How could this be possible?
First of all, when we set up our test on the client home page, in GWO we set up as a success goal ‘free samples requested’ confirmation page. This was done at our client’s request, who believed that this was the most important success metric on his site, forgetting another metric like sales conversion rate.

After running the test for 2 weeks and calculating statistical validity of other site metrics using a Chi-Square statistical validation methodology, we concluded that we collected enough data to establish the treatment page, as a winning page, even though we decreased conversion rate on the ‘free samples requests’ goal we measured in GWO.

How could this be possible? Firstly, ecommerce stores have several important metrics like page conversion rate, revenue, $ Index value, # of transactions and purchased products etc. So when we analysed these data points we discovered that our treatment page performed as follows:

-    Decreased free samples requests by -11.2%

However, the data from our client Google Analytics tool showed us very interesting results for other important site metrics.

-    Page bounce rate was down by 22.08%
-    $ index value up by 65.83%
-    Page conversion rate up by 95.45%
-    Revenue up 46.05%
-    Number of transactions up by 65%
-    Number of purchased products up by 46.42%

Original (control)

Variation 1 (treatment)

One interesting improvement we also observed was that our treatment page sent by over 300% less  visitors to the ‘free samples request’ page, but of those visitors who we sent there, instead of 5.92% we converted 25.11%, thus increasing conversion rate by 324.15%. To remind you, we didn’t make a single change on that ‘free samples request’ page. This was achieved by adding more clarity to the offer on the test page, where we clearly stated what you get after you click.

As you can see, if we simply measured just one goal, then our treatment version would be declared as a loser, even though the treatment page increased monthly gross revenue by over 46%.

Conclusion

When running any test, don’t forget that there are other important metrics which could be impacted by your test and that in some cases, the goal you might think is important isn’t necessarily always the best metric.
Always use your analytics tool, and look at other metrics too, as you don’t want to unknowingly declare a test as a losing one for failing in a certain metric when in fact that change brought extra £20k in revenue and improved another 5 site metrics – as happened in this example.

Interested to find out how Datadial can help you increase your conversion and site revenue? Call us on 0208 6000 500, or request free conversion rate optimisation consultation & site analysis.

400 Error!

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Imagine…

…a wheelbarrow in an open field that you drag along every day filling it with this and that – each thing you add to it has some significance and some use.

Now imagine you never empty the wheelbarrow. Each day, not only do the things you found the week before now lie at the bottom covered by the newest additions, but the device also becomes increasingly heavy to pull until eventually, it becomes almost impossible.

Now think of the wheelbarrow as your website, and think of its contents as the factors affecting its speed – Let’s explore these factors…

Bad HTML:

Erm...does "b" stand for "big" or "bold"?

• Empty spaces between code (This only adds to processing time)
• Missing tags (Causing internal errors & bugs in the site)
• Bulky HTML (such as using unnecessary tags where something more CSS compatible would work better e.g. using the tag “font-size” rather than just “small”)
• Background colour being the same as text colour (making all text unreadable)
• Hyperlinks that fail (Devaluing your site in terms of credibility, and possibly increasing bounce rates)
• Missing images

An overload of HTTP requests:

Kabooooom!

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Whenever your web browser fetches a file from a web server, for example when it loads a picture, it does this by using HTTP which stands for “HyperText Transfer Protocol”.

HTTP is an action whereby you’re computer requests for a particular file. One example is a request for ‘home.html‘ (the homepage of a particular website). The web server then sends a response to the computer that says something like: “Here’s the file you asked for” which is followed by the actual file itself.
Understandably, if your server is receiving a very high volume of requests for a range of different things, such as pictures, graphics, photographs, music players and video rendering, it can take its toll and end up really slowing your website down.

JavaScript/Flash overuse:

Dude, too much flash!

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JavaScript helps make things look nice. Lines of code enable things such as widgets, adverts, and analytics services to work successfully. The issue is that both kinds of software can be “heavyweight”. JavaScript performs ‘sequentially’ rather than ‘concurrently’ – this means that nothing else loads before JavaScript loads. Of course, this becomes an issue when you have tonnes of JavaScript code, each one longer than the last, preventing anything else from happening.

