Getting Started With Conversion Rate Optimisation

What Is Conversion Rate Optimisation? ........................................................................... 5

Step 1: Review Your Existing Pages ................................................................................ 5

What Are You Trying To Achieve? ............................................................................... 5

Step 2: Decide On The Type Of Test ............................................................................... 6

A/B Testing ............................................................................................................... 6

Multivariate Testing ................................................................................................... 6

Step 3: Set Quantitative Goals........................................................................................ 7

How Long To Test For ................................................................................................ 7

How To Check Your Results Will Be Accurate ............................................................... 7

Step 4: Choose a Data Source ........................................................................................ 8

Test It Yourself .......................................................................................................... 8

Heat Maps................................................................................................................. 8

Get Others to Test for You.......................................................................................... 9

Surveys..................................................................................................................... 9

Google Analytics Tracking .......................................................................................... 10

Google AdWords Tracking ......................................................................................... 10

Step 5: Advert Testing .................................................................................................. 11

Step 6: Landing Page Testing ........................................................................................ 12

Word and Content Tests ............................................................................................ 12

Guide Your User ....................................................................................................... 13

Headline .................................................................................................................. 13

Initial Content .......................................................................................................... 14

Images / Videos / Diagrams ...................................................................................... 14

Main Content ............................................................................................................ 15

The Offer Itself ......................................................................................................... 15

Social Proof / Testimonials ......................................................................................... 16

Make It Easy To Convert ........................................................................................... 16

Step 7a: Shopping Cart Testing ..................................................................................... 17

Step 7b: Form / Contact Page Testing ........................................................................... 18

Step 8: Collect And Analyse Test Results ........................................................................ 19

Step 9: Review and Refine ............................................................................................ 23

A Little Bit About Koozai:

Koozai are a multi-award winning digital marketing agency.

We’re one of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies having been ranked 23rd in the

Deloitte Technology Fast50.

We help businesses connect with their customers online – providing a range of industry-

leading services from Organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC)

Management to Link Building, Social Media and Brand Management.

We thrive on building long-lasting client relationships and delivering true value for money.

We’re passionate about what we do - and that shows in our work.

No lengthy contracts, just world class Digital Marketing. Koozai will help you build your

brand online and achieve ROI that can be clearly measured against your bottom line.

How To Get In Touch:

If you would like to get in touch with us, please visit our website (www.koozai.com) or use

one of the methods below:

About The Author:

Laura Phillips has experience of SEO, PPC and Social Media both in-house and within an

agency environment. Having worked across a variety of industries from travel to law, and

retail to education she is always looking for new and innovative ways to improve the search

and social visibility of her clients across all platforms.

Additional content provided by Samantha Noble and Dean Marsden.

About This Whitepaper

If you are looking to get more conversions without necessarily gaining more traffic then

Conversion Rate Optimisation is the best place to begin. This guide will give you the basics

of building a highly effective landing page, showing you how to find areas for improvement,

and how to maximise their potential for conversion.

What Is Conversion Rate Optimisation?

A large number of websites spend a lot of time and energy focusing on their traffic. There is

a widely held belief that if you can get traffic to your site then conversions should naturally

follow. Sadly for most, this is not the case. You may be getting vast amounts of traffic to

your site, but what can you do if conversion numbers do not meet expectations?

Conversion rate is one of the most important statistics for any online business. It’s about

getting the most from your customers, maximising their understanding and desire to

convert, and countering any and every bump in the road that may stop them doing so.

Step 1: Review Your Existing Pages

The easiest way to find potential improvements for your landing pages (or indeed any part

of your site) is through analysing what you already have and testing it. Whether you are

building a brand new site or looking to improve on an established one, testing and re-testing

is crucial.

What Are You Trying To Achieve?

Start by thinking about your objectives:

Why am I testing this page?

Who is my target audience and why?

What is a good key performance indicator (KPI) for this page?

What is this landing page trying to get users to do?

What course of action is it trying to promote?

Identify your goals for testing and give consideration to the expected outcome. It is easy to

get caught up with passive goals which are easier to achieve but don’t actually create

actions, for example, total traffic. High levels of traffic are good; but only if they are

converting. You also need to measure actions from those you are trying to influence.

Try to aim for one goal per page. If an action is worthy of being a goal, it needs its own

landing page to give maximum opportunity to convert and the least chance of distraction

from the goal. For example Spotify focuses on having you try their premium service:

Step 2: Decide On The Type Of Test

A/B Testing

A/B testing (aka split testing) is simply where you test two versions of one page element.

For example, you may wish to design a home page with a light blue background and a dark

blue background alongside each other to see which performs the best. Once the test has

been run and the most successful page established, this may become the new default,

which can then be tested against another, for example a grey background. A/B testing

involves constantly testing two variations of one page element to find which is most

beneficial to the site, giving very specific results.

