Conversion / Testing

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Uncovering Site Problems for Landing Page Optimization. Part 2 Tim Ash SiteTuners.com - Nov 4, 2008

Landing pages from both organic search and paid search that don't perform well cost you big money in lost sales. But how do you identify the problems? In part 1 we covered the uses of Web analytics, on-site search, and usability testing in uncovering potential problems for landing page optimization. This time we cover a few other places to turn.

Expert Usability Reviews

You do not always have to conduct full-scale usability testing. Hiring usability experts for a high-level review of your landing pages is often a terrific investment. Usability experts have seen dozens or even hundreds of poor designs, and have learned to extract subtle commonalities. They can quickly focus on potential problems without even conducting a usability test. Besides their testing expertise, usability experts also bring an outside perspective and a mandate to uncover problems. Often organizations that would be reluctant to take input from their own staff will listen to the advice of a hired expert.

Focus Groups

Focus groups, like usability tests, draw on people from the target audience. Via a moderated group discussion, insights can be gleaned about user needs, expectations, and attitudes. These findings can be compared to the proposed solution to determine if key elements are missing or are incorrect. Of course, focus groups can be easily biased by their more outgoing and assertive participants, and the moderator's influence is important. But this is okay since the purpose of focus groups is to provide qualitative information that can serve as input into deciding what to test.

Eye-Tracking Studies

Eye-tracking is particularly useful in detecting problems in the earlier awareness and interest stages of the visitor's decision process. If most test subjects do not look at the desired part of the page, they are not even aware that the conversion action is possible. In effect, for these visitors to your site the conversion action does not exist. Such studies are an excellent source of problems regarding page layout, visual presentation of information and images, and emphasis. A poor-man's substitute for eye tracking are the newer "in-page web analytics" tools available from several companies, such as CrazyEgg.com and ClickTale.com. These allow you to track mouse movement, clicks, and scrolling behavior on your landing page.

Customer Service Reps

Customer service representatives deal with your website visitors' problems all day long, so they may be able to help you pinpoint underlying problems. You could try direct interviews or surveys of your reps, or review actual visitor interactions contained in chat and phone call logs.

Surveys

A number of easy Web-based and telephone surveying methods and companies are available, such as SurveyMonkey.com. Try a survey of your users. People who have already completed your conversion action already are probably the best group to sample. Or sample randomly among a pool of people from your intended target audience using a tool like the iPerceptions 4Q survey (http://iperceptions4q.com/).

Forums and Blogs

Even if your company isn't mentioned directly in forum posts or industry blogs, you can still gain valuable insight into the concerns and problems of your target audience. Here you can gauge the loyalty or frustration of people, their immediate needs, and attitudes toward your industry, company, or product.

These techniques will help you put your finger on the problems in your landing pages that depress your conversion rates. Fix these and you may see a big difference in your business's bottom line.