comes up even as you are typing your question.

The forum also gives all you testing experts the opportunity to help other users and show off your knowledge. It's easy to find questions that need answers. Based on your contributions, you can be recognized as a Top Contributor or a seasoned poster. The old Website Optimizer Discussion Group will still be accessible as a resource, but is now closed for future posts.

We think this new Help Forum will help you get quicker answers to your website testing questions. See you on the forum.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

GWO + Magento = A-OK...O

2008-11-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

We wanted to let you know about a cool new integration of Website Optimizer with Magento. Magento is a feature-rich open source ecommerce platform. They just announced their 1.1.7 release, which includes integration of Website Optimizer, and it's really slick. To set up your experiment, just cut and paste a URL from Website Optimizer into Magento, and voila- your experiment is ready to go. This makes it super easy to test new content (like product descriptions and images) to see what drives the most sales.

Take a look at the integration in action:

Link to video

If you want to learn more about how you can use Magento and Website Optimizer together, we're doing a joint webinar next Wednesday, 12/3, at 9:30am PST. During the free webinar, we'll provide some tips and tricks for using GWO on an ecommerce site. We'll also be doing some live landing page critiques. If you want your page to be considered, leave a comment here. You can register here for the webinar. Hope to see you there.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Cyber Monday is coming. Is your site ready?

2008-11-24T17:27:00.000-08:00

Cyber Monday is coming! Image: By Your Command by Graham Ballantyne

You may not know it, but the busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, is shortly followed by the biggest online shopping day of the year, Cyber Monday. This year Cyber Monday falls on December 1st, just one short week away.

With thousands of eager holiday shoppers coming to your site, credit cards in hand, the question is, "Are you ready for them?"

What can you do? You can start testing on your website today, or as our good friend Avinash puts it, "Experiment or Die."

Here's a short list of things you can start testing right away:

1. If you have a spot for users to enter a coupon code, try moving it towards the end of the checkout process. A coupon box early on in the checkout process is an invitation for the user to go search for coupons rather than completing their purchase.

2. Try in-action images instead of traditional product images.

Consider titanium spork vs. titanium spork in action.

3. Run different special offers and see which lifts your sales the most.

Try testing a $10 discount and a 10% discount against free shipping offer.
Moishe's Moving tested three different promotions: $100 off the move; free moving boxes ($80 value); and 1-hour of professional packing ($130 value). The $100 off promotion moved the most sales for them.

These easy tests could help boost your conversion rate just in time for holiday shoppers. If you're looking for more insight into how visitors see your site, Conversion Rate Experts, one of our authorized consultants, has a great article: 14 free tools that reveal why people abandon your website.

Open for comments
One last note: we've opened up comments on the blog. Tell us what's on your mind and share your thoughts with each other. Please keep your comments relevant, respectful, and useful for others.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team

Website Optimizer Seminars for Success & a Webinar

2008-11-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

If you've recently started using Website Optimizer or are planning to but want to learn from some GWO experts before you launch your first test, you'll want to check out Website Optimizer Seminars for Success.

Seminars for Success are full-day, classroom-style trainings led by industry experts, our authorized consultants. The Website Optimizer curriculum will cover everything you need to become an expert in testing and setting up Website Optimizer.

Here are the dates:
December 4 - Alexandria, VA - ROI Revolution
December 10 - Seattle, WA - Webshare
January 23 - Las Vegas, NV - Webshare
February 11 - San Jose, CA - Webshare

If you'd like to see a seminar in your area, let us know.

Also, if you sign up for a seminar at least 7 days in advance, you'll get a $50 AdWords credit (terms and conditions).

Upcoming webinar
ROI Revolution will also be holding a free webinar next Wednesday, November 19th at 1pm EST. Our own Tom Leung will be there and will set up an A/B test live during the webinar. If you want to attend you'll need to register.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer Team

Writing for Conversions, Part 3 of 3 - Format

2008-10-29T16:48:00.000-07:00

This is the final post in a three-part series on writing for conversions by Tim Ash, author of Landing Page Optimization. Tim is an industry expert in website optimization and his company, SiteTuners, is one of our Authorized Consultants.

In two previous posts, I examined the structure and tone of your writing as a way to increase conversions. In this blog post I will cover the remaining key element - format.