Multivariate Testing

Multivariate testing allows you to compare a number of factors across a page or pages to

find the best possible combination. You may wish to test various headlines, colours, button

locations, images, price points or any other aggregations of elements to find which performs

best for your predetermined goals. Start by listing the elements you wish to test, for

example, headline includes/excludes the word ‘Free’, button size large/small, and image

top/bottom.

The versions and tests you can run are essentially infinite, providing broader results than

A/B testing. That’s why if you’re looking to run a test it’s often far better to use Multivariate

testing and to create a new page that meets your core goals rather than just a simple

change such as colour switches.

Step 3: Set Quantitative Goals

We now need to consider some of the fundamental aspects of our test to make sure goals

are realistic and easy to track:

How Long To Test For

Consider the timeframe you will need to run the test. If you fail to define clear parameters,

your results will be hard to quantify. Think about how many conversions you get on a

daily/weekly/monthly basis and how many you need to achieve conclusive results.

Marketo have created a Landing Page Calculator to estimate the time period and/or number

of variations you could run based on the number of conversions the site achieves on a daily

basis.

How To Check Your Results Will Be Accurate

Statistical significance allows you to accurately distinguish between naturally occurring

patterns and those that happen by chance. This is hugely important, you need to know your

results are accurate before implementing any changes or page performance may be

damaged instead of improved.

Set a level of confidence that you are happy with (if you are unsure, 95% is a popular bar

for confidence). Then choose one of a number of plug-ins available for Microsoft Excel (such

as the Data Analysis plugin) which will tell you the sample size you will need to gain

accurate results.

Step 4: Choose a Data Source

In many cases, sites will roll out landing page tests on a live site and watch the results come

in. In other cases, such as a site that has not been launched yet, user testing may be

carried out by small samples of invited guests. They can then test a landing page within a

website by using it and recording their thoughts.

Test It Yourself

Firstly, be the customer and test the page yourself. You may think you know your site inside

out, but site owners often discover stumbling blocks they didn’t know of or had forgotten

existed by testing the site for themselves. Navigate the page testing your predefined goals

one by one. For example, if you were testing the BBC homepage you may wish to test how

easy it is to navigate to the news or TV listings. Are they easy to spot? Does anything block

your path such as pop ups?

Video yourself doing this and keep a running commentary of what you are doing and how

you are feeling. There are many products and services available for this such as ScreenFlow

or Camtasia. You may hate the idea but you will have a record of your own user experience

that you can refer back to.

Heat Maps

Secondly, have the page tested by anyone who can spare the time and see what issues they

might have. If the same issue keeps coming up, start improving by focusing on that element

of the page.

You may also wish to employ a User Experience (UX) service such as Clicktale for heat-

mapping, eye-tracking. This will show you the behaviours users use when they browse your

website and build up an aggregate pattern so you can spot any issues.

Get Others to Test for You

You could also use a full video service such as User Testing or What Users Do which allow

you to create a test and define what tasks testers should complete. Once completed you will

receive videos of participants with audio so you can see and hear what problems they might

have found. It’s important to get third parties fitting the description of your target audience

to test your site. If your target audience is broad, you may wish to carry out tests using a

number of different audiences.

Surveys

For ongoing feedback, you may wish to add a service such as , Ethnio or Survey Monkey

Qualaroo (previously KISS Metrics) to the site. These surveys can be added to any page,

though most commonly they are added to the Thank You page. This creates a small pop up

where you can ask for the user’s opinion. Because you are requesting this information from

the Thank You page, you ensure that these users are fully qualified, having already

converted. You may wish to ask if there was anything that confused them, or that they

found hard to find on the landing page.

Google Analytics Tracking

Within Google Analytics you can create goals that allow you to see when a user has

completed a key action. You can also analyse this data to see what they did before

completing the action, such as the pages they viewed. This is a great way of seeing which

parts of the conversion path need improving.

This guide from Google explains how to create goals:

http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1032415

Google AdWords Tracking

If you are running paid search adverts on AdWords you should also enable conversion

tracking: http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1722054. This

will identify which keywords and adverts led to conversions and is the ideal way to see if

your pages are meeting user expectations.

You should also run your new page through all of these tools one you’ve created it to see

what people think.

Step 5: Advert Testing

Always keep your Ads in mind, making sure the landing page is closely tied to the Ad copy.

This not only gives users the confidence that they have made the right decision by clicking,

but also helps to minimise wasted clicks. If you aren’t using paid adverts then it’s also

important to consider your Meta matches up to the pages people will land on.

