Conversion Optimization

Chapter 9. Testing: The Voice of Visitors

EVERY WEBSITE IS DIFFERENT. What works for one website may or may not work for yours.

Best practices are great in theory, but difficult in practice. Team members often disagree on the best website or landing page design, the best visitor flow, or the best sales. Stakeholders usually have different opinions of what changes you should make to your website.

Resolving these differences is challenging. You should judge the quality of any change that you make to your website or sales process based on its impact to your bottom line in both the short and long terms. We are always looking for designs that persuade more visitors to convert. So, how do you make that determination? How do you measure the impact a particular change to your sales funnel will have on your conversion rate? You must test any modifications you introduce to your website and compare your new conversion rate to your previous conversion rate.

Direct mail marketing companies have been testing the impact of different mailers on conversions for more than 40 years. Before running a large national direct mail campaign, a marketing company usually prepares several versions of the mailer that include variations in design, copy, elements, and so forth. The company then sends the mailers to different target prospects and monitors the results. The mailer that generates the best response is the one it will use in its national campaign.

Testing software allows you to do the same online. By testing ...