Too many cookies:

Nom Nom Nom!

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HTTP Cookies are used mainly for personalization and authentication purposes. A series of saved information is exchanged between the web server and the browser in order to remember things about how you are using the internet. For example if you are shopping online and exit the website returning at a later date, a cookie will enable the site to remember what you had in your shopping cart so you don’t have to spend time finding the same items again.

However, because saved information is being kept on the server, a build up of this can add to the process time on a website. In some cases, hackers even use cookies as an opportunity to track browsing activity; this is called spyware…so beware!

Bad hosting:

Erm...

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Web hosting is the business of providing storage space and access for websites. Bad web hosting happens when said storage space is overloaded with many websites, yours is added to the list and so runs slow. Other issues caused by a bad web host include:

• Search engines being unable to crawl your site resulting in a fall in Search Rank
• Your website being “down” (not working, sending out 404-errors)
•  Not being able to contact your web host to fix the issue (since the service is so bad the system has probably crashed)

Excess of external media:

No signal...

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Embedded YouTube videos, actually embedded anything that is coming from another website can potentially slow yours down. When you embed something from another site, you are relying on that sites web server, that sites speed, and that sites ability to ensure the embedded item is working properly there, so that it works properly on yours site. Often, even when it works just fine, it might add an extra few seconds to a certain page loading…a few seconds a potential customer may be unwilling to wait!

Spam:

Ew, gross!

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Spam is so much more than just a bunch of annoying emails. It slows down the Internet and it increases consumer fees.

The internet is a network where spamming effects everyone that uses it. To push spam around the internet relies on a process; it begins with global networks that pass the spam along to their destination, and ends with the message being received by the recipient.

Simultaneously, time, money and resources are used trying to catch and prevent spammers from infiltrating mail servers resulting in higher costs to the consumer because providers are forced to add more security to their servers and hire more staff to manage and prevent the problem.

Be sure to spam proof all web forms by adding “captchas” or similar.

Favicon neglect:

You need one of these!

A ‘favicon’ is an image (as shown above) that stays in the root of your server. It’s definitely needed because even if you don’t care about them, the browser still requests one. If there isn’t one, it will respond with a 404 error (meaning not found). Any error message, such as a 404 or 301, is an extra message sent that adds time to the processing of a site.

This image or lack thereof, interferes with the processing sequence by requesting extra components in the load, and since the favicon is the first thing that is downloaded before these extra components, if there isn’t one, the first thing downloaded will be an error.

Too many advertisements:

Hmm...where to start?

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Any time a site uses advertisements, you are adding to other processes a site goes through in order to function correctly. Programmes like Google Adsense and Microsoft adcenter are external, and reputable, however it is logical to practice the same rules as with external media; everything in moderation – besides, sites with too many ads look un”site”ly!

If any of these apply to you, take active steps to protect your website against sloth! Speed be with you!

We conducted an A/B test on Dowce.com website to find out which version would increase number of downloads. Both versions were similar, but in the version B (treatment) we improved the following:

• removed the call to action from the header in order to focus visitors on our main call to action in the body
• improved the headline
• added bullets points with improved value proposition
• improved the call to action (bigger and more visible)
• improved the layout, by dividing the sections so it is easier to scan the page

A: Control                                                             B: Treatment – 24.8% improvement

Conclusion:
This A/B test showed that conversion rate optimisation is very effective marketing method with measurable results, which allows you to increase your revenue and conversion from your current traffic.

To see, what difference a change in conversion rate by 20% or more can make to your business download our conversion improvement calculator.

If you are looking to improve your website conversion rate or would like to learn how we can help request your free consultation at info@datadial.net or call 0208 6000 500.

