Imagine walking into your favorite coffee shop, and before you even reach the counter, the barista greets you with your go-to order. It’s not just the coffee that keeps you returning—it’s the feeling of being understood and valued.

Now, compare this coffee shop experience to that of companies like Apple or Amazon. They’ve mastered the art of delivering seamless, personalized experiences that keep customers returning for more. How? Through Customer Value Optimization (CVO), a method that transforms casual shoppers into lifelong brand advocates.

It’s no longer enough to simply sell a product. You need to consistently deliver value across every stage of the customer journey. Whether offering an irresistible first impression or keeping loyal customers engaged through loyalty programs, CVO is the secret that sets thriving businesses apart from the rest.

In this article, learn how CVO works and actionable tips to create unforgettable experiences that make your customers feel like VIPs.

What Exactly is Customer Value Optimization

Customer Value Optimization (CVO) is a strategic approach to maximize customers’ lifetime value. The idea is simple: It’s about giving customers as much value as possible at every stage of their journey with your brand. 

RELATED ARTICLE: CRO VS. CVO – WHICH ONE IS BETTER?

CVO helps create loyal customers who are more likely to return and act as brand advocates, telling their friends and family about your products and services.

At its core, CVO focuses on building long-term relationships with customers rather than just pushing for a one-off sale. It’s about understanding their needs, continuously enhancing their experiences, and ensuring they get value from every interaction with your brand.

Core Principles of CVO

Here’s a brief overview of the core principles of CVO: 

• Customer-centric approach:

The first step in optimizing customer value is truly understanding your customers—what are their pain points, desires, and motivations? This is where data-driven insights come in.

By collecting and analyzing customer data (through surveys, social media, website interactions, etc.), you can deeply understand what your customers want.

• Delivering personalized user experiences:

When you provide a tailored experience that resonates with each individual, you show that you care about their needs—and they aren’t merely dollar signs for you. Personalization can range from custom product recommendations to personalized email campaigns.

YouTube’s recommendation engine is a perfect example of CVO in action. By analyzing your viewing history, search behavior, and interactions (likes, comments, and subscriptions), YouTube curates a personalized homepage with videos it predicts you’ll enjoy.

This keeps users engaged, encourages longer watch times, and drives repeat visits. YouTube reports that its algorithm recommends over 70% of the videos people watch, showing how effective personalization can be and how it drives user satisfaction and platform growth.

• Delivering continuous value:

CVO isn’t just about making a sale once and then taking the customer for granted. Delivering value over time is an integral part of CVO.

You want to ensure that your customers continue to feel that they are getting something meaningful from your brand, whether it’s through loyalty programs, educational content, or after-sales service.

For example, Apple doesn’t just sell products. It offers ongoing value through its devices, software, and services ecosystem.

Their customers often feel they’re part of something bigger, driving substantial brand loyalty and repeat business.

How Does CVO Work in Practice?

Let’s break down the steps to make CVO actionable for your business.

Identify Customer Touchpoints.

The customer journey doesn’t start and end with the purchase. Touchpoints are the moments that form the customer experience—from discovering your brand to purchasing a product and even beyond the sale.

Identifying and optimizing every customer touchpoint is essential to ensuring that every customer interaction delivers maximum value while building trust, loyalty, and long-term relationships.

Here’s a quick overview of all stages and quick tips to optimize those stages:

The awareness stage:

In the awareness stage, customers first discover your brand through ads, social media, search engines, or word of mouth. This is the moment to grab their attention and communicate your unique value.

Nike excels at this stage. Its “Just Do It” campaigns continue to inspire people worldwide, connecting emotionally with its audience while highlighting the value of its products.

For example, during the 2020 pandemic, Nike’s “Play for the World” campaign encouraged people to stay active at home, creating immense brand goodwill.

Here are some quick tips to optimize the awareness stage:

• Create compelling content: Publish blogs, videos, or infographics that address customer pain points or interests.
• Use data-driven ads: Use platforms like Google Ads or Meta (Facebook) to target specific customer segments with personalized ads.
• SEO and social media: Optimize your website for search engines by inserting relevant keywords, adding meta descriptions and images, and making web pages fast loading. At the same time, maintain an active social media presence to attract your ideal audience.

The consideration stage:

Once customers know your brand, they’ll evaluate whether your product or service meets their needs. This is a critical stage where you need to take steps that will help you build trust with your audience and address potential objections.

Here are the touchpoints to focus on during the consideration stage:

• Product or service pages: Ensure your website clearly explains your offer, using compelling copy, visuals, and user-friendly design.
• Social proof: Include customer testimonials, case studies, and user reviews.
• Customer support: Have a live chat service or a responsive email team ready to answer questions.

Airbnb optimizes this stage by offering detailed listings with reviews, transparent pricing, and customer support.

For example, they launched an “Enhanced Clean” program during COVID-19 to address safety concerns and reassure travelers during uncertain times. This focus on customer safety helped Airbnb build trust and recover quickly from the 2020 travel downturn.

The purchase stage:

The purchase is the most crucial touchpoint—where many businesses fall short. At this stage, customers expect an effortless, frictionless buying experience. Any hiccup here could lead to cart abandonment.

Here are some tips to help you optimize the purchase stage and avoid cart abandonment:

• Simplify checkout: Reduce the number of steps in your checkout process. Offer multiple payment options, including digital wallets like Apple Pay or PayPal.
• Clear pricing: Be transparent about costs, including taxes and shipping fees, to avoid unpleasant surprises.
• Mobile optimization: Ensure your website or app works seamlessly on all devices.

A great example that comes to mind here is Amazon. The retail giant has mastered the purchase touchpoint with its “One-Click Purchase” option.

By simplifying the checkout process, Amazon reduces friction and encourages impulse purchases, generating billions in revenue annually.

The post-purchase stage:

The customer journey doesn’t end with the purchase. In fact, the post-purchase experience often determines whether a customer becomes loyal or moves to a competitor. This stage is your opportunity to retain your customers by delivering on your promises and exceeding expectations.

Here are some tips to optimize the post-purchase stage and keep your existing customers happy:

• Order fulfillment and delivery: Customers value speed and accuracy. Offer tracking updates and ensure timely delivery.
• Follow-up communication: Send thank-you emails, request feedback, or provide tips on how to use the product.
• Loyalty programs: Incentivize repeat purchases with discounts, rewards, or exclusive offers.

Data Collection and Analysis.

Data collection and analysis are at the heart of Customer Value Optimization (CVO). Without understanding customer behavior, preferences, and pain points, optimizing their experience is nearly impossible.

Data helps you identify which decision is wrong and right, helping you improve touchpoints, personalize offerings, and ultimately increase customer lifetime value (CLV).

Before we get into the tips and ways to collect and analyze data, here are the types of data to focus on:

• Behavioral data: Tracks customers’ interactions with your website, app, or product. Examples include clicks, session duration, and pages visited.
• Transactional data: Includes purchase history, order frequency, and average spending.
• Demographic data: Age, gender, location, and income level to segment customers effectively.
• Feedback and sentiment data: Surveys, reviews, and social media mentions reveal customer opinions and emotions.

So, how do you collect the above data types? Here are some quick tips: 
Use tools like Google Analytics 4 and FigPii to track customer behavior. GA4 provides insights into website traffic, user demographics, and behavior, helping businesses track performance and identify drop-off points. FigPii complements this by offering heatmaps, session replays, and A/B testing to visually understand user behavior and optimize conversions.

• Collect feedback at key touchpoints, such as post-purchase surveys or live chat interactions.
• Respect privacy and follow regulations like GDPR or CCPA by being transparent about how data is collected and used.

Once you’ve collected the data, it’s time to analyze it to improve improvements to the customer journey. In fact, data is only valuable when you transform it into actionable insights. This involves identifying patterns, trends, and anomalies to better understand your customers.

Here’s a quick breakdown of steps to analyze your data:

• Use predictive analytics: Use AI and machine learning technology to forecast future customer behavior. It will help you anticipate customer needs and reduce churn.
• Identify bottlenecks: Analyze touchpoints where customers drop off, such as abandoned carts or bounce rates on landing pages.
• Monitor customer trends: Track social media trends and mentions using tools like Brandwatch or Hootsuite. You can also use Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys to gauge ongoing customer satisfaction.

Finally, Optimize Customer Experiences

Once you’ve collected and analyzed data, the next step is to act on it. Data-driven decision-making will help you implement changes and test their impact on customer experience and value.

First and foremost, use your customer data to drive personalization. Customers naturally want experiences tailored to their preferences, behaviors, and needs. According to McKinsey, companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from those efforts than average players.

Here are three valuable ways to personalize customer experiences:

• Segment your customers: Group them by shared characteristics, including purchase behavior, location, or interests. This will help you create targeted marketing campaigns and personalized experiences catering to their needs and preferences.
• Personalized offers and recommendations: Use AI tools like Dynamic Yield or Shopify’s personalization apps to suggest products based on browsing history.
• Timely communication: Send emails or notifications at the right time, such as a reminder about an abandoned cart or a personalized birthday discount.

Aside from personalizing the customer experience, focus on:

• Creating brand consistency. Whether a customer is browsing your Instagram or shopping in-store, the messaging, tone, and visual identity should remain consistent.
• Offering streamlined customer service: Offer support across all channels, including chatbots, live agents, and self-service FAQs.
• Optimize your website for speed.​​ Your website and mobile app should load in under 3 seconds. Google reports that even a one-second delay can reduce conversions by 7%.
• Create loyalty programs to retain customers and turn them into brand advocates. Create programs that recognize and reward loyal customers with perks like exclusive discounts, early access to products, or VIP experiences.

Remember to continuously test and improve your strategies. Customer expectations evolve constantly, so your optimization efforts should, too.

This includes running A/B tests to compare the performance of different versions of your website, ads, or emails.

Pro tip: Don’t neglect to collect feedback directly from your customers. You can leverage surveys, reviews, or social listening tools to understand what customers love and where you can improve.

Building Lifelong Customer Relationships Through CVO

Customer value optimization is about creating meaningful, long-term customer relationships. By understanding customers’ needs, delivering personalized experiences, and consistently offering value, you can turn one-time buyers into loyal advocates.

Consider CVO as nurturing a tree—it takes time, but the rewards of trust and loyalty are worth it. By optimizing each touchpoint, you’re not just boosting sales but building a community of loyal customers.

Start evaluating your touchpoints, gathering insights, and optimizing for customer value. The results will follow!

The post What is Customer Value Optimization appeared first on Invesp.

Consider these two scenarios:

Scenario #1: You’re grabbing a cup of coffee on the way to work. You order what you want, pay for it, get your coffee, and go on your way.

The first scenario isn’t a negative one: You paid what you expected, got what you ordered… everything went off without a hitch. But though the fundamentals of the purchase are the same, the experience is completely transformed. When we’re recognized as an individual during the customer journey, we develop positive feelings about the brand behind it – such positive feelings that we’re actually willing to give them more money in the long run.

The same holds true for the digital world: Incredible experiences will almost always trump discounts. According to a study from Adestra, a whopping 96% of organizations believe that personalization can improve email marketing performance and conversions. That’s why it’s time to move beyond simply sticking your recipient’s first name in a subject line and calling your emails “personalized.”

Developing personas for your email marketing

If you work in marketing, chances are good that your team or company has developed personas at some point. If you haven’t, it’s a fairly easy exercise to knock out. Simply put yourself in the shoes of your customers and determine each persona’s role, goals, challenges, etc. For some help, check out this helpful persona development exercise.