Format
Since people don’t read on the Internet the same way they read offline, the format of your writing should support their scanning behavior. Use the following guidelines to help you write scannable text:

Write in fragments or short sentences. Don’t worry about grammatical correctness if you have made yourself clear.
Use digits instead of words to write out numbers (e.g. “47” instead of “forty seven”)
Highlight important information-carrying words. Don't highlight entire sentences, stick to 2- or 3-word phrases.
Use clear, emphasized titles for page headings and important subheads.
Use ordinary language (avoid industry jargon and acronyms that are not widely understood).
Use active voice and action verbs.
Use bullet lists instead of paragraphs.
Do not use more than 2 levels for lists or headings.
Use descriptive link text that describes the information on the linked page.
Use supporting links to present supplemental information and use “see also” for cross-referenced information.

If you review your website and landing pages with a critical eye and faithfully implement the recommendations above, I can guarantee that you will make a better and more persuasive connection with your visitors. This, in turn, should make your cash register ring more often.

We'd like to thank Tim for putting together this series. If there's a topic you'd like to see us cover, please shoot us an email.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer Team

Website Optimizer at eMetrics DC

2008-10-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

Next week is the eMetrics D.C. conference in Alexandria, VA. It runs October 20 through October 23, and Team Website Optimizer will be there with some of our Authorized Consultants.

Here are some workshops and sessions to check out:

Conversion University | Monday 10/20 | All Day
Conversion University is a full day of training on intermediate and advanced implementation of Google Analytics, with Justin Cutroni of EpikOne as the instructor. EpikOne is both a Google Analytics and Website Optimizer authorized consultant. In addition to Google Analytics, Justin will cover Website Optimizer, Google Ad Planner, and Google Insights for Search. This course is $295, and you can sign up by registering online or modifying your existing eMetrics registration.

Always Be Testing | Wednesday 10/22 | 11:10 - 12:00
Bryan Eisenberg, president of FutureNow and author of Always Be Testing, will help you familiarize yourself with testing. He'll focus on areas such as what kinds of tests to run and getting buy-in from the rest of your company. Afterward, Bryan will be giving away and signing copies of Always Be Testing.

Multivariate Testing Panel | Wednesday 10/22 | 3:25 - 4:15
Moderated by our own Jon Diorio, this panel also features our two favorite authors: Tim Ash and Bryan Eisenberg. Both Bryan and Tim will be giving away and signing copies of their books after this panel.

10 Ways to Create a Testing Culture | Wednesday 10/22 | 3:25 - 4:15
Iterating and creating a testing culture are key to successful testing. This should be a great session for those of you who are having trouble convincing the higher-ups that testing matters. It'll be led by Justin Cutroni, who is also leading Conversion University (see above).

Landing Page Testing Workshop | Friday 10/24 | All Day
If you want a complete deep dive into website optimization, Tim Ash is leading a half-day (morning) of training. The workshop contains hands-on exercises and will leave you more than ready to start testing. The workshop is $745, and you can register from this page. Afterward, Tim will giving away and signing copies of Landing Page Optimization.

Swag
Throughout eMetrics, we'll be giving away 200 Website Optimizer t-shirts at our booth. Show your love for testing and make your friends jealous:

Update 10/20/08: Corrected information about Tim Ash's landing page testing workshop. It is a half-day session.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer Team

Writing for Conversions, Part 2 of 3 - Tone

2008-10-16T16:18:00.000-07:00

This is the second post in a three-part series on writing for conversions by Tim Ash, author of Landing Page Optimization. Tim is an industry expert in website optimization and his company, SiteTuners, is one of our Authorized Consultants.

The reality for most Internet surfers is that they're subjected to a barrage of promotional messages and advertising. As a basic defense mechanism, they've learned to tune out most hype.

Perhaps you do have to be somewhat crass to get them to your landing page. For whatever reason, they have ended up there. But you should now stop screaming at your visitors. You're no longer (for the moment) competing for their attention with other websites. So you need to change the focus to the task they're trying to accomplish.

Your visitors detest marketese. Unfortunately, your landing page was probably written in this kind of over-the-top promotional style. It usually involves a lot of boasting and unsubstantiated claims. If your company is the “world’s leading provider” of something, you're in good company. A recent search on Google turned up 8.58 million matching results for this phrase. Your claims are probably not true anyway, but even if they are you can use different language to make your point.

Marketese may be (barely) acceptable in your press releases when you're trying to puff up your company and accomplishments. But on your landing page it spells disaster. Marketese requires work on the part of your visitor. It saps their energy and attention, and forces them to spend time separating the content from the fluff. It also results in much longer word counts. You're missing an enormous opportunity by not creating a hype-free zone on your landing page.

