Where To Start Optimization Testing On Your Website
If you're just getting started with web optimization testing or have limited testing resources (hey that's like everybody), which pages you test is the most critical decision you have to make. At today's WhichTestWon's Conference I learned from Justin Rondeau that our optimization instincts are probably wrong on where to start testing.
Page Requirements for Optimization Testing
Before you can test a page, it must meet these two requirements:
Does the page get enough traffic to reach statistical significance in a reasonable time frame (1-5 weeks)?
Does the Page Directly Impact Conversation? If Yes, what is the current conversion rate? If No, what is the long term value of the conversion that this page lifts?
Start Lower in Your Funnel
For an eCommerce site, start as late in your conversion funnel as possible. Here's a typical eCommerce funnel:
Entry Pages: These are politically charged since many people may be involved in creating these campaigns, skip optimizing these first.
Category Pages
Search Results
Product Pages
Cart & Checkout: START HERE. Few people will challenge you to improve the cart because carts are just carts. You can create a lot of lift here.
Receipt/Thank You: Rarely tested! Try an up-sell or cross-sell here instead of during checkout.
Next, Where Is Your Landing Money?
Don't start with high bounce rate pages. We know–they're sinking ships that you'd like to save. Not worth your time. Try landing pages for your highest conversion traffic. Or landing pages for your most expensive (PPC) traffic.
Next, Test Your Conversion Path
Now that you've improved the beginning and end of the funnel, now you can test the middle. This means testing your category pages, search result pages, product pages, and so on. Find everything that is stopping people from buying in your funnel and test how to fix it.
Next, PPC Traffic
If you're paying for customers to click on your links, you need to nail the landing page. At a minimum, your page needs to feature what your ad claimed. You'll be surprised at how many people screw this up.
Next, Referral Traffic
Know who is sending you traffic and where they are sending them. Make sure you're meeting the standards that people expect.
Am I Done Yet?
Of course not! Follow WhichTestWon for more testing ideas or get you butt to Austin for the Live Event.