Is Your Site Speed Optimized?

As pointed out on Google's Research Blog, speed matters. Google ran a test on their search results to determine how page loading time affects user satisfaction. In Google's experiment, they injected a delay of only 100 to 400 milliseconds. The decline in the number of searches is certainly measurable.

While none of us have the traffic level of Google, it still brings up an interesting question: Is your site speed-optimized?

There are several reasons to optimize the speed and functionality of your page:

• Increase user satisfaction through usability efficiency


• Increase time-on-page metrics


• Decrease your own and your users' bandwidth needs

In addition to code-level changes you can make on your website, functionality changes will also increase the user's perception of speed and performance. The efficiency in which users can achieve their goal on your site is as important as how fast your site loads.

The bottom line is that when we speed-optimize our pages, it increases usability - the keystone to increased conversions.

Google recently published a resource for developers that shares knowledge of how we can code to make web pages load faster. While most developers and designers know most of these tips, it is great to have all of these resources in one place; everything from articles to downloads to community forums.

Here are some of our favorite articles from Google's speed resource:

• User experience and site performance


• Optimizing web graphics


• Properly including stylesheets and scripts


• CSS: Using every declaration just once


• Prefetching resources
  

Want to check the speed of your website?

Here are three resources that will help you to test your website speed:

• Website Speed Test by WebsiteOptimization.com


• Yahoo's YSlow Firefox plugin


• Google's Page Speed Firefox plugin

Being Google Analytics Consultants and Google Website Optimizer Consultants we can help you analyze, test and optimize your website speed.

Labels: Site Optimization, site speed, Web Strategy, Web Usability

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Google Website Optimizer Increases Conversion 591%

How website usability testing increased sales in the face of the global travel recession

Nature Air used website usability testing and improved search engine optimization to reverse decreasing web sales. The global recession has taken a serious toll on the travel industry. Costa Rica Airline, Nature Air, was feeling the harsh reality of the recession.

However, their online revenues are now up over 20-30% over their record sales in 2008. One of the key tools used to help make this turnaround was Google Website Optimizer. Below is an example of a website optimizer test that helped increase the conversion rate of their 17 destination landing pages from 3% to 19%.

Nature Air's destination pages are key to the overall success of the website since they are among the top landing pages that people land on from search engines. These pages garner the best traffic from users who are in the later stages of the buying cycle and are ready to book a flight. Thus it is critical for these pages to effectively push people to the flight booking engine.

Original Destination Landing Page

This is the original design of the 17 destination landing pages:

New Destination Landing Page

This is the new design of the 17 destination landing pages, which was really only a simple change of adding a contextual call to action:

Simple Changes can Turn into Big Profits

The amazing thing is this website optimizer test illustrates that very simple changes can have a huge impact. In fact, a 591% conversion rate increase...wow! Below is a screenshot of the Google Website Optimizer report screen showing the dramatic results.

Below is a screen capture that shows the ONE specific change that was made to this page that was responsible for the dramatic conversion rate improvement.

The thinking behind this change was that by placing the call to action within the content area, with messaging specific to the location, and including the starting fare price, the call to action would become more relevant and people would connect with it and be persuaded to book a flight.

What is better than increasing conversion 591%?

Increasing the free search engine traffic to these 17 landing pages. Check back for our follow-up blog post to this website optimizer case study to see how we got over 50 #1 rankings on Google and over 100 #2 & #3 rankings on Google for Nature Air which drove more people to these pages who were actively searching for location specific flights in Costa Rica.

Read more about the Nature Air Website Optimization Case Study
Learn more about our Google Website Optimizer Consulting Services.

Please share your thoughts or questions.

Labels: Case Studies, google website optimizer, improve conversion rate, website optimization

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Local Search gets even more powerful with Google Local Business Center

If you are serious about local search and thoroughly understanding your traffic sources, you need to check out the new activity dashboard in Google Local Business Center. It offers new reporting that shows impressions and, more importantly, the activity on your local search listings.

For example, it shows your top search queries, total website activity from local listings and how many clicked on 'more info', 'directions', or clicked to your website. You can even see 'where driving directions requests come from' which can be quite insightful. You have to hand it to Google for continuing to help out businesses better analyze and market their businesses. Google even offers plenty of great tips on how to improve your local search listings and more.

