The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 1

Crazy Egg on Conversion Optimization

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 2

Contents ....................................................................................................... 2

Basic Conversion Optimization ......................................................................... 3

14 Simple Website Changes That Increase Conversion ........................................ 7

7 Essential Elements for Effective Internet Marketing ....................................... 12

How to Design Compelling Call to Action Buttons ............................................. 19

The Very First Steps to Increasing Web Sales .................................................. 27

5 Sidebar Design Elements That Increase Website Conversion ........................... 31

The Sneaky Keyword Research Trick That Helped Boost Conversions Over 50% ... 37

How to Create Website Content That Google Likes And Your Customers Love ...... 42

Increase Your Website’s Conversion Rate or Revenues in 30 Days ...................... 49

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 3

Conversion optimization may sound like something new. But it’s really just a fancy

word for old-style scientific advertising, as taught by Claude Hopkins, John Caples,

and other advertising greats.

I like how Eugene Schwartz says it in his book, Breakthrough Advertising.

Advertising is a business of statistics. We deal with percentages of

population. We address our ads to individuals; and yet the success of our

advertising depends on thousands, or even millions, of these individuals

sharing the same response to these ads—the response of wanting our

product enough to pay us the price we ask for it.

That’s what conversion optimization is all about.

It’s about connecting with and convincing your visitors to choose your product over

all other alternatives. It’s about making it easy for them to buy… so buyer

resistance is reduced. And it’s about delivering as promised, both before and after

the sale, so people remain loyal to your brand, keep buying over time, and

recommend you to their friends.

True conversion optimization depends on getting a lot of things right: Your sales

copy needs to be persuasive, your design needs to make it easy for visitors to

understand and use your page, and your technology needs to work seamlessly. But

fortunately, it isn’t hard to get all these things in place.

Just follow five simple rules, and you’ll have a basic plan for optimizing your web

pages and improving your results:

Unless you know your customers, you can’t hope to sell to them. At the very least,

you need to know their fears, needs, deepest desires, and short-term goals.

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But the better you know them, the easier it is to nail your web page. So get to

know your customers. What makes them tick? How do they talk? What motivates

them?

Let your discoveries drive your copywriting and design decisions.

Never accept anything as true until you’ve tested it with your own audience on your

own website.

Your own preferences don’t matter. What works for the competition doesn’t matter.

Techniques recommended by this or that guru don’t matter either.

The only thing that matters is what your own data tells you. For that, you need to

rely on Google analytics, Crazy Egg’s heatmap, and results from A/B testing on

your own web pages.

Based on feedback from customers and data from your website, figure out what

your challenge is. Perhaps people are leaving your page too soon. Or perhaps

they’re clicking through, but abandoning your shopping cart.

Once you know what the challenge is, form a hypothesis about what the cause

could be.

Next, decide on a change that could improve your results. For instance, you might:

Decide to make more elements of the page clickable.

Change your offer or the wording of your call to action.

Change the position, size, or color of your button.

Add copy or remove it.

Simplify your page, remove the sidebar, or add images.

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Once you know what you want to test, you only need to come up with a few

possibilities, then test them against your current web page.

If you make 10 changes to your landing page and get a 25% lift in conversions,

that’s great. But you have no idea which change made the biggest difference.

If your landing page is connecting with your audience and working well, then

there’s no need to make drastic changes. Change one element, then test. If

conversions go up, keep it and test another change. If conversions go down,

change back and test something else.

By testing just one element at a time, you know for certain what works and what

doesn’t. And you can apply that knowledge to every new landing page you design.

You need to make sure you gather enough data to ensure your test is valid.

Run your test until you have at least 100 unique visitors on the page. Otherwise,

your pool of users is too small.

Make sure your test period is long enough to account for changes in daily, weekly,

or monthly traffic. Your test should run for at least one week to account for

differences in daily traffic. A month would be more accurate. Three months would

be still more accurate.

That’s it. You can do more, of course, but these five rules can make a big difference

in your conversion rates.