Defined as “fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers” by Hubspot, personas distill the information you already know about your audience with the goal of reaching them in more targeted ways. When developing personas for your email audience specifically, you’ll want to develop those same generalized representations for people who have subscribed to your email list in one way or another. A few elements to consider:

• Is this person a lead, prospect, customer, or former customer?
• How did they sign up for your list?
• What resources have they downloaded?
• What web pages have they (or have they not) visited?

Collecting the right data for each persona

Once you’ve decided the qualification criteria for the personas you’d like to target, you need to gather the data you’ll need to segment your email list appropriately.

1. Ask your subscribers about their demographics and preferences

The easiest way to do this is to include the data you need from the get-go in your email signup form. Many marketers shy away from asking for a lot of fields on their signup form, but never fear: Most people are willing to part with more information if they know it will mean receiving content and offers that are actually relevant to their needs and interests.

Or, if you’d rather reduce signup friction by avoiding a lot of form fields, include an email in your welcome series that asks subscribers to update their preferences, along with the promise that they’ll receive emails catered to their interests. You’ll be shocked at the kind of response rates this kind of email gets – especially if you keep things simple, focused, and direct the CTA to a mobile-optimized form on your website.

2. Track behavior (both inside and outside the inbox)

Another great way to learn about your subscribers is to simply pay attention to the actions they take. Capture their open and engagement history with each mailing you send, plus their browsing history on your website. That valuable data will allow you to more accurately group them based on what you discover.

Segmenting your personas and delivering targeted content

You’ve collected the right data, you’ve segmented your list into the right personas: Now it’s time to deliver personalized, relevant content! Based on what you know about each segment, you can personalize…

• The content of your email – one guide versus another, targeted offers, etc.
• Your subject line and messaging
• Your design and imagery
• Your send times
• Your call to action

The most important thing to remember is that as you develop your email campaigns, you always put yourself in the shoes of the specific persona  you’re trying to reach. What are their pain points? What content will really resonate with them? The more targeted you can get, the more successful your email campaign will be.

Relevance is everything in email marketing

The concept of “relevance” has become a bit of a cliché in the marketing industry, but it’s only because it can’t be said enough: Today’s savvy consumers both expect and deserve personalized experiences, and if they don’t get it, they’re gone. In fact, 56% of people unsubscribe from emails due to content that’s no longer relevant to them (Chadwick Martin Bailey). The good news is that when you get that subscriber experience right, it leads to major results. Relevant emails drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails (Juniper Research).

Take care to personalize every part of the subscriber journey, and your audience will award you with both long-term brand loyalty and impressive results in the inbox.

Author bio: McKenzie Gregory is a content writer on the marketing team at Emma. A Nashville native, she can be found covering all things email on the Emma blog, debating hyphenation rules, and watching obscene amounts of Netflix without a trace of shame.

The post How To Segment Personas For More Effective Email Marketing appeared first on Invesp.

Did you know 80% to 90% of A/B tests do not produce any statistically significant result? Only 1 out of 8 A/B tests show a significant difference.

Done incorrectly, some marketers have begun to question the value of A/B testing—their A/B test reports an uplift of 20%. Yet, the increase reported by the AB testing software never seems to translate into improvements or profits.

The reason? “Most winning A/B test results are illusory.” (Source: Qubit)

Furthermore, most arguments that call for running A/A testing consider it a sanity check before you run an A/B test.

In this post, we’ll examine arguments around that (for and against it) and suggest other ways to look at A/A tests and why we run them regularly on our CRO projects.

Let’s dive right in!

What is an AA test?

An A/A test is essentially an A/B test where both variations are identical. Instead of comparing different versions of a webpage or marketing material to see which performs better, an A/A test compares two identical variations against each other.  

In theory, AA tests are designed to help marketers examine the reliability of the A/B testing tool used to run them, aiming to find “no difference between the control and variant.”

Now, since you’re running the original page against itself (or multiple versions of itself), it will be logical that visitors will react the same way to all the different test recipes. Thus, the A/B testing software will not be able to declare a winner.

The theory is that the difference in conversion rates between variations will not reach statistically significant results.

Other versions of AA tests include running an AABB test. In this case, you will have the control, an identical variations of the control, a challenger, and an identical copy of the challenger.

Then, you will run your A/B test as you usually do with an original and a challenger, but you will also add two sanity check versions to measure the accuracy of the testing software on the results.

How does AA testing work?

Running an AA test is much like running AB tests, except in this case, the two groups of users randomly chosen for each variation are given the same experience.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how AA testing works:

• Create two identical versions: Duplicate your existing webpage, email, or other marketing material exactly.
• Divide traffic: Split your test traffic equally between the two identical versions.
• Monitor results: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-through rates, baseline conversion rate, or revenue generated.

If your A/B testing tool is working correctly, you should see no statistically significant difference between the two identical versions. Any significant difference indicates a potential issue with the tool, your experiment setup, or data quality.

Note: You will also want to integrate your AB testing tool with your analytics to compare conversions and revenue reported by the testing tool to those reported by analytics—they should correlate.

Purpose of AA Testing

Whether to conduct an A/A test or not invites conflicting opinions. Some companies include running an A/A test as part of any engagement, while others consider it a waste of time and resources.

Here are some reasons for companies to run AA tests: 

• Validate testing setup: Ensure the testing tool, data collection, and analysis processes are working correctly.
• Identify biases: Detect any inherent biases in the testing methodology or data.
• Establish baseline metrics: Determine expected performance levels for future AB tests.

Arguments against AA Testing

There are three main arguments against running AA testing:

1. Running an AA test is a waste of time and resources that you could use for something that generates better ROI

Craig Sullivan, one of the early CROs, doesn’t recommend A/A testing.

Not because he thinks it is wrong, rather,

“My experience tells me there are better ways to use your time when testing.  The volume of tests you start is important, but even more so is how many you *finish* every month and how many from those that you *learn* something useful from.  Running A/A tests can eat into ‘real’ testing time.”

The issue is not philosophical for Craig but one that revolves around practicality. This makes total sense in an industry focused on delivering the most value for clients.

While you could technically run an A/A test in parallel with an A/B test, doing so would make the process more statistically complex.

It will take longer for the test to complete, and you’ll have to discard your A/B test results if the A/A test shows that your tools aren’t properly calibrated.

2. Declaring a winner in an A/A test does not tell you a lot

Confidence is Inherent in any type of split or multivariate testing. The fact that an A/B testing engine declares a winner with 99% confidence does not mean that you are certain that you found a true winner.

A statistical significance of 95% means that there is a 1 in 20 chance that the results you’re seeing in your test are due to random chance.

As a matter of fact, 

“After running thousands of A/B tests and hundreds of A/A tests, I expected to see different testing platforms regularly declare a winner in an A/A test. I have seen this in Test & Target, Google Website Optimizer (while it lasted), Optimizely, and VWO.”

3. A/A tests require a large sample size to conclude

The final argument against running A/A tests is that they require a large sample size to prove that there is no significant bias.

Here’s a vivid example Qubit shared in their phenomenal white paper titled “Most Winning A/B Test Results Are Illusory:”

Imagine you are trying to determine whether there is a difference between men’s and women’s heights.

If you measured only a single man and a single woman, you would risk not detecting the fact that men are taller than women.

Why is this? Because random fluctuations mean you might choose an especially tall woman or an especially short man just by chance.

However, if you measure 10000 people, the average for men and women will eventually stabilize, and you will detect the difference between them. That’s because statistical power increases with the size of your sample.

The Unexpected Benefits of A/A Testing in CRO

At Invesp, we run A/A tests as part of any CRO services. We typically run these tests at the start of the project and then every 4 to 6 months for the first 1-2 weeks as we gather different data on the website and its customers.

Our rationale:

1. We want to benchmark the performance of different pages or funnels on the website

How many visitors or conversions come to the homepage, cart page, product page, etc?

When we do that, we are not worried about whether we are going to find a winner; we are looking for general trends for a particular page.

These tests help us understand questions such as: What is the macro conversion rate for the home page?

How does that conversion rate break down between different visitor segments?  How does that conversion rate break down between different device segments?

A/A tests provide us with a baseline that we can examine when preparing new tests for any part of the website.

We can get the same data from the analytics platforms on the website. Yes, and No!

Since our A/B testing tool is mainly used to declare a winner (while still sending data to Google Analytics or doing external calculations), we still want to see the website metrics when using it.

2. We decide on a minimum sample size and expected time to run a test

Determining the required sample size is very important for an A/B test

If the sample size is too small, little information can be obtained from the test to draw meaningful conclusions.

On the other hand, if it is too large, the information obtained through the tests will be beyond that needed, wasting time and money.

When we conduct an A/A test for different areas of the funnel, we look closely at the number of visitors the A/B testing platform is capturing, the number of conversions, conversion rates, etc.

This data helps us determine the minimum sample size required to run an A/B test on a particular website funnel and how long we need to run our regular A/B tests.

3. We want to get a general sense of how long it takes to deploy the simplest, straightforward A/B test on the website

You have to agree that an A/A test is the easiest and fastest test you can deploy on a website. It is amazing how many technical challenges appear when you run a simple A/A test. This is always the case if the client is just starting with a CRO project. 

They have never deployed a test on their website. The more complicated the technical architecture for the client website, the more AA tests will be helpful in identifying possible technical issues before we launch the actual program. 

Scripts are not installed correctly, GTM needs to be configured to capture additional data, issues around third-party conversions, and the list goes on.

4. Never trust the machine: check the accuracy of the A/B testing tool

Before running A/B tests, it’s important to make sure your tools are configured correctly and working the way they should.

Running these tests helps us check the accuracy of the A/B testing tools we’re using.

What more?

Companies about to purchase an A/B testing tool or want to switch to a new testing software may run an A/A test to ensure the new software works fine and to see if it has been set up properly.

I recall one project where all tests run by the client on a particular testing platform ended up with a loss. All 170 tests. Mind you, I am used to running tests that generate any improvement. But running 170 tests with no result is unusual.

When we switched the client to another platform and re-ran some of the ten most promising tests, 6 of them resulted in the winner with 99% confidence.

Chad Sanderson, co-founder and CEO of Gable.ai, had great insights into this:

It isn’t wise to downplay the danger of system errors. Most A/B testing solutions use slightly different algorithms that may or may not result in major discrepancies the harder the program is pushed (Think 10 – 20 – 30 variants). This might seem like an outlier issue, but it also might indicate a deeper underlying problem with either A.) the math  B.) the randomization mechanism, or C.) the browser cookie. Tools break (quite often, actually), and putting blind trust in any other product is asking for trouble.

We have to admit that the reliability of your AB testing software is a scary thought. If you are using that AB testing software to determine the winner of your tests, and then you question the reliability of the software, you are effectively questioning your whole program:

Chad Sanderson adds:

If a program doesn’t generate an overwhelming amount of type I errors (95% confidence), it doesn’t mean it still can’t be flawed. Thanks to the statistical mechanisms behind A/A tests (P Values are distributed uniformly under the null hypothesis), we can analyze test data the same way we’d determine whether or not a coin is fair or weighted: by examining the likelihood of observing a certain set of outcomes.

For example, after flipping a fair coin 10 times, we could expect to see 10 heads in a row only once out of 1024 attempts (50/50 chance per flip). In the same way, if we run a 10 variant A/A test and see all 10 values have a p-value over .5, the probability of this happening would be the same (50/50 chance per test). Without going too deep into Bayesian statistics, the next step would be to ask yourself if it’s more likely that you observed a rare result on your first attempt or that something is wrong with the tool.