For example M&M Direct have adverts for running shoes that say they are cheap:

The landing page then supports this by showing only running shoes, and how much the

price saving is on each one:

Step 6: Landing Page Testing

On any given page there are likely to be thousands of different variations of items that can

be tested to generate results. Below we’ve listed some of the most important changes to

investigate and while you don’t need to change them all this should a great place to start if

you need inspiration:

Word and Content Tests

Test the offer

Long paragraphs vs short paragraphs

Bullet points vs paragraphs

Punctuation

Test copy ordering on the page

Columns – 1, 2 or 3 layout

Test different words

Informal / formal / attitude

Font size

Links – Blue and underlined

CTA Wording

Other Things To Test

Headline

Image

Call to Action: Wording / Shape / Style / Position on page / Icon / Colour / Legibility

Layout

Testimonials

Content Size

Actual Copy

Embedded Widgets

Coupons

Colours

Fonts

Sizes

Sales Incentives

Number of fields on a form

Newsletter Subscriptions

Reviews

More Product Details

Shipping Info

Shipping Pricing

Let’s take a look at some of those key items in more detail:

Guide Your User

Guide your user’s eyes to where you want them to look with a logical, attractive design and

cues such as colour contrast and arrows to take them to your call to action. The Crazy Egg

Home page does this really well:

Headline

Start with a headline that feels personalised; text visitors can identify with and that provides

an answer to their search query. The headline has the job of drawing the user in and

making them want to read more, so make it engaging, rouse their curiosity, and give them a

reason to continue. This will often be the place to include your unique selling point. For

example ‘Plant bulbs delivered to your door – 10% off until 5pm today’. On the MailChimp

website their headline makes it really clear what they do:

Initial Content

Follow the headline with short, to the point text or bullet points to keep reading easy and

the user engaged. This text should include more details of the features and benefits you

offer, explaining how your product or service will benefit the user, and should be written in

the same style as the headline.

Remember the Milk uses a “to do” list to explain their features, which is a clever way of

showing how their product works:

Images / Videos / Diagrams

Use images to break up content and help reinforce the feel of the site. For example,

technical, emotional, niche. This is the place to add your best promotional imagery or video

or your product or service in use. Video has been reported to directly increase conversions

by over 75% in some instances. Attractive diagrams can also be useful here, demonstrating

how your offering solves a problem.

The Dropbox Homepage focuses on one big video to show their benefits.

Main Content

The first paragraph should contain a brief review of major points. You also need to reveal

the deal clincher early on so the user does not have time to lose interest. Think about what

you would say if you were selling the product face to face. Your landing page copy should

reflect this. Consider recording yourself making a pitch then compare it to your page and

see what elements might be missing.

Some sites will be better off with short, easy to read pages, where others will require more

information, usually where larger purchasing decisions are involved. For an example of how

long pages can work to your advantage have a look at any Amazon product page. That said,

if you don’t have anything to say, don’t say it. Endless waffle and fluff in your text will put

users off. Keep editing your content, every word must have a purpose, otherwise take it out.

On our Whitepaper pages we try to quickly establish what the content is about:

The Offer Itself

Place your offer here with a clear call to action. Include a brief overview of the benefits,

present your offer, and justify your pricing. You may also wish to include a limited time offer

or other incentive to act quickly. This helps to create a sense of urgency which may

motivate more users to convert. Groupon do this well:

Social Proof / Testimonials

Social proof can be very important in the conversion process. Testimonials from real people

provide evidence that you are a trustworthy and quality business. The reassurance of seeing

your offering be qualified by others helps users convert.

Any positive press can also be used on your landing page to further cement your value in

the mind of the user, as can any guarantees or other ‘peace of mind’ propositions you may

have associated with your product or service.

If any recognisable companies or personalities use your product or service, combine this

selling point with more imagery such as their logo or photograph to provide further

assurance. Firefox do a great job of showing off the number of downloads they have had

and using that to encourage downloads:

Make It Easy To Convert

Overly lengthy or complicated forms are known to put users off. Focus on making

conversion as simple as possible with a quick and easy to use action, no distractions such as

pop ups or adverts, and a Thank You page asking for their opinion to help you further

improve your landing page. We try to make the forms for our Whitepapers as simple as

possible and focus them on only the information we need:

Step 7a: Shopping Cart Testing

Another vital part of a website to be tested often is your shopping cart, especially by

analysing where people fall out of the process. Some of the key aspects to test are:

Make it easy for people to pay using their preferred method (PayPal, Credit Card etc)

Check the compatibility of payment gateways (e.g. Lloyds) on different browsers

Test how the shopping cart renders on a mobile and tablet

Include logos that add trust

Gather email addresses at the start of the process, if users don’t complete an order then

follow-up

Consider testimonials and reviews

Use key phrases such as ‘Fast Delivery’ and ‘Price Guarantee’ to encourage a sale

Review competitor shopping carts to see what they do well

Use progress indicators, pictures and links to product descriptions

Eliminate unnecessary steps

Monitor user journeys through the process with the tracking software discussed earlier

