Even if you have the most successfully planned Internet marketing strategy and you execute it flawlessly, there is still a chance that your online business might fail. Next to optimizing your site, the single most important factor is your conversion rate. Simply put, this is the number of visitors to your site that make a purchase. Increasing your website’s conversion rate is often a simple matter of creating and testing the most effective landing page.
At its root, a landing page is the page where your visitors first ‘land’ when they visit your website. The most effective landing pages provide a customized layout for potential clients. It tells them who you are, builds credibility, makes them feel safe, and gives them an offer they cannot refuse. They also have to be very relevant; which is where landing page optimization comes into play. If the user is looking for “Gucci Shoes”, your landing page should contain a large header that reads “Gucci Shoes” and list Gucci shoes for sale. Unfortunately, poorly designed landing pages are the leading cause of lost conversions. Research shows that once a visitor reaches your landing page, if they cannot determine what to do next or where to go within a matter of seconds, they will X out of it.
The solution is, obviously, testing your landing page to ensure it is the most effective motivator for conversions that it can be.
One of the most effective testing methods is the split test. This test is a simple way to measure the effectiveness of different possibilities for your landing page. For example, create three separate landing pages, direct 1/3 of your visitors to landing page A, 1/3 to landing page B and the final 1/3 to landing page C. the next step is to start testing different elements of your webpage. Start with the headline. Write three distinct headlines and place one on each of your three landing pages. Carefully analyze the analytical data for each landing page to determine what your visitors are doing. Which landing page lost the most visitors? Which received the most click thru’s After determining which headline is best, run the split test on each of the elements of your landing page until you have the ‘winning’ landing page. The Conversation Optimizer by Google does a great job at this and it’s also free to setup and use.
This testing can be time consuming. Because many online business owners are not completely aware of the analytical data available for each of the pages on their site, split testing can be difficult as well. Unless you are fully versed on not only the different elements of a landing page, but the analytical data inherent in any web page, you may want to consider turning to a professional to assist you. Many qualified Search Engine Optimization consultants are experts at split testing and can be an excellent resource.
Never assume that a good website is all it takes to make a sale. Be critical of your landing page and be willing to test every element and make changes as needed. The time you spend tweaking your landing page will only result in an increase of your conversion rate. Increased conversion rates equal a better payday for you, so spending the time, or money, to test your landing page is a good investment.
Contact us to implement Split Tests and optimize your conversions, we can help.
April 7, 2010