If you’re a CRO, let me suggest a new idea. Do not rely on your A/B testing software to declare winners for the next month. Send your testing data to Google Analytics, pull the numbers for each variation from analytics, and do the analysis yourself!

Considerations when conducting A/A testing

1. What should you do if your A/A test shows a winner?

When running an A/A test, it’s important to remember that finding a difference in conversion rate between two identical versions is always possible.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the A/B testing platform is inefficient or poor, as there is always an element of randomness in testing.

Now, what should you do if you find a winner?

Let me give you an example posted by Chad Sanderson using Adobe Target, running  10 Variants, all default vs default.

The period being looked at here was 3 weeks (note the number of orders on the left and confidence to the right) on a Desktop – New Visitors – Cart segment. Running these through a one-tailed statistical calculator, even with a strict family error correction, still yields 7 significant results.

If you used a Bayesian interpretation, it would be 10/10. All variants had more than enough power. Yikes.

2. If you perform A/A tests and the original wins regularly,

There is a good chance that challengers are losing due to performance issues (it takes a little bit to load a variation, and that delay works in favor of the original).

Therefore, evaluate your testing platform. We have seen this happen more with some testing platforms than others.

3. If you perform A/A tests regularly, and one of the variation/original wins:

It is a fact of life! In my experience, testing engines will declare a winner in 50% to 70% of AA tests (95% to 99% significance).

But then, look at the kind of uplifters and downlighters you’re seeing: If one of the variations wins with 3-4% regularly, that could be a signal that you should aim for uplifts higher than that when running your tests.

Chad Sanderson adds a great point:

Another great use of A/A Tests is as physical evidence for or against testing a page or element. Let’s say you’ve run an A/A test and, after one month, have observed a difference between means that is still large, perhaps over 20%. While you could determine this just as easily from a sample size calculation, presenting numbers without context to stakeholders who REALLY want to run tests on that page may not get the job done.

It’s far more effective to show someone the actual numbers. If they see that the difference between two variations of the same element is drastic even after a month, it’s far easier to understand why observing test results on such a page would mean only a result far greater than what was observed would be possible.

In this case, you’ll have the control, the challenger, and an identical copy of the control.

Final Thoughts:

Whether you believe in A/A testing or not, you should always run a winner from an A/B test against the original in a head-to-head test to validate wins.

Here’s an example:

You run an A/B test with 4 challengers against original V2 wins with a 5% uplift, then create a new test with the original against V2 in a head-to-head test.

Done correctly, A/A testing can help prepare you for a successful AB testing program by providing data benchmarks on different areas of the website and checking for any discrepancy in your data, let’s say, between the number of visitors you see in your testing tool and the web analytics tool.

What’s your perception of A/A tests? Are you running them on your website? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so let me know in the comment section below!

Additional Resources

1. What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?
2. What is AB Testing?
3. What Is Multivariate Testing?
4. What Are The Features Of A Good AB Testing Tool?

The post What Is An AA Test And Why You Should Run AA Tests appeared first on Invesp.

Websites need different solutions and implementations.The promise of magical elements raising conversions only holds true after thorough research and careful implementation of specific,new aspects to a site.

Websites do not share common conversion optimization solutions; they share common problems.

Find out below the 10 most common CRO problems we have identified affecting visitors’ trust on a site.

Identifying common CRO problems

From our experience working with large and small companies, we’ve collected amazing data on specific common CRO problems addressed by unique solutions we’ve implemented across our clients’ sites.

To identify problems and find solutions, we create tests at:

• Element Level
• Page Level
• Process Level

Solutions within these levels consider:

• Copy
• Location
• Design (look and feel)

What are some common problems we’ve seen?

In our new series of posts, we’ll talk about the common problems we see under each component of our Conversion Framework.

The Framework was developed in 2007, at the early days of Invesp. To meet our goal of helping clients create more usable, profitable, and visitor-captivating websites, we knew we had to establish a process and follow a methodology that would generate consistent results.

Seven components sustain our Conversion Framework. Each component is part of a process for understanding human behavior on the web, to recognize factors that convert visitors into customers as well as to identify features that scare people away from a website.

These are the seven main areas our Conversion Framework covers:

• Understanding website visitors through personas creation
• Understanding the impact of the buying stages
• Designing for the sale complexity
• Creating confidence and trust
• Dealing with FUDs (fears, uncertainties and doubts)
• Using incentives
• Engagement

Creating Confidence and Trust

In this post we’ll address common trust problems we’ve identified in a selected body of clients’ websites we analyzed and tested.

Trust plays a huge role on visitors’ decision to convert. This makes sense. If visitors do not trust the website, they will not buy from it. Visitors do not want to be ripped off or have their personal details stolen. They wish to accomplish a goal through an enjoyable, simple shopping or browsing experience.

As a website-centric factor, trust relates to how information is presented on a site through design, layout, copy, and flow.Keep in mind that some factors of trustworthiness remained the same over the years, even with the change in web design trends. You can work on enhancing visitors’ trust on your website by focusing on seven areas, broken down into 50 sub-elements of impact. The lack of a compelling, well-designed message might hurt your conversion rate by decreasing trust and confidence of visitors.

Our new tool FigPii (which is still in private beta), the first all-in-one, enterprise-grade growth hacking platform; has all the sub, and sub-sub elements of the Conversion Framework available within a tool called Panorama. Users of FigPii can go into the Panorama tool, upload a desired page for a problem analysis, and go through the panorama list to see what is applicable for the type of page you are evaluating. Within FigPii Panorama, you are presented a number of suggestions that can simply be implemented into an AB or Split URL test by using the Figpii Testing tool (within the same platform!).

But back to the crux of the matter, what are some of the more common Trust problems we have seen, and by addressing the, what type of a result have we seen?

10 most common trust problems and the uplift associated with them:

1. Lack of continuity in the design

Visual continuity in website organization and design assures visitors that the site offers accurate, useful information and helps them in understanding the system they are using. Lack of continuity might affect home pages, category pages, and landing pages, ranging from major navigation sequences to minor details, as the size and look of “continue shopping” buttons. Among the top 200 e-commerce websites, 21% fail to provide buttons of the same size and look.

For instance, this website failed to ensure that “call to action” buttons have the same look and feel on all product pages. On some pages it has more round CTAs…

…while on other pages they are more rectangular

The most important aspect to continuity however is not CTA buttons but rather the continuity between organic listing, PPC Ad, retargeting ad, and email to the landing page. Based on our review and analysis more than 60% of the top retailers still suffer from a lack of continuity between what the visitor initially sees, to the landing page, which results in a very high bounce rate.

Look at the Meltwater ad on the left and the landing page it leads to. The ad and landing page are disconnected: the ad promises one thing while the landing page says something completely different.

The second important aspect is site continuity. We recently worked with a billion dollar, publicly traded company. Their internet presence showed no continuity from page to page. Each page had a different style and layout. Even common pages such as category or product pages did not have continuity. The checkout was done through a 3^rd party, which meant that entire experience did not have the look and feel of the rest of the site.

In our own research, among our group of a 100 websites, we’ve identified lack of continuity as a CRO problem 50 times, and provided solutions that resulted in an average uplift of 32.5%, the lowest uplift being 5.34%.

2. No benefits visible above the fold

Where and what is most important on a page? Certainly, the top portion of the page which we call “the prime real estate area.” This area is where visitors will get hooked, and if a hook is not available, they will click out faster than they made it in on the page.

Below you can see a scroll depth report from a homepage of an apparel retailer. It simply means that 50% of webpage visitors don’t scroll deeper than above the fold area and 75% don’t check out the remaining two thirds of the page.

But with the need for speed that most visitors have, adding content, especially to that “prime real estate area” has been a tricky predicament for most websites. Content on the mobile site is even more difficult to include.

But does content still even convert?

Content displayed above the fold grabs 80% of visitors’ attention. Even content in the 100 pixels just above the fold is viewed 102% more than the following content in the 100 pixels just below the fold.

Of course, not all content is created equal. We’ve seen sites that put long paragraphs detailing the product, but they must be aware that most visitors online simply don’t ready content in that format. On mobile the stats are even worse. In order to get visitors to read the content, include the top features transformed into benefits. The top portion of the page is prime area to display optimized benefits. Of course, depending on the device, the benefits are optimized to serve users on multiple devices accordingly.

Whenever content is considered, we think about the logical persona and their need to dig deep and understand more, but that does not mean we include all that copy above the fold. It’s important to just take into consideration the performance of long copy compared to short copy on a page, and how to place that strategically throughout the page to target that specific type of visitor.

However, ultimately the lack of benefits above the fold affected conversions 65 times in the tests performed at our selected 100 sites. We could generate an average uplift of 15.7% with our solutions, with a lowest uplift of 0.34%.

3. Multiple competing call-to-action buttons

This is one area that still shocks me.

When it comes to CRO and Calls to Action buttons, many think it’s a trivial matter, and the effect is so little. However, there are too many sites, desktop and even worse on mobile, that are sloppy when it comes to CTAs.

In this example, a cart page is buried under multiple competing CTAs. Interestıng that “Proceed to Checkout”, the main CTA, competes with e-mail sign up button, because they have the same color, only the size is different. Of course, this shouldn’t be the case. Also the main action is muddled among the secondary CTAs which draw too much of unintended attention to themselves.

There are many areas to consider when thinking about CTA:

• The copy on the CTA is too often overlooked
• The size of the primary CTA as compared to other CTAs on the page
• The proximity of the primary CTA to other CTAs on the page
• And I’ve gotta say, but the color of the CTA.

So ultimately, whenever I evaluate any page, I need to understand what is the main objective and action that I can take on the page. Is it to “add to cart,” “subscribe,” “read more,” etc.

The objective can be muddled with a lot of other actions I present within a small space, so I need to be weary that my primary objective action button stands out in terms of design, color, copy, and placement on the page.

Visitors have a hard time building confidence in a website when they don’t know what to do or where to click. Multiple call-to-action buttons make it hard for the visitor to figure out the priority of actions he is supposed to take. What’s worse is when buttons are so close, the visitor accidentally clicks on the wrong button that either clears their cart or takes them to the first step of the process.

If you carefully study the heat map below, you will notice that two competing CTAs, the upper one “Add Both to Cart” and the lower one “Add to Cart”, a creating real confusion for the users because the former one is the first CTA they see. So, instead of pressing on the lower one to get an item to the cart, as one may assume should happen, they untick an upsell item (frame) and push “Add Both to Cart”.

As you see, effective call to action buttons play a major role on conversion optimization. On the 15 times we identified multiple call-to-action buttons interfering in conversions in our pool of a 100 sites, we provided an average uplift of 72.2%, from 25.3% up. And this area, although I’d venture to say is a CRO 101 issue, it remains to be one of the most prevalent problems across most desktop and mobile sites.

4. Element obstructing scent

Whenever I say the word “site scent” to someone unfamiliar with CRO I get a bewildered look. But the reality is, a website is like a trail. And in order to get visitors to a certain goal, you have to place the right signs and markers so they can follow the trail. Or like Hansel and Gretel, bread crumbs to get them to a conversion. That is how the term was born. And considering all types of visitors, in different buying stages, site scent has a clear path for each visitor to follow.

