Inspired by a good post over at 99%, I’d like to ask my readers and clients one simple question: What will you optimize today?
No website is perfect. There’s always remove for improvement, whether you’d like to see better results on conversion rates, search engine ranking, time spent on your website or any other goal, it’s time to measure, tweak, measure, optimize and repeat as often as possible.
Start small
The key is to implement small changes so that you don’t completely scare off your visitors. For example, our local newspaper made the drastic mistake of completely overhauling their website about a year ago. They changed just about everything, and the reaction was bad. People were upset with the changes in navigation, display, where things were located, etc. If they had optimized and tweaked one item at a time, they would have been able to discover what features were working for them and what weren’t.
Measure your tweaks and optimizations with A/B testing. Make a small change and see if it works better by analyzing the results of your a/b testing. If it works better, implement it and start a new a/b test.
Get started with your in-house IT or web firm
If you’re working with an in-house IT person for your website, sit down and talk to them about A/B testing and how you can start optimizing your website on a consistent basis to improve your online results. If you work with a web firm, give them a call to schedule a meeting about how you can start an Optimization Strategy (without breaking the bank). If you’re working with an agency, be sure that you can trust their response time and dedication to deadlines. Once you measure results of an A/B test, you don’t want to have to wait around for weeks while they implement the change.