Make error messages clear so the user understands any problems they have to fix

List a phone number in case of any problems

Make postage costs visible on the product page so there are no surprises

Test user registration before and after the sale

One site that does many of these items very well is ASOS:

Step 7b: Form / Contact Page Testing

If you don’t have a shopping cart then you’ll need either a form or contact page to gather customer details. Like a shopping cart there are also factors to be considered: Keep reading to a minimum

Only have “required” fields where absolutely necessary

Have adequate shipping information and pricing information

Ensure that the email privacy link is next to, or close by to the email request field

Add alternative contact methods (Phone, Email, Address, Live Chat)

Keep contact form as short as possible; the basic name, email and message fields should

be enough

Use a large, obvious submit button below your contact form

Assure users that their contact details will not be passed on to a third party

Include your phone number as HTML text so it can be used on Skype or easily copied

Include your postal address as HTML text so it be easily copied

Add Schema markup data to allow your address and phone numbers to appear as rich

snippets in the search engines and elsewhere; more information at www.schema.org.

Display a confirmation message when the page has been sent

Test having the name, position and, if possible, a picture of the person they might be

speaking to when they contact you

Provide FAQ’s to answer common questions that may cause issues

SEOmoz do many of these things very well:

Step 8: Collect And Analyse Test Results

One of the better ways to test pages is to use Google Content Experiments which can be

accessed via Google Analytics:

Getting Started

It is very easy to get started with a new Content Experiment and you can be up and running

in five simple steps:

Decide on which page you want to test

Design the different variations (each one needs a separate URL)

Choose which goal you want to improve

Create the test

Analyse the results

Content Experiments can be found within the Content section

of Google Analytics, just one click away from your main

reports.

When visiting the area for the first time you will be displayed

a screen explaining a little bit about the tool and how to use

it. There are some helpful guides; so if you are unsure of

what to do, I would recommend checking these out first by

clicking on ‘learn more’ in the bottom right-hand corner of

the screen.

The first thing you need to do to create a test is to tell the

system what page of your site you want to start with.

In this example I have added the Koozai Home page:

Next up, you will be asked to provide details of the first variation you want to run against

your original. The variation does need to be on a different URL and I would suggest that you

put all your test pages into one folder on your site called ‘tests’. This way you can block the

entire folder within your robots.txt as you don’t want the search engines to be able to crawl

the pages due to duplicate content issues.

If you want to test more than one page variation, you can do this from this stage too. There

is a button that you can click to add another variation. If this is the first time you have

played about with testing, always start small and create one variation or things may get a

little confusing.

Next you need to set up your first test and choose which goal you want to add. After

selecting the goal you want to work with, you need to tell Google what percentage of your

visitors you want to put through the test. The higher the percentage, the faster you will be

able to see the results; however, if you are making a change you may not want to put all

your traffic through the test in case the change causes a negative drop in conversions rather

than a positive. Basically, if you choose 100% of traffic and have your original page and one

test page then 50% will see the original and 50% will see the test.

Code Implementation

In order to get the test started, you will need to add a small piece of code onto each of your

test pages. Content Experiments makes it easy to either add the code yourself or send it

onto your Web Developer.

NOTE – all pages taking part in the test need to have Google Analytics installed.

The code needs to be added immediately after the opening <head> tag on the

original page.

Once you have added the code to the original page you will be taken to a new screen which

checks to see that you have installed the code correctly. If you haven’t you will be displayed

with a message like the one below. If everything is OK and ready to go, you will see green

ticks next to each page indicating that you can proceed.

Checking The Test

You are now ready to start the test, so spend a couple of minutes reviewing what you are

about to launch before hitting the go button. Depending on how much traffic your site

receives and in particular the page that you are testing, this will determine how long you

should run the test for. In order to see fair results there should be a good amount of visits

and conversions put through the test.

Once the test is running, you can look at the results as they come in by going back to the

Content Experiments section in Google Analytics. When you select the section, you will be

displayed with a list of all your experiments.

You can go into each test to see the results received to date and it is wise to keep checking

back on your test to be confident that you are not losing out on goal conversions. When you

select an experiment from the list, a detailed report will open for that experiment. In the

report you can see exactly how the pages in your experiment are performing and whether

one of the pages is outperforming the other. You can also see the status of your experiment

from this report and if you decide to stop the test early, you can do this from here too.

Step 9: Review and Refine

At this stage you should have created new pages to test with clear goals in mind. You’ll have

launched the pages and tested them against each other to determine which worked best, or

you’ll use real user feedback to determine what they love and hate.

Now you have a winning page the next step is to reassess what worked well and to try and

tweak those aspects or introduce new elements to gain further improvement. CRO is a

process that never truly ends and that’s what makes it so fascinating.

Thank you for reading this whitepaper and happy testing!