Information scent guides the actions of web users. What happens is that site scent might sometimes be covered by clutter that prevents visitors from proceeding. In these cases, it is important to investigate the obstacle that is stopping visitors. Elements that do not meet visitors’ needs should be eliminated to allow visitors to recognize their clear trail.

So what are elements that can be eliminated? This goes back to identifying the primary objectives and goals for a site and page. When those are identified, all elements should be pointing to the goals in some way shape or form. Of course, as emphasized above, you need to make sure you give actions priority, i.e. there should be one primary one and it should stand out.

This is a bookstore product page:

The page has overall cluttered look. The CTA and has text that is not conducive to conversion and social media icons take major parts of the real estate.

And this is how the winning variation looked like. Here the Scent was increased by reducing clutter and enhancing copy and design to match visitor expectations.

A few ways to find out if there is obstruction is:

• Through analytics of course, and adding events to certain actions thus measuring the actual clicks.
• Through heatmap analysis, you can see if people are finding what you want them to find.
• Through video recordings, set aside 1 – 2 hours a week to watch how visitors are interacting with your site.

I’ve seen obstruction anywhere from too much copy on a page, to untargeted images, to placing other unrelated images and elements next to the main CTA. Our tests identified elements obstructing site scent 20 times among the sites of a 100 of our clients. The average uplift when eliminating the clutter was 24.3%. The lowest uplift was 10.2%.

5. Lack of compelling headline

Headlines sometimes don’t have to be compelling per say. The most important aspect when it comes to headlines is having them clarify the contents of the page.

Vague, untargeted headlines or page titles backfires every single time. But let’s say we are talking about a blog post. A compelling headline should grab visitors’ attention as well as gain their trust by conveying the main benefit they can expect from services and products of that site. Testing headlines and improving web copy helps raise visitors’ confidence.

So if I’m talking about a content heavy site, I would argue it is more about the compelling nature of that headline. But compelling is never enough if it’s just plain confusing and unclear. So while Upworthy is known for it’s outrageous headlines, after a year in business, people got sick of content that didn’t live up to the headline.

But even when it comes to page titles and less dramatic headlines on sites where people are trying to buy something, there is a lack of clarity. The headline is often in the midst of a lot of other unnecessary details. Ultimately, all people want to know/see is what the page is about, so have clearly stated. Look at Jenny Craig website. When you land on it, it happens that the main headline, explaining what is the website about, is below the fold. So, the only thing you see is the banner with promotion campaign copy.

We’ve tested this on content, ecommerce, and lead generation websites alike and have found consistently, when done right, these titles can have a 24.89 – 53.4% increase in conversions, and 90% improvement in click-throughs to the next step, page, or following piece of content.

6. Lack of clear process

A persuasive and clear process lays out primary actions from one page to the next. Visitors’ trust level raises as they feel confident they are on the right track of fulfilling their goal in a website. You see processes laid out especially on sites that require some sort of set-up or on-boarding (like SAAS), or on checkouts. Having the process clearly defined has helped us raise conversions for clients between 65.9 – 230% increases in conversion.

 Clear processes are critical to help meet visitors’ cognitive progression on sites. They have expectations, but identifying that we are aware of their expectations the visitors’ mind will be put at ease and they will proceed more confidently on the site. They also eliminate the possibility of any surprises along the way prompted visitors to abandon the process.

7. Cluttered design

Sometimes the scent is clearly defined, but still, the clutter on the site is overwhelming. Some sites just need to be cleaned up in order to help visitors get on with the page. Clutter confuses visitors. Websites should strive for an optimal balance between visual sensation and graphic information. Less clutter meansmore focus on the page.

Qoo10 is a website selling beauty product with very overwhelming home page. Would it be easy for you to locate what you are looking for?

Clutter is one of the top 5 problems websites have. Why? Basically, website developers and front-end designers often respond to the needs and wants of multiple stakeholders within an organization. So when each stakeholder makes a request for a modification, suddenly you end up with a very cluttered design.

This is where CRO is critical. It provides stakeholders the data that impacts decisions and helps you modify the design accordingly. This particular problem has been evaluated on almost every site that we have optimized on a certain page, and modified accordingly giving anywhere between 3.62 – 35.89% improvement in conversions.

8. Too many columns

Too many columns produce an unbalanced visual organization that might decrease users’ confidence in a site. Look at the page carefully before determining how many columns you would have on the page. Too often sites want to increase AOV so they may add for instance a cross-sell option which is manifested as a column on the right side of the page. Now, this can often be a wonderful addition. But too many times it causes the page to look more cluttered and unorganized.

Some sites use a 3^rd column on the page to promote UGC (user generated content). Again, an important element for engagement on the site. However, it can be cluttering the page and losing the emphasis of the primary goal

So what to do. Rework these additional elements somewhere else on the page. Incorporate them into smaller design elements so they can still be present where you want them, without taking away from the page.

When I talk about measuring this, I’m talking about just the reduction a column. In rare cases we’ve added a column to a page. We’ve adding for instance filtration columns to sites that had nothing on the left or right of a category page relied heavily on top filtration mechanisms that visitor’s never clicked on).  The results for solving this problem on sites has helped us achieve anywhere between 9.32 – 46.89% increases in conversions.

9. Elements unbalanced, priority elements lost

Visual hierarchy in web design helps visitors build trust by making the site’s overall message clear.The hierarchy showcases priority of elements and gives balance to all visual elements on page. I’ve talked about this already. The prime real estate of the page is critical. But you have to decide what is an item that qualifies to be a part of that prime real estate part of the page?

In this article, I’ve already addressed the importance of the benefits, and the prime CTA, both to critical elements that need to be placed within that area. But there are other elements that are as equally important that need to be displayed.

After conducting qualitative analysis for a client we found that their site visitors were looking for specific pieces of information tucked away below the fold.

Even though the compatibility of the phone was stated in the product name, they still had doubts if a case fits their phone. They also wanted to know more about the features the product has. The original, actually, had a very detailed description of each item, but apparently no one noticed it on the page.

So, for the test we decided to move top four product features in the above the fold area to make them more noticeable for the visitors and point out the case compatibility one more time by providing a link to this information in the above the fold area.

Once we enhanced the presentation of those elements and provided users access to that piece of information, conversions increased 36.3%.

But we’ve conducted this type of analysis across multiple sites, and have found consistently that some pieces of information important to the visitors is simply missing from the primary area. But mitigating this problem across our sample sites, we saw increases that range from 14.32 – 95.99%.

10. Value proposition not enforced enough on page

A strong headline should present a compelling value proposition, explaining how services or products of the website solve target audience’s problems. The value proposition is a promise that enhances trust and confidence with the visitor.But some sites, like retail, don’t have a place for compelling headlines. So where is their value proposition present? Well ultimately, it’s important to present the value on as many elements as possible. For example, if your value is with the unique artistic pieces you provide, unlike anywhere in the market, this should be flaunted on the site, on the images (by an original  to XXX brand badge), in the copy, through the discounts, through the taglines, etc.

This is how H&M does it for its collaboration with Kenzo underlining that H&M is the place to find clothes designed by famous brands, but at a very affordable price:

Value proposition for most ecommerce sites starts and ends on the About Us page. But what’s the point of crafting a good value proposition that isn’t transcending through all elements on the site?

For instance, the value proposition of Forever 21 communicates that it is a well-established but highly competitive brad whose clients are so loyal so that they even call their children after it.

For many of our clients, it was initially about identifying the value proposition, because they didn’t have a very well-defined distinguishing feature. But for others, it was about having that value proposition clearly stated on the site through multiple elements. Focusing on this latter area alone helped us increase conversions rates for clients anywhere between 15.39 – 55.83%.

Conclusion

It’s critical to understand that copying competitor sites does not guarantee great results. Competitor sites are important to monitor, but never copy blindly. First, justify a change through qualitative and quantitative research. Second, identify the problem areas based on the research results. Third, prioritize based on (again) research.

I am not alone in my suspicion of best practices.Because it’s not about what another site does or doesn’t do.I’m not alone in this concern. Many top CRO experts agree.

But problems are similar from one site to the next, and through the years, I’ve seen the patterns and consistencies.

We’ve written about optimization best practices that might not be best for you, surprising CRO studies, and that time when multiple call-to-actions actually increased conversions.

So, after reading this, please keep in mind that the 10 most common trust problems we’ve identified might be addressed in many different ways.eventhough you may be within the same vertical, what works for one client, doesn’t necessarily work for all. And it isn’t because the element or the solution doesn’t work, it could be the way you implemented the solution.

Learn more on How to Increase Your Website Conversion Rate Through Confidence and Trust.

The post 10 Most Common Trust Related Problems Affecting the Conversion Rate of Your Website appeared first on Invesp.

“No credit card required.”

“Never shared, never spammed.”

“Change your profile whenever”

These are some great examples of microcopy. They are short, to the point, and placed right where they will be seen by tons of users.

When done right, microcopy can persuade customers, clear doubts and reassure users of your product’s value.

In this post, I’m going to show you 8 ways you can use microcopy to boost your site’s conversion rates.

What is microcopy?

In a nutshell, microcopy is any small bit of text/copy that helps address user concerns, clarify product value, or convince customers.

This, for example, is simple microcopy that describes a newsletter subscription form:

Microcopy may be small in size but it can have a big impact on the user experience. When done right, it has the ability have a  profound effect on your content performance

Microcopy needs to be short, snappy and user-oriented.

BlueEgg’s 404 page is a great example of microcopy. They do not stop at “This page doesn’t exist”. The copy further says, “you can either head back to the homepage, or sit there and listen to a goat scream like a human.”

Look at Shopify’s “Terms of Service” page where they give a Tl;dr version of every point.

Tumblr uses microcopy to tell new users when their password isn’t long enough:

 

Essentially, microcopy can be anything – a 404 error page, a “password safety” disclaimer, a form description, etc.

How can microcopy boost conversion rates?

Remarkable microcopy makes you realize there are real humans behind a website or product. You feel a kind of connection.

But can microcopy boost your conversions?

It certainly can.

For example, Veaam conducted a survey for user feedback on their lead generation form. They found that many visitors wanted to know the price of their services.
They decided to change the phrase from “Request a quote” to “Request pricing”.

Before:

 

 

After:

 

When they measured results with a A/B test, they saw a whooping 166.66% increase in conversions.

Here are some techniques you can use it to boost conversion rate on your website:

1. Use more “fun” and evocative names for your pricing plans

Instead of using standard pricing plan names such as “Starter”, “Professional” etc. Experiment with more evocative names that stick out.

For example, FreshDesk’s pricing page uses Sprout, Blossom, Garden, Estate, Blossom

Freshbook also does a good job at their pricing page

2. Change your email sign-up disclaimer

This is the copy you see right below the sign-up button.

You could either write down all the benefits of your product or be a little fun and try to let your target audience connect with your brand.

Needless to say, latter will likely give you better conversions.

Tumblr tries this on their homepage but letting you see what’s trending and explore tumblr before signing up.

When you sign-up, Tumblr will tell you that you can “always change” your username later. Plus, you’ll also see suggested username alternatives to save you time when signing up.

3. Describe your pricing plans with short, crisp copy

Simply giving your pricing plans fancy names doesn’t really tell the readers enough about the plan or who it is aimed at. Add a bit of copy to explain the plan’s target audience and how it can be used.

Mailchimp’s pricing plan does this best:

4. Reassure customers of your billing practices

When it comes to online payments, a lot of users are skeptical about giving out their credit card information.