To refine your system, keep these concepts in mind:

1. Focus on your end-user, not your brand.

2. Less is more. Keep your copy, design, and technology as simple and easy to

use as possible.

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3. Make choices based on your user’s needs and desires, not yours.

4. Never get attached to anything. As soon as a tactic stops working, let it go.

Throughout the rest of this ebook, you’ll find lots of useful tips from the Crazy Egg

team. They reflect tactics and strategies that have been proven to work. But

remember, until they work for you, they’re just ideas.

I recommend that you read through the book quickly. Then go back to the chapters

that apply to your brand and your needs. Study them. Think about how the lessons

they teach could apply to your own website. Then develop a hypothesis and test it.

There’s no one right answer. What works for one brand won’t necessarily work for

you.

So feel free to test. And of course, if you need additional guidance, be sure to let us

know. We’re dedicated to your bottom-line success.

Regards,

Kathryn Aragon

Managing Editor, The Daily Egg

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Mark Twain once remarked:

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is really a

large matter — it’s the difference between a lightning bug and the lightning.

Similarly, it’s remarkable how the simplest of changes to a website can amount to a

large matter.

We asked our Crazy Egg Marketing Experts what simple changes they have made

that caused dramatic increases in website conversion. Here’s what we learned…

♦♦♦

I added an email opt-in form at the bottom of every blog post (in addition to the

form at the top of the page). I got 40 new subscribers overnight.

This has continued to be a great way to generate new readers and followers.

~Jeff Goins, Writer

♦♦♦

The first simple change is usually “Uncovering the Lead.” This involved finding the

real value proposition, the “what’s in it for me” that is usually buried in the copy or

in the site, and making it the headline or offer.

This applies to all kinds of pages: landing pages, home pages, product pages and

category pages.

The pain for my clients is that the WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) is usually more

specific than they like. Visitors love specifics. This means that you will be letting

some visitors leave disinterested. The goal is to create a net win for the business.

~Brian Massey, Conversion Sciences

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♦♦♦

We’ve had a lot of success creating city-specific landing pages instead of using one

catch-all landing page that targets the one big city in the metro area we’re

advertising in. People like seeing their city name on the landing page. The

conversions have been significantly higher on these city-specific landing pages

compared to the one for the big city.

~Adam Kreitman, Words That Click

♦♦♦

Tweaked the content on my blog. I went from a very narrow topic [web writing] to

a very broad and even personal slant [writing stories]. That led to more comments,

more subscribers and more spread over social media.

~Demian Farnworth, The Copybot

♦♦♦

Putting a strong call to action button above the fold to get impulse buyers (and the

scanners and skimmers on my web page) to take action promptly. It gave me a

60% boost in inquiries and fully a third of those clients became paying customers or

referred someone else.

When you not only include a prominently colored call-to-action button, but couple it

with “action” words (get/download/read more, etc.) and let the person know

precisely what will happen after they click, you’ll see a significant difference in your

click-through rate.

~Sherice Jacob, iElectrify

♦♦♦

Normally, we implement a series of changes gradually for our clients, but I would

say that the most common simple change that almost always increases conversions

is to restructure the layout.

~Naomi Niles, ShiftFwd

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♦♦♦

If a website is not using landing pages for their PPC campaign, create landing pages

that are tailored to the ad groups or campaigns that are running. It is rare this will

not provide an immediate jump in conversions and ROI.

~Aaron Stevens, Moosylvania

♦♦♦

If content on a page is long and falls below the fold, reiterate the call to action near

the bottom of the page, but above the footer.

~Christopher Long, The Loud Few

♦♦♦

The most simple change I’ve made to increase conversions was adding an e-mail

opt-in form underneath blog posts to capture subscribers. My site was going

through a period of time with very few people signing up, and this change

immediately increased the number of sign ups.

It also makes sense when you think about it. If someone reads the entire post and

makes it to the bottom, there’s a good chance that they like what they’ve read and

would be interested in subscribing. If the opt-in box is only at the top of the

sidebar, they have to scroll back up to subscribe. A subscription box at the end of

the post makes it easier for the reader and is a great way to increase conversions.