How to Avoid Writing in “Marketese”

Don't use adjectives.
Provide only objective information.
Focus on the needs of your audience.

Save your visitors the aggravation and tell them only what they want to hear. Your editorial tone should have the following attributes:

Factual

Writing factually will take a little work. It's difficult to stop making subjective statements. You may catch yourself lapsing into marketese at unexpected moments. But stick with it. You'll be amazed at how much more effective your writing is. Remember, your visitor is not looking to be entertained, and certainly not to be marketed to. They're there to deal with a specific need or problem. The best kind of information you can give them is objective.

Task-oriented

Task-oriented writing is focused on the roles, tasks, and AIDA steps that are required to move your visitors through the conversion action. You should organize your text in the order that the visitor is likely to need it. For example, a big-ticket consumer product site might lay out the following high-level steps for the buying process: research, compare, customize, purchase. When you've thought about how to guide the right people (roles) through the right activities (tasks) in the correct order (AIDA) with your landing page, it should be clear where the gaps are.

Precise

Be clear in web writing. The audience can be very diverse and bring a variety of cultural backgrounds to their interpretation of your language. Be careful about your exact choice of words. Never try to be funny or clever. Avoid puns, metaphors, and colloquial expressions.

This is doubly true for link text or button text. Your visitors need to have a clear understanding of exactly what will happen when they click on something. Text links should describe the content on the target page. Unhelpful link labels such as “Click Here!” are a wasted opportunity to focus the visitor’s awareness on an important available option. Also, link text is used by search engines to help people find information.

If you use good link text, you'll be helping your own cause. Buttons should accurately describe the intended action. For example, many e-commerce sites mistakenly put “Buy It Now!” buttons next to products when the actual action is “Add to Cart.” Another common mistake is the “Order Now” label when you really mean “Proceed to Checkout.” This vagueness causes unnecessary stress and anxiety for visitors as they try to figure out the threat or opportunity your button presents. It's always best to remove the hesitation and assure them that taking the next step is a small and safe action.

Concise

Become a word miser. Ask yourself, “How can I make this even shorter? Do I really need to communicate this at all?” Brevity has several advantages. It increases absorption and recall of information. It shortens the time that visitors spend reading it—minimizing the likelihood of increased frustration and impatience. It supports the goals of inverted pyramid writing, and the scannable text requirements, which I'll describe next week.

We'll conclude this series next week with Part 3 - Format. See last week's post for ways to improve your writing structure.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer Team

Giving Your Competitors the Advantage? Website Optimization in Tough Times

2008-10-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

This is a guest post from Bryan Eisenberg of FutureNow, which has helped businesses with conversion rate optimization since 1998. Bryan is also the author of Always Be Testing and a Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant.

Having weathered and learned from the dot-com bust, Bryan shares his insights on how your company should approach conversion rate optimization in these economic times.

This economic mess will touch your company. The "how much" and the "when" are yet to be determined. But they're things you can actually do something about. I doubt that you want to throw up your hands and blame everything on the economy.

If your company puts conversion optimization based testing on a budget hold, or calls testing a "luxury," you may be handing a huge advantage to your competitors.

I hope your company doesn’t think that way. Unfortunately, if your company does you wouldn’t be alone; in fact, you’d be in good company. I recently spoke with leaders at two multi-billion dollar online retailers who have told me that they are cutting their optimization budgets. Ironically, one of their competitors recently contacted us to work with them on a very aggressive optimization program.

What are these two very capable leaders thinking? They didn’t offer a lot of insight but I have three guesses as to the reasons:

They tried but the vendor they used couldn’t make optimization work for them.
They have been ordered to cut their budgets and something else was a priority.
They don’t see themselves in control of conversion rates and think that the economy will affect all their competitors equally

Passivity! That’s the only thing these “reasons” have in common.

I’ve always seen conversion rates as something the company controls.

I’d like to share two encouraging stories with you.

In the late 90’s, we started FutureNow against the popular marketing grain. Back then, everyone was talking about eyeballs while I was screaming two words that were virtually unheard of: ”conversion rate.” My brother and I were saying “the emperor has no close!”, yet companies were focused on traffic, eyeballs, and sock puppets and not on closing the sale. Still many smart folks saw the logic and signed on.

In late 1999, we started working with an struggling online retailer of magazine subscriptions, Magmall.com. Nine years ago there was no off-the-shelf, easy to use, split testing software but we found a way to test and optimize anyway. In a short time, MagMall’s conversion rate improved from 1.21% to 4.93%. This was a game changer for them since they could afford to buy ads their competitors could not afford. Not only did they weather the dot com crash; they flourished and the owner we worked with recently sold the company.