In fact, according to one study, 80% of shoppers are concerned about credit card fraud.

You can remove this fear somewhat by adding a microcopy on the sign-up page to reassure them of your billing practices. The is particularly effective when you’re offering a free trial or use recurring billing.

For example, Freshbooks pricing page says, “No credit card required, cancel anytime” just below the ‘start your free trial’ CTA.

5. Explain a concept or idea with microcopy

Microcopy does wonders when you want to explain an idea or a concept. If you can think of something quirky, funny or memorable, it will likely stick with your users for a long time.

Take example of Zendesk, their microcopy on the homepage says, “Businesses are made of relationships”, “Those relationships can be complicated, but Zendesk helps make them better”. This short copy explains their whole business, what they do and how can they help you.

Something as simple as encouraging users with quirky copy after completing an action can go a long way towards establishing your brand image.

For example, see how MailChimp uses microcopy (“moment of glory”) to encourage user action:

6. Make pop-ups more persuasive

Pop-ups don’t get a lot of love from users but as a marketer, you know they are extremely effective for generating leads and sign-ups.

Microcopy can help here by making your pop-ups funnier, clearer and more persuasive.

For example, On SocialTriggers.com, Derek Halpern uses clever microcopy to make a persuasive case for pressing the “yes” button:

Notice how the “yes” button has a massive “YES” while the font in the “no” button is smaller.

This is one great way to use microcopy to boost conversion rates.

7. Be clear and say what you expect

Your microcopy will do well if it is clear. Guide your users to what exactly you expect from them. This is particularly true when you’re asking for passwords and usernames.

MailChimp is the perfect example of this. When you start typing in, MailChimp will tell you how to select a username.

Similarly, as you enter a password, MailChimp will visually indicate in real-time which of its password rules it meets:

8. Add suggestions in the search text box

In a study of 27 different websites, it was found that users who use site search convert 2-3X more than those who do not.

Giving suggestions to users in the search box goes a long way to compel them to look for those products. It is advised to take the most popular search terms or categories and pre-populate the search bar with recommendations.

Zappos makes good use of this technique:

Another great example of this is Airbnb. They could have left the search field blank or written an explanation on the side but, instead they use microcopy asking you, “Where to?”

Over to you

Microcopy is a powerful tactic to add a dash of personality to your brand, improve conversion rates, and clarify your offerings. Start by using one of these 8 tactics to make your site more persuasive and conversion focused.

Lastly, remember that great microcopy comes from knowing your users. For instance, if you’re catering to a tech savvy customer base, you might not need to hammer in username and password requirements heavily.

Get user feedback before you go about making any changes. Figure out where they are facing problems and keep A/B testing to get the best results.

The post 8 Ways You Can Tweak Your Microcopy To Boost Your Conversion Rates appeared first on Invesp.

Remember the first time you visited an unknown brand’s website?

Like most people, you would have been cautious, if not apprehensive. You don’t know the quality of their products nor how others perceive the brand.

A lack of customer trust is one of the biggest hurdles to better conversions. By addressing these fears, uncertainties, and doubts (FUDs), you can greatly increase your conversion rates.

In this post, I’ll show you 7 easy ways you can address customer fears and anxieties to improve conversion rates.

1. Assure customers of your shipping policies

One of the greatest disappointments as an online business is when customers add a product to cart, proceed to checkout, and then never complete the purchase.

How could this happen?

They were clearly interested in your product, so what caused them to abandon?

The answer is usually unexpected or hidden costs such as shipping.

In fact, High shipping costs is one of the top reasons why shoppers abandon their shopping cart.

By assuring customers what your shipping charges are up-front (if any), you will ensure that customers don’t get a “sticker shock” and abandon their purchase halfway.

For example, Woman Within lays it out bare by mentioning “free shipping above $50” right on their homepage.

2. Show customers that others (real people) are buying and loving your products

Humans are social creatures and they will conform to actions of others under the assumption that they are reflective of the correct behavior.

In marketing speak, this is called ‘social proof’ and it is a powerful tool to reduce customer fears.

When you provide social proof, you demonstrate how others are using your products. More importantly, you indirectly signal how happy others are using your product and paint yourself as a brand that people love.

For example, when ThinkGeek uses pictures of customers using their products instead of professional models, they are telling potential customers that their products are made for the average person, not some paid model.

In fact, according to one study, such user-generated content (UGC) is significantly more trustworthy than professionally shot pictures.

If you can source pictures from customers (usually by giving them an incentive to share, such as a gift card or running a contest), you’ll see a big bump in your conversion rates and trustworthiness.

In one study, adding customer photos and reviews to a small hotel website boosted conversions by 17.8%.

This is one reason why TripAdvisor prominently featured guest pictures on all its hotel listings.

3. Offer money-back guarantees and/or returns

Everyone loves a money-back guarantee. A competent money-back guarantee essentially gives customers a fall-back option if they are not satisfied with their purchase.

If customers know that they can safely return a product anytime within a given time period (usually 30-60 days), they are more likely to move ahead with the purchase.

When Neil Patel added a 30-day money back guarantee to his product the traffic system, he was able to increase sales by 21%.

Interestingly, not many people actually ask for their money back. In Neil’s case, only 12% asked for a refund.

Offering a money-back guarantee is also a powerful way to brand your business. A truly customer focused business would ideally offer customers the option to return any purchase if they weren’t satisfied with it.

Zappos does exactly this by allowing customers to return items within 365 days and without having to pay for shipping charges.

This aligns well with the Zappos mission of building a customer-centric company.

4. Give customers a way to test-out your product

Potential customers are likely to be uncertain when it comes to shopping for items such as clothes or eyewear. Without being able to try them on, customers are hesitant to pull the trigger as they can’t figure out how the product will look on them.

You can overcome this hurdle by giving customers a way to try the product.

For example, WarbyParker, an online lenses and frames retailer, delivers five eyeglass frames to customers (free of cost). From these five they can pick the one they like.

Or you can go the high-tech way like Lenskart. This retailer (again, of eyeglasses) asks customers to take a selfie. This selfie is then uploaded to the LensKart site after which they can virtually try on frames on an accurate 3D model replication.

5. Establish trust to assure customers of financial safety

When customers enter a store, they are subconsciously exposed to trust indicators such as products being in-stock, clean storefront, and presence of other customers to build trust.

Online, there is much less information to go on. Therefore you must find ways to replicate above trust indicators to make customers feel comfortable, especially when it comes financial safety.

For instance, a study says that over 2/3rds of Americans are not comfortable sharing their personal and financial data online. Remember the Target data breach in 2015 which affected over 40 million customers? Cases like that make people wary.

To remedy this, you can try adding trust symbols such as a Norton, McAfee, or BBB badge will ease those fears and help increase your conversions.

For example, when House of Kids added an eMark (eye-shaped icon)…

…it experienced a 32% increase in conversions

Trust symbols don’t have to be limited to security badges. Depending on your industry, you might show certifications from respected industry organizations as well.

BlueNile, an online jewelry store, offers customers PDF copies of GIA (Gemological Institute of America) certifications for each diamond.

6. Provide answers to questions in real-time

When people shop, they expect to have their questions answered in-real time and with precision.  While this is easy to address in a physical store with salespersons, providing this service online can be tricky.

So, how do you do it?

By offering a live-chat feature where customers can get answers when they want them without having to sort through a FAQ or having to wait on the phone.

In fact, 83% of online shoppers need support to complete a purchase.

For example, by offering live-chat support, Gear was able to increase their order value by 3%

7. Show there is a real organization behind the scenes

Some customers will want to know more about your brand and company culture before they commit to a purchase. After all, any purchase is a lot like starting a new relationship; it’s not unusual for customers to want to know what kind of people are behind this relationship.

One way to do this is by humanizing your website by adding photos of people and creating an inviting “about us” page.

On your “about us” section, be sure to include your physical address, a brief history of your and its philosophy, and again some pictures of your team members wouldn’t hurt.

Take a look at how Luhse Tea gives each team member an alter ego:

Blue Bottle Coffee takes the more traditional route and offers a detailed background story of the company and its origins.

Conclusion

Your customers are wary by nature. Whenever they approach something which is unfamiliar to them, they will tread carefully. Until their fears, uncertainties, and doubts are cleared, they will remain indecisive. For a business owner, that translates into a lost opportunity.

Implementing the above tactics will help ease those fears, keep customers on your site longer and improve your conversions.

The post 7 Ways to Improve Conversions by Addressing Customer Fears and Anxieties appeared first on Invesp.

For one, it is widely misunderstood. A high bounce rate is always assumed to be a bad thing (even when it’s not – especially on landing pages).

Low bounce rates, on the other hand, are equated with engagement even when other metrics (such as time spent on site or actual clicks) don’t back it up.

That said, there are a lot of reasons why you might want to cut down your bounce rate. From increasing search rankings to improving user experience, lower bounce rate is definitely a marketing metric to strive for.

In this post, I’m going to share 7 little known tips on how you can reduce your bounce rate.

1. Find your best performing content and reuse its format and style

Not all pages on your site will have the same bounce rate.

Some pages will simply perform better (in terms of bounce rate) because of their formatting, tone or style.

Finding these pages and reusing their formatting on poorly performing pages can improve their bounce rate. If nothing else, this exercise will show you what kind of content your readers actually like.

To find this content, open your Google Analytics account. Next, go to Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages.

This will show you a list of all the pages on your site along with their page views, average time on site, exit rate and bounce rate.

Sort the results by “Bounce Rate”. Make sure that you sort them in ascending order (i.e. 0% bounce rate to 100% bounce rate):

Look for pages that have a good mix of low bounce rate and high average time on page. You might have to dig past a few irrelevant sharing or category pages to find them.

Once you find such pages, open them in separate tabs and make a note of what makes them work.

Ask yourself:

• Is this page using engaging images?
• Does this page have a headline that hooks in readers?
• Is the content format and writing style highly engaging?
• Does the page use a different layout than other pages?

Apply the lessons learned from this exercise to other pages.

2. Update old content with fresh information or a disclaimer

Google has always emphasized freshness in its search results. In fact, there’s an entire component of Google’s algorithm – Query Deserves Freshness – that emphasizes fresh results.

Google focuses on fresh results because it knows its users want up to date information. An article on “SEO tips” from 2011, for instance, will likely have a lot of outdated tips.

This is one reason why Google shows the date the page was last updated in SERPs (when available):

A user landing on a page with outdated information will likely not stick around for long. Hence, poor bounce rate.

There’s an easy way to work around this: find your older content and refresh it with fresh information.

For example, Brian Dean originally wrote this post on actionable SEO techniques back in January 2014.

In June this year, he updated this post with fresher, more relevant content. He also changed the post title to reflect this update.

Google’s spiders found this update and changed the SERPs to show the new updated date:

Your updates don’t even have to be elaborate. Simply refreshing key content with newer information can be enough to not just curb your bounce rate, but also give you a ranking boost.

3. Ensure you’re not getting traffic for non-targeted keywords

Not every keyword you rank for will actually be related to your content.

For example, if you Google the keyword “high traffic”, you’ll mostly see results related to marketing.

However, a few results are about managing roads with lots of traffic.

If you were running a site about managing road traffic, there’s a good chance you’ll get some stray traffic from this keyword.

The trouble is, most people searching for this keyword are likely looking for ways to increase traffic to their sites, not understand road traffic management.

These visitors will leave your page very quickly, negatively affecting you bounce rate.

There’s an easy way to find these pages.

