Testing forms an essential part of your overall landing page optimization strategy, because only through testing can you determine which changes will effectively increase your conversion rate.

But on a website that includes thousands of pages, knowing which pages to test first can be a challenge. Let’s take a look at some analytics that will help you make that important decision.

• Conversion Rate - Of course, conversion rate will be one of your primary concerns in landing page optimization. Low conversion rate on a landing page may indicate serious usability or clarity problems. Because conversion rate plays such a huge role in the overall success of your website, this is an excellent place to start.
• Exit Rate - Exit rate shows you how many people leave your site from a particular page. When certain pages show a significantly higher exit rate than other pages, that’s a cause for concern. It could mean that something about the page’s design or usability is off-putting to viewers.
• Bounce Rate - Bounce rate differs from exit rate in that an exit is only considered a bounce if the user hasn’t made any other clicks. He enters, he leaves, end of story. Landing page optimization should focus heavily on reducing bounces, since getting a user to click even once can greatly increase your chances of a conversion.
• Sales Performance - Sales performance can be approached from two directions: which pages are performing significantly better than others, and which pages are performing significantly worse. Both types of pages can make good candidates for testing. Your goal is to determine what works and what doesn’t so that you can implement specific design improvements throughout your website.
• Time on Page - Like sales performance, time on page can be approached two ways: where do users spend the most time and where do they spend the least time. Both can be a cause for concern. If users spend significantly more time on certain pages than they do on others, it could mean that the page is confusing or that some element of the conversion process has presented difficulties. Pages on which users spend very little time could be failing to engage your audience. Both make good candidates for testing.

Testing should play a major role in your landing page optimization strategy. If you haven’t tested before, use these analytics as a starting point to determine where testing could best benefit your conversion rate.

1.       Failure to Create a Strategy

Jumping into a web site redesign without planning first will ensure that you major on the minors and leave the majors undone.

Your strategy should include a cohesive advertising theme that corresponds to your offsite marketing and pay per click campaigns. Focus on building your brand, not just building your site.

You should also incorporate social media efforts into your website. For instance, if you offer a giveaway on Facebook, be sure to feature that promotion on your website so that interested users can find information about it immediately, just by typing in your URL.

2.       Neglect Testing

You should incorporate to kinds of testing into your web site redesign to ensure that each page performs at top capacity.

First, test new page designs on colleagues or friends who are unfamiliar with your website in order to get their opinions on nuts and bolts such as ease of navigation, overall design appeal, and clarity.

Second, use a testing program such as Google Website Optimizer to perform systemic testing both on individual elements and entire pages of your site. This strategic testing will tell you how particular elements perform with your actual audience, enabling you to make informed decisions rather than relying on guesswork.

3.       Ignore Content

In the world of search engine optimization, content is king. Don’t make the mistake of focusing exclusively on the look of your new design and failing to improve content. Content should be well-written, search engine friendly, and easy to skim. It should also work hand-in-hand with your pay per click advertising to keep people on track once they reach your site.

4.       Launch and Forget

You’ve launched your new web site redesign. Now you’re done, right? Wrong.

Successful websites implement continuous testing to discover how they can improve site designs incrementally. If you commit to testing over the long term, you may never need to incorporate a full scale web site redesign again. Even if you do, you’ll be able to determine more accurately which parts of your website are performing well and which ones need to be overhauled.

Additional Resources:

Why double (or triple) the cost of your redesign?

Designing an easy to use website.

