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An alternative to the massive website redesign to increase on-site conversions

Posted by Sheera Eby on April 16, 2014

Many marketers are challenged by the need to constantly update their website. Updates for new products and services, updates for new areas of focus, technical updates, legal updates, enhancing the transactional nature of the site—the list goes on and on. The reality is that most companies also find nuances that they’d like to change in their website before they can even complete a massive overhaul. While there are times when a full redesign can be effective, it may not always be necessary.

 

Think about what a complete overhaul would mean and whether it would actually achieve your goals. If a website has inherent flaws in navigation, then a full website overhaul might be in order. If the focus is on transforming your website to generate leads, a full website overhaul might actually be overkill. The key is to determine the goal of the website redesign. Often, a full website redesign is not the most effective way to increase conversion rates. A more methodical test-oriented approach might actually do the trick. This article will explore an alternative approach to the massive website redesign if the goal is to increase on-site conversions.

 

 

Why isn't a redesign the best way to increase conversion?
When your conversion rates aren't meeting objectives, current site analysis can reveal gaps in user behavior. The most critical place to start is where abandonments occur. Abandoner analysis can help gauge where users are falling off the website. A massive overhaul may be worthwhile, but the reality is that if increasing conversions is the primary goal, a tighter, more focused solution might best meet that objective.

A massive redesign is critical if the entire user experience is flawed, but if increasing conversions is your primary goal, an alternative approach might make more sense. Website development projects have a tendency to involve a significant number of stakeholders and, as a result, usually are more costly than anticipated. And if the project isn’t aimed specifically at increasing conversions, a massive website overhaul might not be the optimal solution.

Identifying abandonment factors and understanding underlying behavior can provide clues. Analysis of behavior is core to ensuring all hypotheses are identified on how to increase conversions. This alternative approach accepts multiple hypotheses. Analysis should include abandonment locations, whether users are bouncing during a lead form or transactional process and average time spent on key pages.

 

 

What is the difference between increasing traffic and increasing conversion?
More traffic doesn't always translate directly to increasing conversions. Website traffic can be influenced by taking a strong focus on applying SEO techniques. Content marketing, search engine marketing and ensuring pages incorporate SEO musts are all critical drivers to including search engine optimization. Conversion is driven by how traffic moves once it gets to a website and the tools used to turn that traffic into leads.

Many companies have a “contact us” page on their website in hopes that the user will engage with that page and convert to a lead. I’d argue that “contact us” is not a call-to-action. A website needs harder-hitting offers to give users a reason to either provide their information or convert to a lead.

One of the first areas to look at in increasing conversions is whether there are offers on a website, and whether the promotion and construct of the offers motivate a user to want to engage. This is one of the first steps in isolating the reasons behind the lack of conversion. The next piece of analysis should focus on the page development, including the form that captures leads or information required to complete a transaction. These are two fundamental components in creating strong hypotheses and stumbling blocks in ensuring conversions.

 

 

How can one improve a website without a redesign?
A/B testing is one approach to hypothesis testing. Rather than making a massive change to your website, consider a multitude of small-scale changes that are tested consistently to determine which changes actually increase conversion. Once the appropriate A/B testing has been done, it is easier to determine how to apply these changes throughout the website, and whether a redesign is really necessary.

A/B testing involves comparing one page to another and determining which techniques drive the highest increase in conversions. For example, if users are believed to be bouncing off a page because the form is too long or the process is too complicated, create and test two different pages to determine the catalyst.

The analysis stage helps form hypotheses. The testing stage determines which hypothesis sticks. A/B testing is required to be random. Putting up a page for a period of time and then swapping out that page for the next period of time won’t provide valid results. The test needs to isolate the factors that matter and, unfortunately, time is one of the factors that can influence the findings.

This approach allows testing to occur prior to making any sweeping changes to a website. Testing can allow for a deliberate approach to testing and ensure that future investments in website redesign apply real, in-market learnings. This can minimize a lot of second-guessing because it allows users to make the decision on how they want to approach things.

 

 

 

 

Hypothesis testing through a series of landing pages is an out-of-the-box and efficient alternative to the massive website redesign. Jumping into a full website redesign may not necessarily be cost-effective or useful for increasing conversions. Hypothesis testing can identify solutions to the issues that are standing in the way of increasing conversion rates and then address these issues head-on. Simply redesigning your website may come at a substantial cost, and may not be necessary.

 

 

Topics: Digital Marketing

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