~Joseph Putnam, Blog Tweaks

♦♦♦

In the Magento shopping cart, the default button on a product listing page says

“More Info.” I’ve found that by changing that button to something like “More Info &

Pricing” gets people to click through more often. This is particularly true on bundled

and grouped product listings.

~Will Hanke, Where Is My Business?

♦♦♦

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One simple change that we’ve seen help improve conversions is focus. Identifying

the concrete purpose of each page of a website has helped us to focus everything

on achieving a successful conversion for that particular page. Such an approach has

implications for the way we approach everything from design and development to

the content we create for a given page. If we know the purpose of each and every

page on a website that we create, we can focus our efforts on making sure that a

visitor to the website will as well.

~David Hartstein, Wired Impact

♦♦♦

The simplest and most impactful change I’ve seen for conversion is defining and

reserving the call-to-action (CTA) colors. There’s no magic color as some may

suggest, but there is color logic. In order to stand out, the CTA color should be

opposite the dominant site color on the color wheel. In other words, red CTA for

blue sites, orange CTA for green sites, and so on. (Always test to be sure!) This

color must ONLY be used for CTA to ensure it always adequately stands out on the

page. Defining a secondary CTA color (within 10 minutes of the primary CTA on the

color wheel clock) is necessary if you’re presenting multiple actions to proceed like

“Add to Cart” (primary) and “Add to Wish List” (secondary).

(Note: CTA refers to the action that moves the user forward. Actions that move the

user backward should use colors neutral to the site color pallet. If “Continue

Shopping” and “Proceed to Checkout” are presented, only “Proceed to Checkout”

should get the CTA color while “Continue Shopping” should have a neutral color.)

~Angie Schottmuller, Interactive Artisan

♦♦♦

One of the simplest things I did to increase conversions with my eBook on blog post

promotion was to take the sidebar off of the page. It isn’t as good as having it on

its own separate sales page off-site, but it has made a difference as people only

have one call to action to focus upon instead of my subscription boxes, advertisers,

and other sidebar items.

~Kristi Hines, Kikolani

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♦♦♦

Adding white space and breaking up the content. Reading large blocks of text turns

people off almost immediately, it’s hard on the eyes. So break it up into small,

consumable chunks and people will be more inclined to continue reading and

respond rather than click away.

~Cori Padgett, Big Girl Branding

♦♦♦

For me, simplifying the overall user experience is key. Fortunately, by focusing on

this one thing, you can cover a lot of territory: simpler design, more white space,

less sales copy, fewer choices that need to be made, and a well-thought-out path

for users to follow once they show interest in your product. Of course, people still

want options, and they need enough information to build trust, so it’s a balancing

act. I like the way Steve Krug says it in the title of his book: Don’t make me think.

~Kathryn Aragon, KathrynAragon.com

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by Joseph Putnam

Internet marketing is about converting visitors into buyers.

Visitors don’t make you money. Buyers do.

So how do you turn traffic into profit? How do you convince web surfers to hand

over their credit card info and offer you some of their hard-earned money?

The first step is to follow basic Internet marketing principles that anyone can learn

to become more successful at selling online.

To help with that, here are seven essential elements for effective Internet

marketing that are proven to increase sales online.

Customers like to buy from people they know and trust. The problem with selling

online is that customers don’t know who you are because they can’t shake your

hand or look you in the eye.

That’s where photos come in.

The easiest way for people to meet you online is to show them your picture. Once

customers see a photo, they have a better idea of who you are. When it comes to

Internet marketing, anonymity is out. Nobody likes doing business with someone

they can’t see and have never met.

Using real pictures of real people is the easiest way to create more credibility

online.

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How to apply: On your About page, include a picture of the company owner and

possibly a group picture of employees. This will add a human element which is

otherwise lacking.

You can also add a Team page with pictures of key employees. KISSmetrics does a

great of that here.

Telling a story is another way to increase credibility online.

People have been doing this since the days that eBay was still a big deal. When

someone wanted to sell an item on eBay, they would tell a story about why they

were selling it.