First, log into Google Analytics and go Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages.

Here, find pages with very high bounce rates and significantly lower average time on site (compared to the rest of the site).

Next, log into Google Search Console for your site. Here, go to Search Traffic -> Search Analytics.

Select “Pages” and “Position” at the top of the page.

Find the page in question with the poor bounce rate. Click this page.

On the next screen, select “Queries” again.

This will show you which queries this page ranks for. If you find a vague query – such as “high traffic” – you can rest assured that your poor bounce rate is caused by the quality of your traffic, not anything on your page.

4. Match user expectation with dominant traffic source

What people expect to find on your site depends on where they’re coming from.

A visitor who clicks on your site link in your Twitter bio, for instance, has very different expectations from someone who searches for a query and finds your site in the SERPs.

Matching your content of a page to the expectations of people coming from its biggest traffic source can do a lot to reduce bounce rate.

For example, ASOS, the UK-based fashion retailer, shows different landing pages to traffic coming from different social channels.

On Instagram, it leads visitors to a dedicated landing page called “As Seen on Instagram”:

On Facebook, it directs traffic to an “ASOS Likes” blog with Facebook-focused content:

Doing something like this can help you craft an experience tailored for the biggest traffic source for each page.

To do this, log into Google Analytics again and go to Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages. Now click on “Secondary Dimension” on the “Plot Rows” bar and select Acquisition -> Source/Medium.

This will show you a list of your pages along with their biggest traffic sources:

In the above example, I can see that the biggest source of traffic to one of my pages is Facebook. For another page, it’s Reddit.

Knowing this, I can create an experience tailored for Facebook or Reddit users.

There are multiple ways you can do this:

• Adding copy at the top of the page acknowledging the visitor’s traffic source.
• Prioritize sharing buttons depending on biggest traffic source. For instance, if you know that a bulk of the traffic to a page is coming from Reddit, you can place Reddit sharing buttons before other social networks.
• Offer additional content (such as downloadables) based on the largest traffic source to the page.

Doing this will ensure that you offer the most optimum experience to the largest share of users to a page and thus, improve bounce rate.

5. Increase pageviews and time on site with content recommendations

A visitor landed on your site, scrolled through the page, and read the entire content.

What next?

By making better use of content recommendations, “read more” and “next article” links, you can increase your pageviews and reduce your bounce rate.

There are several ways to do this:

Show content recommendations at the bottom of each blog post

Once readers have read a blog post, they are much more likely to consume more content. After all, if they liked something well enough to read it, they might very well read more.

For example, at the bottom of each post on AtlasObscura, you’ll find a list of posts titled “Recent Stories”:

These recommendations don’t have to be necessarily visual. On Tim Ferriss’ blog, he adds a list of recommended posts at the bottom of his content:

On WordPress, you can easily create such recommendation lists with plugins like YARP.

Add a “Random Article” button

If you run a site with a lot of content, your recommendations can be a bit more random.

On Distractify, for example, you’ll see a “Distract Me” button in the navigation bar:

Since Distractify also uses a “sticky” navigation bar (i.e. the navigation scrolls with the page), readers know they can click this button anytime to find more content.

Push visitors to read more by showing them your most popular content

One way to get readers to stick around longer on your site is to show them your most popular content. Since this content is labeled as “popular”, it is likely to get more clicks than a random post (this is social proof in action).

For example, on Tim Ferriss’ blog mentioned above, you’ll see a list of “Most Popular” posts and “Popular Podcasts” in the sidebar:

This is a great way to get readers to read more without negatively affecting their user-experience.

There are other ways you can get people to read more content on your site. NYTimes, for example, has a host of recommendations on its content:

Together, these can push up your pageviews substantially and help cut down bounce rate.

6. Experiment with different layouts

Single column or two-columns? Left sidebar or right sidebar? Sticky or static navigation?

Different layouts will impact your bounce rate differently. A sticky navigation menu might get you more pageviews and clicks, but it might hurt average time per page. A two-column layout might help you get additional clicks/subscribers through sidebar forms, but impact readability, especially on smaller screens.

As with most things marketing, split test different layouts to see what works best for you.

That said, there are some established (and emerging) layout conventions you should follow:

Keep the sidebar to the right

According to usability studies by NNGroup, people don’t read linearly down a page. Instead, they follow a “F-shaped” pattern.

Readers also focus on the largest column of content before going back to smaller columns.

Because of this, the left sidebar is often ignored. The right sidebar, however, gets more attention as shown above.

Lesson: if you must use sidebars, stick them to the right of the page.

For higher engagement, experiment with a single column layout

An emerging layout trend among blogs is to use a large font with a single column layout to promote engagement.

On Medium, for instance, all content is condensed within a 700px wide column.

This helps readers focus on the content and avoid stray clicks and distractions.

Plus, with most readers moving to smaller screens, a single column layout is also easier to read, thus increasing engagement.

Consider adding a sticky navigation menu

Usability experts are seldom advocates of “sticky” menus that scroll with the content, but as far as engagement and bounce rate are concerned, you can’t go wrong with them.

Stick navigation menus ensure that readers always have access to all your content. If they’re done with an article (or don’t enjoy reading it), they can click away to another post.

For businesses, the sticky menu is also a great way to promote your products and services.

On WordStream’s blog, for example, the sticky menu gives readers a quick way to learn more about WordStream’s product or company:

7. Make sure that your pop-ups don’t hurt engagement

Pop-ups are great for capturing emails, but terrible for engagement and bounce rates.

After all, the last thing your readers want after landing on your site is a pop-up with a hard-to-find “close” button.

Fortunately, there are two ways to make sure that your pop-up doesn’t hurt engagement (while still capturing leads):

Use scroll-triggered or time delayed pop-ups

If a pop-up is the first thing a visitor sees after landing on your site, there’s a good chance he’ll click away.

However, if the pop-up eases into view gradually after he’s scrolled through half the site or spent 15+ seconds on a page, it likely won’t affect the user-experience much.

Plus, since this reader has already had time to read some of your content, he might be more inclined to consider your offer, thus increasing conversion rates.

For example, on BloggingWizard, the pop-up shows only after a 3-5 second delay.

This ensures that the pop-up isn’t the first thing people see on a site.

Nearly any pop-up creation tool will help you create time delayed pop-ups as well. For scroll-triggered pop-ups, try the following plugins:

• BoxZilla
• Scroll Triggered Box

Use exit-intent pop-ups

Exit-intent pop-ups track a user’s on-page behavior and algorithmically detect the moment when the user is about to leave the page.

By showing users the pop-up only at the exit moment, you get better engagement and conversions.

For example, on Copyhackers, this pop-up shows only when you’re about to leave the site:

You can try these two plugins for creating exit-intent pop-ups:

• BounceExchange
• OptinMonster
• Privy

Over to You

High bounce rate is a symptom of a problem, not a problem in itself. If visitors are leaving your site without taking any action, it usually means that you aren’t doing enough to keep them interested.

There are dozens of ways you can reduce your bounce rate. Not all of these methods, however, are equally effective.

The tips I shared above go beyond what you usually hear. By analyzing your content, experimenting with layouts, and testing different engagement tactics, you can drastically cut down your bounce rate.

The post 7 Little Known Tips to Cut Down Your Bounce Rate appeared first on Invesp.

If you’ve spent time and resources to get visitors to your site, you obviously want to turn them into leads and paying customers.

Yet, almost half of all businesses take their visitors to the site’s main home page where they get lost.

Instead, if you send your visitors to a targeted landing page, you can convert leads and customers at a much higher rate.

Landing pages are the heart of any marketing campaign. The quality of your landing pages will often impact the quality and quantity of your customers and leads.

However, before you can design a conversion-oriented landing page, there are a few questions you need to answer.

Question 1. What is your conversion goal?

The conversion process begins with the end in mind. What you’re trying to accomplish on a landing page will deeply affect its eventual design.

For example, a landing page for downloading a free eBook in exchange for an email will likely be short. This is because the ask itself – an email address – isn’t huge when compared to the value on offer (a free eBook).

Hence, you can use a simple design that emphasizes the eBook’s value:

If you’re selling a $97/month SaaS product, however, you need a lot more content to convince visitors. Your landing page will be much longer with multiple points of persuasion.

Depending on the conversion goal, you can divide landing page designs into two categories:

1. Lead-generation page: Lead generation landing pages contain an opt-in form and call-to-action to get contact information out of a visitor.

Here is an example of a lead generation landing page:

2. Click-through landing page: Click-through landing pages are effective to warm visitors up for a sale. These pages often lead to another page with more information about the offer.

Here is an example of a click-through landing page

If you’re trying to convert visitors into leads, you’ll use the former. If you’re just warming up raw visitors or inform existing leads about a new offer, you’ll use click-through landing pages.

Question 2 – Who is your target audience?

There is no such thing as a “generic” landing page. Every successful landing page targets a very specific audience.

For example, if you’re pitching a white paper to CXOs, you’ll need to emphasize new findings, industry insights, and specific high-level solutions that appeal to C-level executives. You might also want to capture more than just emails in exchange for the download.

Take a look at this landing page from Salesforce as an example:

On the other hand, if you’re pitching a “how-to” guide to complete beginners to a topic, you’ll need to break down jargon into simpler terms and use more persuasive copy. Your form will likely ask for just a name and email instead of things like company size, current role, etc.

See this page from Groupon as an example:

Before you start the landing page design process, clearly identify your “ideal customer” for that landing page. This should be as specific as possible. Instead of saying that your customer is a “Person in his/her 40s who works in IT”, say, “40-year old man who lives in California, works in a large tech company, and reads TechCrunch regularly”.

This will help you design much more targeted (and hence, better converting) landing pages.

Question 3 – How easy is it to consume your landing page?

You need to ask yourself if your landing page is inviting and easy to read. If it isn’t, people won’t bother to stick around.

What makes a landing page easy to read?

Bullet points

 

Bullet points allow you to concisely summarize the benefit of your offer . As a result, a visitor can quickly scan and consume your page without getting discouraged by lengthy paragraphs.

Whitespace

Do you have ample white space which ensures a visitor’s focus goes to where you want it to go?

Lack of whitespace can confuse a visitor as many elements demand their attention.

For example, see how The Economist uses lots of whitespace to make its subscription page easy to read:

Persuasive images

Images not only add visual flair to your landing page but also help persuade users.

For example, this landing page shows the product you’re about to download with a high quality image:

On the other hand, this landing page shows off an emotion you want your users to feel.

This image is purely for persuasion; it doesn’t offer any actual insight about the product.

Question 4 – How trustworthy are your landing pages?

With widespread fraud and security lapses online, gaining trust of a customer on your landing page can make or break a lead.

How do you demonstrate trustworthiness and reliability on a landing page?

Here are a few tactics:

1. Social proof

Social proof is a natural force that compels people to follow what others are thinking or doing. If you don’t have social proof on your landing page, your visitors might second-guess themselves and drop off.

However, if their peers (friends, experts, other customers) are using and recommending the product or service, they will be more compelled to take action.

The thought process goes like something like this: “If so many other people are using this, it surely can’t be bad.”

There are many ways to social proof your landing page, such as:

• Customer testimonials
• Influencer/expert reviews and quotes
• Share/view count

Here’s a landing page which uses expert quotes as social proof:

2. Security credentials and assurances

Your customers are naturally wary of giving away their personal details. They want to know that you won’t use abuse their privacy or hand over sensitive data to third-parties.

