3 steps to raising the bar on your website's performance
So you've finally got your shiny new website up and running. You've sent out newsletters and press releases to announce the launch. You've invested in search engine marketing so that people are actually visiting it. What's next?
Conversion optimization is the practice of consistently monitoring and refining your website to increase the amount of leads or sales it generates. Here are the three steps that will insure your website is improving over time:
1. Gather your baseline statistics and create conversion goals
- Insure you have Google analytics installed on your website. This provides all the data you'll need to make decisions about your site's performance. Talk to your webmaster if you need help setting this up - it's a simple process of adding a little piece of code (provided by Google) to the pages on your site.
- Define what a conversion means on your website. It could be a purchase, a form submission, a review of your product demo - or all of the above. If you have more than one conversion goal it's a good idea to rank them in terms of value.
- Set up conversion goals in Google analytics, there are tutorials that show you how to do this or you can have a webmaster or web analytics expert do it for you.
2. Test different approaches to the design of specific site elements
- Set up a series of split tests focused on one element or variable of the site at a time. Design 2 variations and serve each randomly to 50% of your visitors (this can be done using a simple script that your webmaster installs).
- Potential variables might include:
- Call to action
- Form design
- Headlines or messaging
- Page design
- Pricing
- Check conversion rates for each variation and determine which is the winner - make sure you have enough data to make a statistically relevant call.
- Repeat the process
3. Create a regular review schedule and commit to an iterative approach
- Set up a regular schedule for reviewing your analytics data, once a month at minimum.
- Create a set of strategic goals for your site.
- Measure progress against your strategic goals.
- Keep a running list of issues to address along with a plan and schedule for addressing them.
- Track your hypothesis against actual results.
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About the Author:
Jeremy Robinson is the Principle and Creative Director at Jar Creative, a Toronto based Digital Marketing Agency. An internet pioneer with over 10 years experence in digital design, Jeremy has worked with International brands on high level marketing and brand initiatives.
