Most people think web optimisation is simply A/B tests to assess two or more designs against each other, and that it’s almost a random act of ‘testing things’ for short term gains in an uplift in specific metrics.
But this is not strictly true. The success of a great web optimisation is using a structured process, and a scientific approach to deem what to test and where. Web optimisation can be seen as a tactic of user experience, as a lot of practitioners in the field believe that great UX leads to more conversions.
In order to achieve a high-quality user experience, a company’s offerings must be a seamless merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including engineering, marketing, graphic design, and interface design.
Web optimisation is about making sure the web design and services the website offer meet the user’s needs as much as possible, to try and increase revenue for the company.
Common problems to look out for when optimising a web page
Websites are often a company’s largest marketing tool, and extensive budgets are given to them to drive traffic to their site in the hopes of achieving a conversion. As businesses focus on driving more traffic to the site, they can often neglect their website in the process, and the result is that extra traffic just increases their acquisition spends and lowers conversion rates.
Web optimisation focuses on making the most of the existing site, increasing the conversions and ensuring the traffic on site is reaching the website goal. By investing in optimisation, marketing channels can achieve higher revenue growth.
Customers will come to your site for a reason; they will most likely know what they are looking for straight away, so keeping your products viable when someone lands on your site is crucial.
How web optimisation works
Businesses are neglecting their websites by not keeping them clean, visual and mobile-optimised, causing customers to bounce of the site. Your navigation must be clear enough for someone to find what they are looking for and understand your discount codes and offers when they first land, so they are aware when they reach the basket stage. It should also give your customers an effortless experience when shopping on your site, keeping you in mind the next time they need to purchase a similar product.
To understand what changes need making, we would test the page to determine which layouts and designs we can improve to increase your conversions. Our CRO team have the ability to make all changes to the HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with one line of code needed to get started.
But it’s not just on-page tests that will bring in the benefits; the use of data is key too. Using Google Analytics’ audience overview can give you a true indication of which pages are performing and where people are bouncing off the site.
Remember, optimisation is an on-going cycle, a way of combining different elements of UX to produce a continual testing and analysis process to eventually lead you in the right direction to increasing conversions.
Step 1: Quantitative Techniques
What we’ll do:
Firstly, we’ll analyse the physical behaviour that is happening on the site that could be preventing conversion. We will look at where users are clicking on the site to understand what they are seeing and why they are potentially abandoning their purchase / goal.
Why it’s important:
This method helps us to quickly identify common issues or opportunities for testing, based on common website conventions and usability best practice.
Step 2: Qualitative Techniques
What we’ll do:
This stage follows a number of steps:
- Analyse the subconscious behaviour of users to understand their motives and actions
- Define an audience and detailed scenarios
- Conduct 10 research sessions
- Review and annotate the sessions to identify issues that frustrate or confuse users
- Add actions to our log and produce an insights presentation
Why it’s important:
This process helps us to understand the ‘why’ behind user behaviour. It also helps us gain insight into the motivations behind their actions on your site.
Management
During the testing and changes, everything will need to be monitored to ensure it’s working and, if not, what needs to be changed. We’ll also monitor the issues that might be faced if the core areas of the site are underperforming and if key website data is not being tracked. This will give us a better understanding of the customer behavior that needs to be considered and to start optimising key site areas.
We would do this across three months, taking analytics configurations, measurement support, qualitative user research and analysis, AB testing, basic targeting, personalisation and advanced targeting into account.
Need help with your website optimisation? Return are on hand to help! Contact us today to find out how we can help you increase those all-important conversions.