Reassuring users through security credentials and messages can go a long way towards improving conversion rates.

For example, this page clearly notes that the user’s private details will not be abused:

Also note the “SocialSafe” security badge.

These are just two ways you can make your landing pages more trustworthy.

Question 5 – Is your call-to-action clear?

Your CTA has a simple goal: to show users what’s on offer.

For example, if you’re offering a free eBook download, your CTA shouldn’t say “SUBMIT”. Instead, it should say what you’re offering (“FREE DOWNLOAD”).

A short, action-oriented and targeted CTA copy which is specific to the offer on your landing page will convert better. Call-to-actions which describe exactly what your leads are agreeing to will receive more responses than those which are vague.

Here is an example from CanaDream who fixed their CTA copy.

By changing the CTA button copy from “GO” in the image on the left to “Get RV Rental Pricing and Availability Now!” CanaDream increased their conversion by 106%.

Similarly, this landing page simply says “Create a Landing Page” instead of a generic action such as “Submit” or “Get Started”:

Conclusion

The more landing pages you create for your different products and target audiences, the more opportunities you’ll have to convert visitors into leads.

However, before you create each landing page, ask yourself the questions discussed above so that you design pages which actually convert and don’t drive away visitors.

The post 5 Questions You Need to Ask to Design Conversion-Oriented Landing Pages appeared first on Invesp.

Editor Note: We highly recommend that you implement the different ideas in this blog post through AB testing. By doing that, you will figure out which of these ideas works for your website visitors and which don’t.  Download Invesp’s “The Essentials of Multivariate & AB Testing” now to start your testing program on the right foot.

When done right, split testing can help you capture more leads, get more visitors and increase sales.

When done wrong, it can cost you time, money and your search engine rankings.

Split testing is confusing for search engine spiders. In any successful A/B test, you might end up making dozens of page variations. Which of these pages do search engines index? Which do they rank for your target term?

This confusion can easily cost you rankings and search engine traffic.

In this post, I’m going to show you how you can split test effectively without harming your site’s SEO.

How Split Testing Affects SEO

Let’s say that Google’s bots land on your site and start indexing its pages.

After it’s done indexing, the Googlebot beams the data to Google. Google now runs its algorithm to determine where to rank your site’s indexed pages.

However, while going through this exercise, Google notices a problem: multiple pages on your site seem to have the same content with minor differences.

Some of these differences are in the page copy, some in design, and some in the use of images.

Their URLs, on the other hand, all look the same – [YourSite.com/your-page.html].

Google is obviously confused as to which page it should rank in the SERPs. Should it consider version A as the original page, version B or version C?

Even worse, Google might construe the similar pages as duplicate content and penalize you in the SERPs.

This is how split testing affects your SEO. It confuses search engine bots and can trigger duplicate content warnings.

Essentially, you need to SEO-optimize your split tests for two reasons:

• Avoiding duplicate content penalties: Following the Panda algorithm update, Google has started heavily penalizing sites with duplicate content. Since most page variations in a split test have only minor differences (such as an image or a headline) compared to the control, it can trigger a duplicate content warning, which can tank your rankings.
• Avoiding ranking confusion: If you have two similar versions of a page, it can confuse Google as to which page it should rank in its SERPs. It might end up choosing either of the two pages arbitrarily. Depending on how long you run the test, this can undermine your SEO efforts. The SEO term for this is “keyword cannibalization”.

Fortunately, there are easy ways to set this right.

What You Should Know Before SEO-Optimizing Your Tests

Before you invest in SEO-optimization for all your tests, there are two things you should know:

1. Not every test needs to be SEO-optimized

Landing pages, email newsletters, dynamically generated pages – essentially, any page that isn’t going to receive much search engine traffic can be safely tested without bother about its SEO.

The reason is simple enough: Google will almost never see these pages or show them up in the SERPs. The traffic they receive from organic results is going to nearly non-existent. Bothering with optimizing their variants is effectively meaningless.

For example, suppose you have a button leading to an opt-in form at the bottom of your blog posts, like this:

Clicking this button takes you to an opt-in form:

Once you fill the form, you’re redirected to a “Thank You” landing page:

Since this landing page will only be seen by people who enter their information in the opt-in form, you don’t need to bother with its SEO at all.

In the above example from LeadPages.net, the URL for the Thank You page isn’t even indexed in Google:

Ask yourself these two questions before you start the optimization process for a page:

• Does this page need to be indexed by search engines?
• Will this page receive a significant share of traffic from search engines?

Invest in SEO-optimization only if the answer to both these questions is true.

Here’s a quick way to figure out which pages you need to SEO-optimize before testing.

Log into Google Analytics, then go to Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages. This will show you a list of all the pages on your site:

Your objective here is to find pages with a lot of search engine traffic, but little referral, direct or social media traffic.

To do this, select “Acquisition -> Source” under ‘Secondary Dimension’:

This will show you a list of your best performing pages and their traffic sources.

In this list, find the page that you want to optimize and click on it. On this screen, sort the results by “Entrances”.

Google Analytics will show you what traffic source a majority of the page’s visitors came from.

In this example, only 1.31% of all traffic came from Google. Nearly all of it came from either Reddit or Facebook:

With so little search traffic, there is no real reason for me to bother with the SEO-optimization for this page. I have little to lose from any negative impact on this page’s rankings anyway.

Follow a similar process for pages you want to test. If your data shows that the page isn’t getting much traffic from Google, don’t worry about optimizing your tests for search.

2. For most pages, conversions are more important than SEO

You might take all the precautions mentioned above, but still see a slight negative impact on your rankings.

In nearly every case, this impact will be short-term. After all, you’ve only made changes at the page-level; the domain-level metrics are still the same. Once Google picks this up, it will push your rankings back up.

More importantly, an increase in conversions can easily make up for a drop in search engine traffic.

For example, suppose you were getting 1,000 visitors/month from a keyword. Your original page – version A – had a conversion rate of 1% for a $500 product. Your actual revenues for this keyword, thus, were $5,000/month.

During testing, you saw a drop in rankings that led to the page receiving just 500 visitors/month (highly unlikely, but it can happen).

However, the changes you made to the page resulted in a conversion rate of 2.5%. Thanks to the higher conversion rate, your revenues for the keyword were now $6,250, even with lower traffic.

This is why I recommend focusing more on conversions, less on SEO during the testing process.

How to Split Test Safely

Setting up a safe and effective split test requires telling Google about your original page and de-indexing your test pages.

Follow these steps to learn how to do it:
1. Help Google identify your original pages

In 2012, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) released the “canonical link element”.

This is a simple HTML element that helps search engine spiders identify the “canonical” or “preferred” version of a page.

This element was adopted widely by search engines to help combat the duplicate content issue. The idea is simple enough: by adding this tag to a page, you can tell Google the location of the “original” version of the page.

Google will then ignore any other page variations, saving you from duplicate content issues.

As you might have guessed, the canonical tag is extremely useful when split-testing.

Essentially, you’ll add a canonical reference to your test pages pointing to your control. This will help Google identify your original page.

Here’s how to use this tag:

Open your test page in a HTML editor.

Next, add this bit of code to between the <head></head> section of your test page:

            <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://YourSite.com/YourURL.html”>

Here, [YourURL.html] should point to the exact URL of your original page.

Next, add this bit of code to between the <head></head> section of your test page:

            <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://YourSite.com/YourURL.html”>

Here, [YourURL.html] should point to the exact URL of your original page.

Here’s an example from the KISSMetrics home page:

Google can then refer to this tag to figure out the original version of a page.
2. Make sure that Google doesn’t index your test pages

The easiest way to avoid confusing search engine spiders is to make sure that they don’t even index your test pages.

There are two ways to do this:

A. Add a “No Index” tag to test pages

The “No Index” meta tag goes in the <head> of a HTML page and tells search engine spiders not to index the page.

To use this tag, open your test page in a text editor. Then, add the following code in between the <head></head> section of the page:

    <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex” />

This will ensure that search engines don’t index – and rank – your test pages.

If you want to stop only Google from indexing your page, use this code instead:

<meta name=”googlebot” content=”noindex” />

B. Use robots.txt

The Robots.txt is a simple text file that instructs search engine spiders which pages to index, which pages to ignore.

It looks something like this:

That, by the way, is Facebook’s Robots.txt file.

You can use this file to tell search engine spiders not to index your text pages.

To do this, first find your robots.txt file. For any site, this file is located here:

http://SiteName.com/robots.txt

All robots.txt files are publicly viewable. For instance, this is Apple’s robots.txt and this is Google’s.

Next, hit CTRL+S to save this as a text file. Open it in a text editor and add the following code to this page:

    User-agent: Googlebot

            Disallow: /Directory/Your-Test-Page.html

Here, [/Directory/Your-Test-Page.html] is the path of your testing page.

This will stop Google from indexing the specified URL.

Similarly, you can stop Bing, Baidu and other search engines from indexing the page by using the following User-agent codes:

• Baidu: Baiduspider
• Apple: Applebot
• Bing: Bingbot
• Naver: Naverbot
• Yandex: Yandex
• Yahoo: Slurp

You can also edit the robots.txt file through Google Webmaster Tools. Go to Crawl -> robots.txt Tester.

Add your edits here and click “Submit”.

I don’t recommend this method since your robots.txt file is publicly viewable. Anyone – including your competitors – can look up this file to see which pages you’re testing.

Since most businesses only test traffic heavy, money pages, competitors can use this information to figure out which of your pages convert the best and copy them.

Plus, the robots.txt method isn’t foolproof. Spiders sometimes ignore the robots.txt instructions. Additionally, maintaining a long list of URLs along with their user agents manually can get very tiresome.

Control indexed pages through Webmaster Tools

Sometimes, even taking all the measures in the world doesn’t stop search engines from indexing your pages. This usually happens when a search engine spiders ignores the no-index tag or if there are external links pointing to your text page.

In such cases, you can temporarily de-index pages through the Google Webmaster Tools.

Here’s how:

Log into Google Search Console and open your site.

Now click on “Google Index” -> “Remove URLs” in the left menu:

Click on “Temporarily Hide”.

Enter your exact URL and click Continue.

On the next screen, select the default options, then click on “Submit Request”.

You can also check whether Google has indexed your pages by searching for the following:

            Site:YourWebsite.com/Your-Test-URL.html

3. Avoid cloaking errors

Cloaking is a technique through which you can show different versions of a page depending on the source of the traffic.

With cloaking, you can show version A of a page to a visitor coming in from Google, and version B for a visitor coming from Facebook.

In theory, this sounds like the perfect solution to prevent Google from accidentally indexing your test pages.

Unfortunately, cloaking has long been abused by spammers for misleading search engines. This is why all search engines – from Google to Bing – heavily penalize sites with even the slightest hint of cloaking.

Some split testing tools inadvertently cause such cloaking errors by showing different pages to Google bots and humans. These tools track the traffic source (called “user_agent”) and show the original version to Google and version B to actual human visitors.

Google explicitly states that it wants to see the exact same page a real user sees, not something optimized for its algorithm. Serving different pages based on user_agent tracking, therefore, might be seen as an attempt to deceive Google.

Check whether your testing tool does user_agent tracking for its running its tests. If it does, it’s a good idea to switch to a different testing tool.
4. Run the test only as long as necessary

Straight from Google’s mouth:

“Once you’ve concluded the test, you should update your site with the desired content variation(s) and remove all elements of the test as soon as possible…If we discover a site running an experiment for an unnecessarily long time, we may interpret this as an attempt to deceive search engines and take action accordingly.”

