There is something that I’ve learned that’s contrary to what I used to think. I’ve been dabbling in website design for a while now, ever since I took a Computer Tools class in college in 1998. I loved that class so much that when we got into website design, I took every project and did 10 times more than I had to do for the actual assignment. I guess it’s because I enjoyed it so much.

However, I would venture to say that my web design abilities have affected me in a negative way (for a while) when it comes to Internet Marketing. The “unofficial rules” that I had in my mind as to what makes a website convert better (in terms of getting people to sign up) were just absolutely ripped apart and thrown out the window. I had to learn some lessons that just didn’t seem to make sense to me at the time, but now I’ve come to see why it makes absolute sense.

Because I like it doesn’t mean it’s good

I know it sounds crazy, and it sounded crazy to me too. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the world doesn’t always think like I do, and just because I think it’s effective, doesn’t mean that it is. This is how I realized that this was true . . .

Whenever I design a website, I try to make sure that it meets my standards. I’m satisfied when I look at the website and it just looks GOOD. The kind of design that you look at and say, “MAN, that guy is a great designer”. Then I looked around and saw people who were making a butload of money (significantly more than I was making) and looked at some of their landing pages and I was absolutely appalled. The design was often times crappy (in my opinion) and so simple that I was almost insulted. Why were they making more money than I was and they couldn’t even design as well as I could?

I am NOT my audience

If I could make money from myself, that would be great. Unfortunately, I won’t make one cent from selling myself a great idea, because if I think it’s a great idea, I already bought into it AND paying myself with my own money doesn’t make me any richer. That being said, if I am trying to build a business (online or off), I need to cater to the people who I’m targeting.

As much as I would like my website to look good to me, it really doesn’t matter what I think and if I want it to be effective, I need to optimize it to my audience. How do I accomplish that? It’s quite simple (at least in concept). I need to set up my landing page based on the feedback I receive.

The Google Website Optimizer

Google is an amazing company. The stuff they provide for free is many times better than  other companies charge a significant amount for. The Google Website Optimizer is a perfect example of one such service. It allows you to make changes to your website (or in this case – landing page) based on feedback you receive from visitors to your site, without them even knowing that you are doing it. This is how it works.

With the Google Website Optimizer, you can set up experiments to test out different elements of your landing page. For example, you can test out two different headlines to see which is more effective. What website optimizer will do is display the first headline to half of your visitors and the second headline to the other half of your visitors. It will then calculate the conversion rate of each and allow you to determine if the change in headline makes a difference in conversion rate.

Using the same principle, you can test many different aspects of your landing page like font sizes and color, background color, with video or without video, with your opt in box to the right as opposed to beneath the info. My recommendation would be to focus on one aspect at a time. For example, try out different headlines until you find the one that works best. Then you can go with testing font sizes and so on and so forth.

By doing this, you are no longer guessing as to what works well and what doesn’t. You are forming conclusions based on the data you are collecting and the data doesn’t lie. You might be surprised at what ends up being effective, like I was.

Technical Aspects

Yes, you do need some technical expertise in order to do this effectively. The Google Website Optimizer provides you with a code to insert into the html of the pages you are testing to allow it to work. However, there are tutorials that show exactly HOW to do it. If that’s beyond your technical abilities, I would recommend hiring someone to do it. You can use a Freelance site such as Scriptlance, Guru.com, or getafreelancer to find someone to do it for you for a very low cost.

So I would recommend signing up at Google Website Optimizer and checking it out today. It can make the difference between your website as it is now and the one that’s gonna make you a ton of cash in the future

Comments

Yep, you know the drill. I want to hear them. So here are some suggestions:

• Do you have questions about the Google Website Optimizer
• Have you used it before and had some success? Do share
• Have you used other techniques for increasing conversion?
• ANYTHING else you would like to share.

Related Posts

1. How to build an effective Squeeze page
2. Free Squeeze Page Templates for you to use
3. What goes in your “About Me” Page
4. Talent is Overrated – What it REALLY takes to be an online Success!