More recently, Jigsaw Health combined our Persuasion Architecture methodology with intelligent testing using Website Optimizer, and the company’s CPA dropped from a volatile $150-$300 to a consistent CPA of way under $50. What CPA would you rather have heading into this economic storm? Highly efficient sales conversion is a competitive advantage.

The lesson is this: now is the worst time to stop optimizing. The buying and selling game has just moved to another, much tougher, playing field where the customer’s are asking more and spending less. The more you focus on them, and optimizing for their needs the easier you will find it to weather the economic storm.

I hope that I’ve inspired you to rethink optimization. Let me leave you with a few testing ideas you might want to consider. Even if you haven’t had success testing these things in the past, right now environment is ripe for the following types of tests:

Different price points. Price is becoming more relevant.
Different product copy. The product with the better perceived value wins.
New offers that highlight value of your service/products.
"Free shipping" or low-cost shipping promos or offers.

Continue to optimize your sales conversions, and you'll not only please more of your visitors but also be more efficient in your marketing spend.

Don’t give your competitors the advantage.

Thanks to Bryan for his insights. If you want additional ideas for testing, you can watch the Always Be Testing webinar series Bryan has done with our own Tom Leung. You can also read more from Bryan on his blog.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer Team.

Writing for Conversions - Part 1 of 3: Structure

2008-10-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

This is the first post in a three-part series by Tim Ash, author of Landing Page Optimization. Tim is a thought leader in website optimization and his company, SiteTuners, is one of our Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants.

Our company routinely runs large scale landing page optimization tests to improve conversion rates. One of the most common components that we test is the sales copy on the page. We have found that changing your approach to writing can often lead to a double-digit increase in conversion rates.

Most of the adaptations that you need to make to your writing have a single purpose: to reduce the visitor’s cognitive load. Instead of being forced to pay attention to how the information is presented, they can devote more focus to getting their intended task accomplished. By getting out of their way, you empower them to be faster, more efficient, and effective. This will lead to higher conversion rates for you, and higher satisfaction for them.

To increase the odds of a favorable outcome you need to consider the following areas of your writing:

Structure
Tone
Format

In this blog post I will examine the first. The other two will be covered in subsequent posts.

Structure
The preferred structure for most Web writing is the inverted pyramid. It uses the principle of primacy (ordering) to control saliency (importance). In this style of writing, you put your conclusions and key points first. Less important and supporting information should be placed last. This is critical since most readers will choose not to read very far.

Most of this is probably not earth-shaking insight in the world of newspaper writing. Newspaper editors have a similar audience makeup: casual visitors who scan for information that competes for their attention, and consider the source as a transient and disposable resource. Because of this they have developed a very similar model. Headline size and prominent positioning indicate the importance of articles. The lead paragraph summarizes the whole story, and supporting detail is buried further down (or by following links to other pages).

Get to the point and let them decide if your content is relevant enough for them to stick around. By writing in this way you maximize the chances that they will come away with the information that you consider most valuable. The same structure should be used for creating online audio or video clips for your site.

Remember that the visitor may have arrived from any number of different inbound links and may not have a lot of context about your page. Use clear and prominent page titles to tell them why each page is important.

Make sure that you only have one main idea per paragraph. If you bury a second idea lower in a block of text, it will probably be missed as the reader jumps down to scan the lead-in text of the subsequent paragraph.

The inverted pyramid approach should be used when creating bullet lists or lists of navigational links—put the important ones on top.

Keep your pages short. This will allow them to be digested in small, bite-sized chunks that correspond to a Web user’s attention span. There is evidence to show that significantly shorter text results in higher retention and recall of information, and is more likely to lead to conversion actions. Your page should only contain important information for its topic and level of detail. You can move longer supporting text to other pages, and create links for the dedicated reader.

However, we have run across an occasional exception to the shorter-is-better guideline. Some single-product consumer websites have very long direct response pitch letters that outperform significantly shorter alternatives. They draw the reader in and encourage them to spend a lot of time on the page. After a certain point the visitor’s attention investment gets high enough to build momentum toward the conversion action. This is not to say that long sales letter pages cannot be made better. There is definitely a lot of bloat and deadwood on the ones that we routinely test and improve.

Look out for parts 2 and 3 of Tim's series over the next two weeks.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer team