We’ve spoken before about using Google website optimizer to test different elements of your landing page to help increase conversion rates. But the other day the team here at Hanapin Marketing came up with a full list of those elements to test using the multivariate testing option in Website optimizer.
The multivariate testing allows you to add in a piece of code to your landing pages and test showing that change 50% of the time to your users. Meaning, 50% of the time users will see the updated or changed landing page, and 50% of the time users will see the original landing page.
After a few days or weeks you can check on your multivariate test to see which version of your landing page is generating the higher conversion rates. So, what should you test you may ask? There is almost no limit to the things you can test on your landing pages. But here’s a tip, test one element at a time. Or set up multiple multivariate tests so you can test one change on your landing page but have multiple of those tests running.
For example, with multiple multivariate testing you could have one test running where you simply change the headline, another test could be adding a larger call-to-action button, another test could be adding a form to your landing page rather than a link. All these tests can be run separately, but at the same time.
Here is a full list of items we came up with that we feel are important to test to help increase conversion rates:
PPC
1.Call to action
– Location on page
– Color of button
– Copy on button
2.Form/Shopping Cart
– Length of form
– Link location
– Content of form (required fields and such)
3.Headline
– Color, size, font
– Copy (including keywords)
– Location on page
– Subheadline – yes or no?
4.Copy
– Tone (Sales, Emotional, Urgency)
– Structure; a lot of copy, versus minimal copy
– Format (bullets vs. paragraph)
5. Trust Symbols
– Testimonials
– Case Studies
– Trust Logos
– Client Logos
Additional Test Elements:
Contact Forms
Colors on landing page
Images on landing page
Flash on landing page
Video on landing page
Drop-down vs. basic navigation
Offers/Promos
Conversion funnel (singe vs. multi step)
Featured Products
Shopping Cart Funnel
– Process
– Add to cart button
Before you begin testing these elements of your landing page, consider these tips first:
Step 1: Know what you are trying to achieve
- Conversion action
- Audience – Know your user intent
Step 2: Know your value proposition
- What are the product benefits?
- What is the benefit of signing up now?
Step 3: Layout your testing strategy + follow it
- What will you test at each stage?
- What is the objective of each stage?
Step 4: Landing Page Testing >> Where do you start?
- See list above!
Website optimizer is something everyone should be using especially in today’s economy. It’s not a difficult process to do the multivariate testing, Google even gives you or your developer detailed instructions on how to add the code to the back end of your landing page.
I have tested several different aspects of my client’s website and have found the tests to increase our conversion rates each time except for one which made huge leaps and bounds in the total number of leads we were generating.