However, according to a Stanford Web Credibility Research, they derived 10 guidelines/factors which effects websites credibility, 3 of them relating to your ‘about us’ page (based on a 3 year, 5500 person study):

• Show that there is a real organization behind your site
• Highlight the expertise in your organization
• Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site

Naturally, testing a different version of your ‘About us’ page should be on your to-do test list. Unfortunately, in most cases ‘About us’ pages get at most several hundred visitors per month, which is not enough to come with statistically valid results within your 6 weeks test period. In this case, here is the list of 3 must have things an ‘About us’ page for small and medium businesses should definitely have if you want to get more sales:

3 Must Haves

1. Pictures of your office and your team
2. A passionate story behind your company showing your values
3. Peoples bio (credentials, certificates, training)

Here is the list of some ‘About us’ pages for your inspiration.

Creative examples:

www.dropbox.com

www.hunch.com

www.technologywithpassion.com (nice animation)

www.tribal.nl (nice animation)

www.6wunderkinder.com

Business (ecommerce + service + corporate) examples:

www.gupuds.com

www.crutchfield.com

www.brooksgroup.com

www.fridaysmove.com

www.bigcommerce.com

In the second part I would like to talk about more advanced, more costly but probably more rewarding test – a site search result page test.

Who is this test for?
Any website where the site search result page doesn’t allow result filtering by category, price, brand etc… or simply looking to improve search functionality, stickiness, conversions and retention by using more robust, intelligent 3rd party site search.

Goal of the test
We would like to find out if using more sophisticated 3rd party ecommerce site search will help you to increase your conversion rate and whether the investment is worth the money.

Why should you test?
You read a case study that better search result pages convert more and that visitors who use site search convert 2 – 3 times better than those not using a site search. You get very excited and decide to approach a 3rd party search provider. However, you discover the investment into a new site search can be substantial (e.g. $25,000+ annually for Google ecommerce search) so you would like find out if you can justify the cost.

How should you test?
What you want to do is to test both site search engines at the same time, something like A/B test comparing 3rd party site search vs. yours. However, there is a caveat. A/B testing won’t work in this case, as the site search box, where it all starts, is on every single page on your site and you would like to capture any search query from any page on your site. So, for this reason we need to set up a site wide test using a multivariate test strategy, showing exactly the same site search box, but the results leading either to your current site search or to the 3rd party site search you are trying to evaluate.

How do you measure success?
By comparing number of sales and a conversion rate in your testing tool

How many visits with site search do I need?
At least 5,000-10,000 visits per month with site search. For fast and statistically valid result 20,000+.

Recommended solutions:
Nextopia – $950/year for 10,000 search queries, $2,495/year for 100,000 search queries
Sli-systems – price not known
Google – from $25,000/year

Contact Jan to see how we can help you with your  ecommerce site search testing, A/B or multivariate testing or to request your free consultation: jan@datadial.net or call 0208 6000 500 ext. 231

OK, so what’s so special about the site search and why should you give it a go?

1. Generally the conversion rate of visitors who used a site search is 2-3 times higher than those without, as is the per visit value. In our example below conversion rate difference is 168% higher when site search has been used. Also per visit value is 132% greater.

2. On average, around 8-20% of sites’ visitors use a site search, but they bring between 17-33% of overall revenue.

3. The test itself isn’t that difficult to implement and could be up and running in less than 8 hours, however this type of test and implementation will require a knowledgeable person to set up the test.

A little something about the site search box test: this type of tests falls under so called “site wide” tests. With site wide test implementation, the tested variations are going to be the same on every page on your website.

Speak to Jan for more information on A/B or multivariate testing or to request your free consultation: jan@datadial.net or call 0208 6000 500 ext. 231

The Meta-description tag is a excerpt of HTML code that belongs inside the ‘ <meta name=”Description” content=” description goes here />‘ section of a web page.

This tag can definitely come in handy in your overall SEO campaign but the keywords and phrases you use in your Meta description tag actually have no effect on your page’s ranking in search engine results.

What does this mean?

Well you might have thought that these tags help your pages rank highly for the words you use within them, or spruce up the description a little bit in terms of what is shown in the search engines when they are typed – well if you did – you were wrong. In actual fact, similar to the Meta keywords tag, the information you place in this tag really isn’t given any weight in Google’s ranking algorithms.

In other words, whether or not you use your most important keywords in your Meta description tag, it simply won’t affect the position of your page in the results. So essentially, you could leave a description out altogether!