Meaning you should run your test only as long as necessary to get the desired results. Running a test too long – even with all the above precautions – may be seen by Google as an attempt to deceive it.

Which, of course, is disaster for your rankings.

Your testing tool should be able to tell you when it has enough data to draw accurate conclusions (called “statistical confidence”). Once you reach a high degree of confidence, it makes no sense to continue diverting traffic to your test pages.

After wrapping up the test:

• If the control lost: Update the control with newer graphics/copy/design.
• If the control won: Keep control as is and delete all test pages.

 

Over to You

Split testing is an incredibly powerful tactic for improving revenues, leads and page views without additional traffic.

However, a poorly conducted split test can trigger duplicate content warnings and confuse Google about the identity of your original page. This can play havoc with your site’s SEO and search engine rankings.

Thankfully, these SEO issues are easy to avoid by prioritizing which pages to test and using canonical tags, no-index meta tags and capable testing software.

Editor Note: We highly recommend that you implement the different ideas in this blog post through AB testing. By doing that, you will figure out which of these ideas works for your website visitors and which don’t.  Download Invesp’s “The Essentials of Multivariate & AB Testing” now to start your testing program on the right foot.

The post How to Split Test Without Harming Your Site’s SEO appeared first on Invesp.

For a layman, UX and CRO almost seem like the same thing.

After all, they both involve creating the best possible user experience for customers.

Where UX and CRO differ is in their approach to the customer experience and their end goal. CROs want more conversions (howsoever they may be defined in an organization). To do this, they might change the copy, test different designs and rely on analytics data to make decisions.

What exactly do UX designers need to know about CRO? And in what ways can they change their UX practices to accommodate CRO goals?

In this post, I’ll show you 3 things UX designers need to know about CRO, and how to implement them.

To Increase Conversions, Focus on First Impressions

According to research, it only takes 0.1 seconds to form a first impression about a person.

For websites, it’s even less: your users will form an opinion about your site in just 0.05 seconds. Whether they decide to use it or not will largely depend on what they think about your site in these 50 milliseconds.

This first impression depends on a lot of factors: website speed, structure, colors, spacing, scrolling, symmetry, amount of text, fonts, and more.

While you can’t change all of these, there are a few things you can modify to make a stronger impression on first-time visitors.

1. Improve your above the fold area design

According to data gathered by Chartbeat, 66% of user-time is spent below the fold. ClickTale had similar results – it found that people used scrollbars on 76% of all webpages.

There is, however, a caveat: people dive into content below the fold only if they find the above the fold content compelling enough. And even then, a majority of a user’s time is spent above the fold, as this eye tracking study by Jakob Nielsen shows:

So how can you make the above the fold area more engaging?

Three simple methods work surprisingly well:

A. Use visual cues to encourage interaction

A powerful method to get people to stick around longer is to encourage interaction through visual cues.

Take a look at Airbnb’s homepage as an example:

The video ‘play’ button above the fold is an instantly recognizable visual cue that encourages interaction.

Another tactic is to use a visual cue to suggest that there is additional content below the fold. DistanceToMars.com is a great example of this:

The downward pointing arrow tells visitors that there is more content available if they scroll down the page.

B. Use animation to change page content

Another tactic to get users to stick around is to change the page content through animation.

For example, Ditto, an eyewear subscription company, shows its models with changing eyewear. The changeover itself is highlighted graphically, visually indicating that the page content is changing.

This is a smart way not only to show customers your business model but also keep them interested in what you have to offer.

C. Use alternative navigation styles to encourage scrolling

Another way to scroll is to ditch the standard top nav menu and use visual cues to guide readers down the page.

The Urban Walks website offers a great example. Instead of a top navigation menu, the page uses a menu at the right of the page to guide readers.

This tells visitors that there is more content further down the page. It also makes moving up/down much easier without any scrolling.

2. Improve your website speed

The speed of your site is crucial to its success.

• According to a survey, 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
• Amazon calculated that a page load slowdown of just one second could cost them $1.6 billion in sales each year.
• Google also worked out that by slowing its search results by just four tenths of a second they could lose 8 million searches per day.

Simply put, site speed is important. And even though you might think otherwise, it is as much a design issue as it is an engineering issue.

Here are a few things you can do as a designer to improve site speed:

A. Use text instead of images/videos above the fold

Your images are usually the biggest contributor to your page size. If you want more of your visitors to stay, try removing images above the fold and replacing them with text.

For example, the homepage of InvisionApp has lots of images and a background video above the fold. According to Pingdom, it weighs in at a whopping 16MB and takes nearly 3 seconds to load.

In contrast, the homepage of Basecamp has only a handful of images and lots of text. It loads in just 1.32 seconds and weighs a light 1.2MB:

B. Use CSS icon fonts instead of images

If you’re using icons on your site (and given modern design trends, you most likely are), you can have a measurable impact on your performance by replacing icon images with icon fonts.

How?

Two reasons:

• Icon fonts use vectors while images use raster graphics. The former is smaller in size (in terms of bytes).
• Icon fonts (such as FontAwesome) are included in a single file, which minimizes HTTP requests.

According to PicTonic, you can reduce page load time by 14% by using icon fonts instead of icon images.

Here are two icon fonts you can use in your designs right away:

• FontAwesome
• IcoMoon

3. Use familiar design patterns in your layouts

According to Google’s research, users form an initial “gut feeling” about a site in less than 50ms. Whether they stick around or not often depends on this gut feeling.

The key findings from this study were that websites with low “visual complexity and high prototypicality” were perceived as highly appealing.

In simple words, make your web design simple and familiar. If you go for innovative, unconventional layouts, people are less likely to like them.

For example, users are used to seeing ecommerce websites in a particular way. So it is always a good idea to stick to that pattern.

Look how Etsy keeps their homepage as close to other ecommerce website by showing Cart, Register and categories with drop-down menus.

A confused user is less likely to convert (and leads to bad user-experience). Following familiar design patterns can be especially powerful this way.

Embrace Clarity and Ease of Use to Promote Conversions

While you must strive for simplicity in your website design, do not forget ‘ease of use’ and ‘conversion’ are your ultimate end goals.

This is as important for the user-experience as it is for CRO. Whenever possible, strive for clarity and ease of use.

Example? Here are two pop ups:

 

The first option might be shorter and simpler, but the second option is more user-friendly and is less likely to result in erroneous clicks. Making the buttons self-explanatory (though less concise) actually streamlines the whole dialogue.

If you were selling something, the second option will likely get you more sales.

So how can designers apply this rule? Here are a few tactics:

1. Embrace brevity in your design

If you want more people to do something on your site – click a button, buy a product, or even read a blog post – it might be better to remove than to add design elements.

Essentially, you want to say more with fewer words.

MailChimp’s landing page is the perfect example. The entire page is just a single screen with fewer than 100 words.

The short, simple message, along with the GIF showing off the product, gets the value proposition across succinctly.

2. Use visual hierarchy to emphasize your message

On any page (as well as in real life), people are drawn to the biggest element first.

This is the basis of all visual hierarchy in design. Use it to your advantage by making your most important message – one which supports your conversion goals – larger in size than others.

Take a look at the Moz.com homepage as an example:

The value proposition – “Products to Power Your Online Visibility” – has the largest font-size, immediately drawing the viewer’s attention.

3. Use typography to support your conversion goals

Typography isn’t just about picking a nice font and using it throughout your design, it goes deeper than that.

Every font has a “personality”, so to speak, and yours should be influenced by your audience.

Some fonts, for example, are seen as “authoritative” or “trustworthy” because of their inherent designs or because of cultural reasons (Helvetica, for instance, is seen as “official” because it is used in government tax forms).

Keep this in mind when picking fonts for your designs. Pick something that resonates with things your audience cares about, or which amplifies the impact of your message.

The Economist, for example, prides itself on being objective and modern. A clean sans-serif font works well for its subscription page:

4. Use colors to draw attention to specific areas of a page

Besides branding, colors can also be used to convey visual hierarchy, establish a relationship between elements, and draw the user’s attention.

A good rule of thumb when deciding on colors is that darker colors tend to carry more visual weight. Try to balance these out with lighter colors.

For example, website where they at uses a bold yellow color to emphasize the logo and balance out the dark background:

On the HubSpot pricing page, the bright orange of the middle-tier plan immediately grabs the viewer’s attention:

Create Persuasive Designs (without Being Unethical)

We know that improving usability helps greatly to increase the percentage of users trying to reach particular goals.

However, by deliberately impeding user actions, you can get more people to convert, usually at the cost of long-term customer loyalty and trust.

In design, these are “dark patterns”. They might increase conversions but don’t necessarily lead to happier customers or healthier businesses.

An ethical alternative to this is to use the Persuasion, Emotion, Trust Design framework to push users towards your conversion goal.

As per CodeComptuerlove, this framework has four steps:

Let’s take a look at this in more detail:

1. Remove physical barriers to perform an action

The first – and the easiest – step in the persuasion process is to make it easy to perform an action.

This means making your buttons and CTAs easy to find and click-on. At no point during any action should users be confused about what steps to take next or the best path to take them.

For example, Amazon makes it easy for users to see where they are in the checkout process through visual markers:

2. Build trust to persuade people to take action

Once you’ve made it easy to find and click a CTA, your next step should be to gain your users’ trust and encourage them to take action.

This is a two part process.

The first part is changing your on-page design to build more trust. There are several conversion tactics you can use to do this, such as:

• Adding logos of brands you’ve worked with.
• Adding “trust markers” such as “BBB Accredited Business” badge.
• Adding testimonials from trusted authorities.

The other part of the trust building process is to ensure that users know exactly what will happen when they perform an action.

For example, on the HipMunk homepage, the search box clearly identifies that clicking “Search” will show “flights from top airlines and travel sites”:

Something as simple as clearly labeling your CTAs can help as well. On Amazon, the two buttons on the product page clearly indicate what action they’ll perform – “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now with 1-Click”:

3. Give users an emotional trigger to perform an action

Trust is great for promoting action, but it doesn’t work quite as well as emotional triggers.

Facebook does this exceptionally well. Its entire user-interface is designed to highlight the actions your friends and family are taking on the site. Since you are obviously emotionally invested in your friends, you’ll probably feel more compelled to follow suit.

For example, on every page, Facebook shows exactly how many of your friends have liked the page as well:

If so many of your friends are performing an action (like a page in this case), there is a chance you’ll be more emotionally invested in following along as well.

4. Nudge users to take action with a persuasion trigger

When you combine all of the above, you can create a powerful persuasion trigger to get users to take action.

Going back to Facebook, one of the most powerful triggers on the site is its notifications icon. This bright red is a powerful visual cue on an all-blue site.

When you click on the notification, you see an exact description of the action that your friends just performed (checked into an event, left a comment, tagged you in a picture, etc.). This builds trust and gives you an emotional trigger to take action.

Finally, when you click on a notification, it takes you to the exact page or section where you can respond, leaving all physical barriers to taking an action.

This is masterful use of persuasion focused design, and it accomplishes all this without confusing the user.

Over to You

As a UX person, your goal is to create a compelling experience for your users without compromising on conversion rates. If you follow the advice above, you’ll not just meet your UX goals, but also get more conversions in the process.

At the same time, don’t assume that the best practices shown above are applicable for everyone. Borrow advice and do your research, but always back it up with testing. You’ll find that testing will often spring up some surprises that change widely-held beliefs.

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