Website testing

Web Analytics

In the face of increasing search costs, 71% of marketers in MarketingSherpa’s Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007 responded that "improve site’s conversion efficiency" is a top priority.

In addition to using web analytics merchants should be prepared to brush up on website testing in order to make their sites convert better. Website testing has been around for quite a long time, but used to be mainly targeted (and hence priced) at large organizations.

But many cool tools are now becoming available for everybody. Google’s Website Optimizer is a free multivariate tool that allows marketers to do testing. "Free" does not mean however that there is no cost associated with using it; you’ll still have to spend a considerable amount of time planning and setting up tests properly, and as they say…time is money.

I recommend Future Now’s "Which Sells Best" ebook. It is geared towards retailers and includes great examples of what to test.  You may also want to check out  Scott Miller’s Conversion Lab ebook.

Finally, I invite you to learn about using Website Optimizer with a Yahoo! Store.