It almost sounds like you don’t need these tags at all, should you bother with them then?

Well, if you’re already happy with the excerpts of text that the search engines post from your page in any given search query, then there’s no reason to have a Meta description tag on your page(s). You might want to remember though, that the excerpt the engines use varies depending on what the searcher types into the engine.

Okay, so…?

In Google, if you search for a site by URL, the excerpts you see in the lists results returned are the first instance of text on that page. However on some pages an ‘image-alt’ tag that looks like this: <img> (the code that embeds an image in an HTML page), is the first instance of words on a page. In these cases, that is what would show up as part of the “excerpt” for your search.

For the most part the people searching with URLs are site owners checking whether or not their pages are indexed. So generally, you don’t need to worry about this.

What does this mean in layman’s terms?

Okay so a normal search wouldn’t usually involve a full URL. You would probably put in 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6) keywords describing what it is you were looking for (known as a long-tail keyword) – In this example let’s say you searched for “pink ballet shoes” – however if none of these keywords are used in the Meta description tags on any site that is returned in the search results or/and they aren’t on the landing page as a complete phrase in that order, then Google will simply gather a list of pages that contain any of the words ‘pink + ballet + shoes’ near each other and it will use any words surrounding these ones as the excerpts for those pages.

If “pink ballet shoes” were a product you were selling, then a great idea would be to adjust the page to include these words in the Meta description tags and also somewhere in the body of text on your page(s). Remember however, this isn’t in attempt to rank any higher but would simply be a way to make your site more search friendly when the user types these keywords into a search engine.

The Meta Title Tag

Completely unlike the description tag, the title tag will is and always will be one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings.

Put simply – ensuring you have strong title tags on each of your pages can generate significant differences to your rankings. This is because the words in the title tag are what appear in the links on the results pages returned after a query is put in (the bold, blue underlined text on Google when you put in a query and press ‘enter’) – therefore these are this is your first chance to impress the user.
They can’t be THAT important, can they?

Yes they can! Title tags are one of the main elements given algorithmic weight by search engines – in fact, if not more so, they are equally as important as the visible text highlighting your pages.
So what information should go in the title tag?

The name of your business should be the main thing here. Whatever else you add is entirely up to you, this can range from taglines, to descriptions of what your business does, to location details (so using the example from before you might add something like “Smiths’ Ballet Retailers – Middlesbrough”).

So the main thing was…?

This is the first thing users will see! Don’t miss out on a huge opportunity by not including the name of your business here.

To Surmise…

• Meta keyword tags/description tags are not related to how you are ranked in a search engine, but it would be silly to leave them out.

• The Meta description tag summarises what’s on your page and the keyword tag supplies a summary list of the important words on your page. Both types of tag make the page more search engine friendly.

Good luck!

We rebranded the company with a new logo and new identity.  We redesigned the website and developed it using Datadial’s content management system

If you have never had the pleasure of watching how a website is put together then now’s your chance.  Watch the video below.

Great, 50k visits, how many sales?

None? What a waste of time!

Many years ago when I used to work in sales a key to a successful appointment was sticking to the habit of asking yourself,

What is the minimum I’m going to expect from this call or meeting?

For many salespeople its the sale, which in most cases just isn’t realistic. The minimum an intelligent salesperson expects from a contact is an invite to get in-touch again. Its building on this relationship that creates long-lasting rewarding partnerships.

I have always approached social media with the same kind of mindset. For the vast majority of people that land on your pages, particularly on viral and linkbait type content its the first time that they have had any contact with your brand. – What is the minimum you’ll expect? A sale, or an invite to get in contact again?

I have mocked-up below a before and after of a typical blog landing page.