If you haven't already started using Google Local Business Center for managing your local search and Google Maps listings, you need to start. Other great features that you will want to take advantage of if you are managing a business with multiple locations or multiple businesses is the ability to do bulk business listing uploads. This is a huge timesaver for an agency like ours and for the in-house person who manages national business locations where local search is vital to search engine optimization success.

Login and start using Google LBC (Local Business Center) today!
www.google.com/lbc

Read the full Google announcement about the new LBC dashboard

Labels: google lbc, google local business center, google maps, local search

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Free & Fast Google Analytics iPhone app

Our team launched our free Google Analytics iPhone app today. It is very basic to start but utilizing the Google Analytics API it provides fast access to your site activity within multiple accounts and profiles.

Being a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant, we frequently need to grab quick site metrics during a meeting and this iPhone app is all about giving you fast, anywhere access.

Google Analytics iPhone App Features:

App uses Google's Analytics API to retrieve your data quickly.

Date Ranges:

• Yesterday
• Last 7 days
• Last 30 days
• Custom Date Range

Analytics Reports display:

• Visits
• Pageviews
• Pages/Visit
• Bounce Rate
• Average Time on Site
• % New Visits

Coming very soon in next version

• Top Landing Pages
• Top Exit Pages
• Top Keywords
• Date Range Improvements so that date range is accessible from all pages and more easily changed
• More to be announced...

Please share your ideas and feedback. We are excited about building this out into a fully featured app that will make all your valuable Google Analytics data quickly accessible.

Special thanks goes out to our iPhone App Developers Ryan Bertrand and Ken Colborn. Ryan did most of the development on this app. Even though there isn't much to the app at this point he put in a lot of hard work to get the foundation in place and get comfortable with the Google Analytics API so we can build it into a more robust app. Nice job, Ryan! You can check out some of his other useful and fun iPhone apps on iTunes like Fake'em Out Call, Text, & More.

Download free app now via iTunes: Free Google Analytics iPhone App

Labels: Google Analytics, Google analytics authorized consultant, iphone app

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The Importance of Designing Toward Key Scenarios

When someone moves to a different state, there are a number of state-owned websites a new resident may need to use. For this scenario, how does the California DMV website compare to that of the Washington DOL? The DMV leaves a lot to be desired in terms of usability, and the main culprit is the lack of content specificity.

For example, let's say a user is looking to obtain a license as a new resident of California, I would assume a fairly common task. On both sites, there are a number of different pathways a user can take, but let's look at the main navigation. For the DMV website, I would click 'Drivers License,' 'New Driver,' then 'How to apply for a driver license if you are over 18.' At this point, I'm taken to a never-ending content page, 90% of which does not apply to me a new resident. Some of the confusion can be attributed to the fact that the same content is reused for both new drivers & new residents.













On the WA State DOL page, there is a landing page designed specifically for new Washington residents. On the main navigation, I click 'Moving to WA,' then 'Get a WA License.' I'm taken to a page that's specific to my situation and contains very little extraneous information. As a user, the page title, content and headings are speaking specifically to my needs.











We often work with clients to create key scenarios and personas to help paint a more elaborate picture of the ideal user experience before designing a single pixel. If followed, these recommendations can relieve headaches especially if the efforts are applied appropriately during the development cycle:

1. Design towards specific key scenarios: These should be in direct alignment with the most common reasons a user would come to your site.
2. Build pages that have content specific to the target user type: This allows the page titles, headings and content to align with what specific users needs to know.
3. At first, don't worry too much about edge cases, or uncommon user goals: Design for the 80% scenarios first because these will have the most bang-for-the-buck.
4. Do website usability testing and be sure to recruit participants who match your target profile: Make sure you test your design assumptions with real users in a lab who actually use your site.

Have any similar experiences on government websites? Share them with us.

Labels: personas, scenarios, usability, user experience, Web Usability, website usability testing

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Web Optimization Tips and Tools from SES New York 2009

It's very simple to improve the conversion of your website. First make sure your site works and fix anything that is broken. 99% of the sites we perform website evaluations on have a variety of common problems such as bad internal/external links that lead to error pages, form validation issues, functionality like forms and shopping carts that don't work reliably, and etc. Once you have properly tested your site (Google Webmaster Tools and Xenu are great tools to identify broken links) you are ready to optimize it. Now, the key to website optimization is to better understand what people are doing on your website and why they are doing it.

