The Evolution of Website Optimization and Design
Website optimization means much more than just crafting a winning landing page.
“When conversion optimization first became a thing, companies focused on landing pages and how to get people to fill out a form on one page. Now, its more about the entire website experience,” Alhan Keser, senior conversion strategist, WiderFunnel.
Keser will be a featured speaker in the “New Trends in Website Optimization for Lead Generation: It’s Not Just What You Say—It’s What the Customer Experiences” session at B2B LeadsCon Summit at the Marriott Marquis in New York, Aug. 14-15.
The websites of many enterprises have gone through numerous incarnations—and they’re still not exactly what the business needs or wants.
“Companies have gone through the process of site redesign too many times, and it’s a painful, high-risk, expensive process,” says Keser.
He notes that now, some companies are using evolutionary site redesign, progressively redesigning the site through testing. A great example of this is Amazon, which is constantly evolving its site, making educated changes based on what they know works, thanks to testing different concepts to segments of its audience base.
Where should a company start if it wants to try evolutionary site redesign? One of the easiest places to see gains with the least amount of effort is the masthead, or main navigation of your homepage, Keser says.
This is an area where you likely get the most eyeballs, he points out, noting that many companies leave out basic information that customers would want to find. For example, if customer would likely want to call you, put your phone number front and center. Or if there’s an important form you want to direct them to, put an easy to find and click on button front and center.
“[This sort of change] doesn’t require a lot of work from a technical or design perspective,” he notes.
The main mistake that many marketers make with their masthead is that they either don’t include enough information for prospects—“or there’s too much stuff there. They have a main navigation that is overly complicated with too many links and information that is not focused on the end goal.”
It does pay to look at what your competition is doing with their site—but don’t just blindly copy them, Keser advises.
“You don’t want to just get to where your competitor is—you want to go beyond them. Look at the competition and see what they are doing. You should test what they are doing, but you need to know what works best for you.”
For more on B2B LeadsCon, Aug. 14-15 in New York, click here.