Before (click for a larger version)

After (click for a larger version)

The key changes to the page include,

• Adding easily visible subscribe options to a prominent area of the page, including the ability to subscribe by RSS or email.
• Prominent social media voting buttons at both the top and bottom of a post. Many social media users are members of multiple sites. Many may arrive from Twitter for example and then wish to Digg a story. Make it as easy as possible for them to do this.
• Twitter followers and Facebook fan pages can be as effective as email newsletter sign ups – make the most out of these if you use them and encourage people to sign up.
• Experiment with adding related posts to the bottom of your articles, this can help with how ‘sticky’ your site is.
• Encourage people to comment on your posts. Moderate spam and try to reply to people asking for help or advice.

Remember, its not always about converting a visitor into a sale, converting them into a user, reader, commenter, voter, advocate or sharer can be far more effective in the long-run.

The Best

John Hicks giving his talk (image from m-king)

My favourite today definitely has to be Aral Balkan‘s session. He really knows how to present and make learning fun! It was very inspiring and encouraging on how to make your designs that little bit better by adding an emotional element to your apps/sites. He got the longest applause I have heard at a conference!

But then the loveliest thing was when he acknowledged my tweet of thanks on twitter and his blog. What an awesome guy!

The Worst

umm…
ermmm….
ahhh…

Nope… I really can’t think of anything for The Worst… did I miss something?

Honestly, the whole thing was amazing. I’m really shattered now, but it’s a good tired because I’m also really excited to start doing so many of the things that were presented.

If you couldn’t make it to FOWD this year, I would definitely recommend buying the video pass. It would be really worth it. I’m looking forward to the videos myself because I wanted to go to both tracks so many times today… shame we can’t clone ourselves when the need arises!

In summary…

(I’ll add links to slideshows and downloads as I get them)

1. Progressive CSS3 Design (Molly Holzschlag)

   Molly presented the plans and workings of the W3C and asked for any web designers who are keen to be voices to the W3C. What I found most exciting was her mention of IE9′s capabilities – it sounds like my optimism about CSS3 in IE9 may be closer to reality than I first hoped!

2. What will Web Design Look Like in Two Years? (Simon Collison)

   According to Colly it’s going to evolve quite a bit, growing up and getting comfortable with the medium of being online. For example, no longer will we mimic tables with paper and coffee stains; but instead embrace the pixel, the grid and typography. Of course this does require a more mature understanding of grid systems and design fundamentals, but this will make the professionally designed sites stand out from the sea of online content.
   View Slides & Examples

3. The Art of Emotional Design: A story of pleasure, joy, and delight. (Aral Balkan)

   As I mentioned above, the whole presentation was a pleasure, joy and delight. Aral showed us examaples of how he has made his apps come to life by adding in little emotional attachments, like his famous bird turning red and singing in Feathers.
   Read Keir Whitaker’s write up on Think Vitamin

4. How to Build a HTML5 Website – Live Demo (Bruce Lawson)

   Up until today I haven’t dabbled too much into HTML5, but Bruce did a live demo which helped to demystify it all. HTML5 is definitely going to be mainstream, and soon. The capabilities of it are awesome, and it is so easy to still support older systems that don’t understand it. In particular I’m looking forward to the day where we can use the <video> tag without having to provide a Flash alternative for IE.
   http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/
   Another good introduction from Smashing Magazine

5. Rethink Your Job (and Earn More Money). (Brett Welch)

   Everyone knows Web stuff is becoming increasingly commodised, but where the value remains is in expert knowledge, advice and helping your client’s goals. Brett also emphasised starting small, growing in iterations, and the importance of having a marketing plan in place following the site’s launch. We all really admired him for not actually plugging his product in the talk.

6. Icon Design (Jon Hicks)

   I don’t do icon design very often, so it was really valuable to hear these tips and guides for when I do need to. It’s also very exciting to hear about future abilities like using SVG for icons.
   http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/

7. Blending Usability Testing with Interface Design, Prototyping and Rapid Iteration (Dan Rubin)

   I always want to do more and more usability testing, and Dan’s excellent talk really got me excited about it even more. He talked us through a case study of how they had assessed a current site, found the good things and bad things about it, and came up with some suggested changes. He then detailed their technique for testing the changes and how they were able to accurately test them while keeping it in a format that was easy to change and adapt as they went (basically using image maps with an exported Photoshop comp). Definitely a great technique for getting the most value from a test.