I recently posted a podcast about website optimization that I have gotten a lot of positive feedback on, so I am posting a condensed version for this blog post.
First, website optimization is different from search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is about making your site show up within searches on search
What would he do on your website?
engines. Website optimization is how usable your site is once a user gets there.
Every business website should have some kind of goal. The age of the online mega brochure is over, now websites need to have some customer action built into them. The most popular examples would be selling an item online, getting someone to sign up for an email newsletter, collecting information from a lead, or directing the visitor to follow you on some social media medium.
Making your website accomplish a goal is website optimization. This is an on going process; you should never just build a site and let it sit without testing different element to improve conversion.
If you aren’t quite getting it, let me direct you to some examples. There is a great website out there called whichtestwon.com . There is a weekly test that shows two web items being tested against each other. These are real examples of some things other companies have done. You get a chance to vote for which one you think won, and then you find out which one really won. The thing that surprises me about these tests is that I don’t always know which one really performed best until they show the answer.
The bottom line of all this is that it doesn’t matter what you think, what your designer thinks, or what your spouse thinks. It maters what the customer or potential customer thinks. Sometimes they will really surprise you with how they respond to the smallest changes.
Want more on this? Listen to my most recent podcast episode.
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