4 tips for a successful website redesign

A Landing Page is your opportunity to make a great first impression and some aspects are often overlooked when creating them. Inspired by an infographic I recently came across, this week’s Conversionator theme is focused on the ever-important Landing Page:

- The 12-Step Landing Page Rehab Program, an infographic from Unbounce, presents a guided visualization of the conversion funnel and where (and how) you can apply optimization and design techniques to improve the conversion rate of your landing pages

- The best landing pages are simple, clear and easy to read and understand. Great Flight, Bad Landing (Best Practice Landing Pages) from The Kern Organization covers some best practices and landing page components designed to convince your prospects to take further action

- 7 Ways Marketers Can Optimize Landing Pages for Conversion from Target Marketing offers helpful advice to marketers on how to optimize landing pages for increased conversion rates

- If you aren’t using social media landing page (SMLP) as part of your social media strategy, the time is now. The Anatomy Of A Great Social Media Landing Page from Search Engine Land explains why you need to use this proven tool and keep in mind that a SMLP is one of the best ways to keep track of social media ROI

- 8 Landing Page Bloopers You Need To Fix Fast!, a nice little presentation put together by ion interactive, compiles a list of eight common landing page bloopers that can derail your conversion rates

I also wanted to mention that MarketingSherpa is presenting a free webinar on January 20, 2011 that should be quite informative: Optimizing Landing Pages: 3 Keys to Increasing Conversion Rates

That about does it for this week’s compilation of Landing Page material to review and I’ll leave you with a quick reminder to request one free conversion idea for your website as well as to signup for our blog updates and conversion tips newsletter. If you have any tips, suggestions, or resources you’d like to share please leave us a comment below and please feel free to suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future Conversionator posts.

- The Importance of Testing Signup and Payment Forms from Econsultancy highlights a case study showing how even the smallest details can have a significant impact on conversions. The impact of one little checkbox decreased conversions by 17% and the lesson acts as a reminder why multivariate testing is so valuable

- With web forms playing such a critical role in completing goals, they are something that should be tested and optimized to help ensure a successful conversion.25 Web Form Optimization Tips from Palmer Web Marketing is certainly worth a quick read

- To help your signup page lead to higher conversion rates, Blue Fountain Media put together a helpful post of 10 Ideas to Design a Better Signup Form which also includes a signup form design best practices video. One thing that I think is often overlooked is to validate form fields; I always appreciate any issues being pointed out as they are encountered to help make the submission process smoother

- Newsletters are an excellent marketing device to inform and educate and to promote yourself in a positive light so you should be sure the signup process is a positive experience. Dzine Blog shares 10 Tips To Design Effective Newsletter Sign Up Forms offering helpful suggestions for newsletter signup form design, keeping the email marketing concept in mind

- Speaking of newsletters, some people see publishing a newsletter as an old-fashioned, inefficient way to communicate but they still remain an effective tool; instead of waiting for subscribers to come looking for your information (which many never will), it goes directly to them. Be sure to check Bauerhaus Design’s 8 tips to increase your email newsletter sign-up to help you create a pleasant reminder that your reader is thought of and to help you stay fresh in their mind at the same time

With that, I will leave you with a reminder to fill out our web form to receive one free conversion idea for your website as well as to signup for our blog updates and conversion tips newsletter. If you have any tips, suggestions, or resources you’d like to share please leave us a comment below and please feel free to suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future Conversionator posts.

Optimization Pyramid

The pyramid places function at the bottom and persuasion at the top, with accessibility, usability, and intuitiveness in between. The pyramid levels must be addressed in order starting with the most basic requirement of functionality at the bottom.

Having researched website optimization thoroughly, I can agree with the authors that it is easy to focus on fine tuning the top levels of the pyramid because those are the ones that typically yield the greatest results in terms of conversion. However, neglecting issues of functionality or accessibility can lead to big problems for your business both from a sales standpoint and a legal standpoint.

Meeting Customer Expectations

Keep in mind that all of these tests and changes must have the ultimate goal of meeting the customer’s needs. You need to direct various parts of your website to each of the buying modalities discussed earlier in the book in order to achieve the greatest results.

You cannot bypass this step and hope to see stellar results. However, the optimization pyramid will help you determine the best way to approach your testing procedures and to accomplish the most important goals first.

Have you tried using the optimization hierarchy pyramid when you’re testing your landing pages?