Free Website Optimization Tools

Being a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant and Google Website Optimizer Technology Partner we are huge fans of Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer which are free tools that help you identify weak links in your site and test changes you make to your site to ensure you are going in a positive direction. In addition to these tools, 4Q Survey is a great free tool that helps you get a better idea of why people do what they do on your site and Crazy Egg is a very inexpensive tool that gives you deeper insight into what people are or are not clicking on in the context of a specific page.

Watch our short video interview after speaking at Search Engine Strategies New York 2009 where we discuss these website optimization tools, our process for improving conversion, and a couple case studies where we have quickly and easily delivered huge conversion rate increases:

Let us know if you have any questions about our simple process for tuning your website conversion rate. Enjoy these website optimization tips and have fun with these free tools!

Labels: 4q free survey tool, crazy egg, Google Analytics, google website optimizer, website optimization tips

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Susan Boyle - Made to Stick - What You & I can learn

What can you and I learn from Susan Boyle (if you haven't heard of her, you're likely the only one)?

It is to craft our marketing messages (or any communication) so that they will stick in the minds of our audience.

If you are a marketer (or you are in any way responsible for creating messages for your company) you need to read Made to Stick. In it Dan & Chip Heath researched and presented what made stories and messages (both modern and ancient) stick in the minds of those who heard them.

So let's compare the principles outlined in Made to Stick with the video of Susan Boyle that (as of this writing) has been viewed 33,570,148 times (four days ago when my wife showed it to me it had been viewed 4 million times. That's viral!):

• Principle 1: Simple - What could be more simple than a singing contest (we're all familiar with them now)?
  
  
• Principle 2: Unexpected - Here's where the producers hit a home run. They made it appear as though we were going to witness a train wreck, but instead witnessed a virtuoso performance. Brilliant production.
  
  
• Principle 3: Concrete - Susan sings beautifully and wins over the the crowd.
  
  
• Principle 4: Credible - The judges, crowd, and show in general give the message its credibility. Would the message have spread if it was an audition tape with no judges or crowd?
  
  
• Principle 5: Emotional - I know people who actually teared up when they watched this. A quick view of the comments show people are viewing it again and again because they are emotionally attached to Susan.
  
  
• Principle 6: Stories - This is a classic Cinderella/Ugly Duckling story.
  

As you can see Susan Boyle (and the "Britains Got Talent" producers) hit every one of the SUCCESs Model principles and excelled in at least 3 (unexpected, emotional, and a story).

You and I will have more SUCCESs in our online marketing efforts to create messages that stick if we will follow the same model.

Apply it today and let us know how it works.

Labels: made to stick, online marketing, susan boyle

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Double your Conversion Rate at EM9 Conference in SF

Ready to improve your Marketing Campaign ROI by Doubling Conversion Rate?
You invest a lot of time, money and effort into your website and online marketing. Wouldn't you like to know about a simple process using free and inexpensive tools that can help you methodically boost your return on investment? Okay, I know you are thinking that this is just more hype, but it is the real deal and we have proven case studies.

The tools include Google Website Optimizer, Google Analytics, 4Q Surveys, and Crazy Egg. At the eM9 Marketing Conference in San Francisco on April 21 and 22 I will be sharing how to double your conversion rate with this proven process and basic tools that anybody can follow.

Not only will you increase your profits with little investment but the true benefit is increasing market share for long-term sustainable profitability.

We are excited to be speaking on two sessions (solo presentation at 3:00pm and the eMarketing panel at 4:30pm) at the eM9 Conference in San Francisco and we hope to see you there!

eM9 Marketing Conference
If you aren't familiar with the eM9 Marketing Conference here are more details:

The eM9-SF provides the forum for the very latest trends, best practices, processes and ideas that are transforming the future of marketing. Sessions contain new content and cutting edge actionable ideas and processes you can bring your entire team.

The eMarketing Association (eMA) is the world's largest international association of emarketing professionals. The eMA has members in over 40 countries around the world, and sponsors or manages over 30 events a year. Each conference session is 45 minutes and covers an essential aspect of emarketing. Each session is presented by a high rated speaker and industry expert. Speakers must hold titles of CEO, President or Vice President, and have experience in presenting to sophisticated marketing executives.

Having recently shared some similar marketing tactics on how to double your conversion rate on the east coast at Search Engine Strategies in New York; we look forward to sharing even more on our proven process near our office on the west coast.

Leave a comment below and let us know if you are coming to the eM9 conference!

Labels: EM9 conference, improve conversion rate, Optimize Conversion, San Francisco marketing conference

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