The Golden Age of Conversion Testing
Anyone who makes their
living online will readily agree
that Web success doesn’t
come without hard work
and constant awareness of
the virtual landscape.
The biggest challenge most of us
face is the rapidly changing nature
of the technologies and strategies
that we incorporate into our daily
routines, and in no area of Web
work is this more true than design
and development.
Working on the Web in a
design/development role means adapting to new situations
and going well beyond creating functional sites that please the
eye. Much time is spent trying to keep up with the constant
evolution of the growing organism that is a website, and a
major aspect of the process today should include testing how
specific elements of a site’s design impact a business’ objectives
and how they can be improved to increase conversions.
First impressions are everything
There’s no doubt that Web success, at least in part, hinges on
the visual elements of a site. And, like it or not, most users are
going to judge your business from their very first impression of
the website.
“Design is critical because half of our brain is devoted to visual
processes,” says Tim Ash, CEO of conversion rate optimization
firm SiteTuners. “How a page looks and how we
perceive it is key.”
Users will form an impression about a Web page in only a
fraction of a second, so it’s largely up to the design of that page
to gain their trust almost immediately. The best way to do this,
says Ash, is to keep it simple.
“As an aesthetic choice, we tend to favor bland, boring sites,”
he says. “When a site has flashy design elements, they have to
compete for attention.”
Where to begin
To eliminate the competition for users’ attention that Ash speaks
of, successful website designs highlight the most important elements
of each page. But the challenge for designers, of course, is
that identifying what is most important to users is like trying to
hit a moving target.
“In this day and age, users have moved beyond a need for images
and graphics,” says Eric Hansen, CEO of website testing and optimization
firm SiteSpect. “The aesthetic appeal is not as important as compelling copy is today. Designers should focus on cues that will visually help identify content so that they know what
to read more in-depth.”
But how can website owners and designers really know
which elements of their designs are having the greatest impact
on conversion rates? The answer, of course, lies in conversion
testing.
Business owners and website designers should identify approximately
5 to 10 design elements that are most influential
to converting visitors, and then focus on continually refining
and improving those aspects through testing. There is no way
to know which parts of your website impact conversions without
testing, and every minute they go ignored is money lost
from the business’ bottom line.
So, where do you begin? It depends on what your website
is trying to achieve, according to Mark Simpson, president of
multivariate testing, personalization and optimization firm
Maxymiser.
“When deciding what to test, when and how, it’s important
to keep the business goals top-of-mind,” explains Simpson.
“High-traffic areas and revenue/conversion generators
like landing pages, search results and, most importantly,
checkouts should be a priority.”
Regardless of where a company begins, the goal is to test
different versions of the various elements that users will encounter
along the path to purchase, determine which ones
produce the highest conversions to gauge customers’ most
pressing wants and needs, and then use that information to
further optimize those elements.
Where to look for help
So, where should businesses turn to for help with conversion
testing? There are numerous options available, but your
decision may depend on what kind of testing you’re going
to conduct.
A/B testing uses two versions of a live Web page in which
one specific variable is different on each page to determine
which one performs better and thus which will appear in the
final design. Multivariate testing is a method that simultaneously
examines multiple elements of a Web page at once to
see how a larger variety of combinations compare and influence
one another to impact conversion rates.
Maxymiser offers an A/B and multivariate testing tool
with personalization solutions for segmentation, behavioral
marketing and product recommendations for Web and mobile
sites. Called MaxTEST, the solution serves multiple variants
of content and structure to site visitors while monitoring
and measuring the impact each option has on conversion
rates and revenue.
SiteTuners offers a product called AttentionWizard, a tool
that works like a heatmap without requiring companies to
put their sites in front of users. By leveraging data gathered
from brain studies, AttentionWizard can predict where users
will look when they arrive at a website, allowing designers to
gain insights on branding, colors, images, layout and buttons,
and use this information to better meet the company’s business
goals.
Being successful in Web business requires being highly
adaptable, and designers have to embrace this trait as much as
anyone else in the industry. And the only way to take full advantage
of a fluid website design team is to be constantly testing
for the hot or cold spots that affect conversions and,
ultimately, the success of your business.


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