It would go something like this: “I’m selling these shoes because they are a half

size too small, and I’ve never been able to wear them to play basketball.”

Even though the story is super simple, it does two things: 1) It gives a plausible

reason that the shoes are being sold and haven’t been worn yet and 2) It makes it

seem less likely that the seller is hawking knock-off Jordans from China.

The story instantly makes the seller seem more credible.

Since you’re probably not selling shoes on eBay, the best way to increase sales

through storytelling is to tell the story of how your business started and how it grew

to the size it is today.

If your company started for a plausible reason and you’re still in business, there’s a

good chance that you’re doing something right. This will inspire confidence in your

customers.

How to apply: The best place to tell the story of your company is on the About

page. You can do this by telling a brief story about the idea that started your

company and how it got off the ground.

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By telling a believeable story on your About page, you instantly become more

trustworthy and make it seem less likely that your business is the latest Internet

scam started from a basement in Uzebekistan. That’s good news if you’re selling

online.

If you want to do business on the Internet, good design is an investment worth

paying for.

A quality design makes customers more comfortable to do business with you. Think

about it this way: If you can’t afford a good designer, then your product may not be

that great; if it was, you could afford a quality web designer.

You need to face the facts — customers will decide whether or not to do business

with you based on your design. People do judge books (and websites) by their

cover. Whether or not it’s fair, it’s true.

How to apply: The best thing to do is pay for a quality design that will make your

site look credible and professional.

Your website doesn’t need to be the most beautiful site on the Internet, but it does

need to look professional. Just like you need to dress for success, you need to

design for it as well.

So make sure to pay for a professional design that will inspire enough confidence in

customers that they’ll buy what you’re selling.

Testimonials may be the most important piece to the online marketing puzzle.

Here’s why:

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Nobody cares about what you have to say about your company. You’re biased. Of

course you think the product is great and everyone should buy it. You’ll become

rich if they do.

Customers don’t care what you have to say about yourself.

What they do care is what other people have to say. They care if your customers

would recommend your product to their friends or do business with you again.

There may be nothing that influences a purchasing decision more than what other

people have to say about your company, so don’t forget to include testimonials on

your site.

How to apply: First, ask customers to provide a brief testimonial about their

experience with your company. Second, post the testimonials on a Testimonial page

and other sales pages.

The good news is that the testimonials don’t have to be long. Two or three

sentences from a satisfied customer that are properly placed on a sales page can be

the difference between a sale and a non-sale.

Always remember, people care far more about what other people say about your

company than what you say about yourself.

There’s something that customers love about guarantees. Wal-Mart figured this out

and started offering money-back guarantees on every product they sell.

It’s worked out pretty well for them.

Guarantees are valuable because they get buyers over sales hurdles. If a customer

isn’t sure whether or not they want to buy your product, a guarantee gives them

the assurance they need to move forward. And why not? They’ll get their money

back if they’re not satisfied.

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The good news is that the majority of customers won’t end up asking for their

money back. They’ll be too lazy to do so, or your product will be so good that they

won’t need to ask for a refund.

How to apply: Provide a written guarantee that can be viewed as part of the sales

process. Tell customers that if they aren’t satisfied for any reason, you’ll give them

their money back.

The good news is, if your product is good, you won’t need to refund any money. If

for some reason you do, enough people will decide to purchase because of the

guarantee that it will likely make up for any refunds you end up needing to give.

A call to action (CTA) is a short statement that directs customers to take an action

you’d like them to take. They also happen to be critical for selling online. Here are

some examples:

1. Buy now

2. Click to learn more

3. Get a free one hour consultation

4. Click like to share with your friends

It may seem like people don’t need this much help with taking a next step, but it’s

proven that customers are more likely to take an action when directed to take one.

An article on Copyblogger shared a statistic that showed people are four times more

likely to click on a Twitter share button when directed to “please re-tweet”

compared to people who weren’t directed to do anything.

Does telling people to re-tweet really make that much of a difference? As this

statistic shows, yes, it does. Customers are much more likely to take an action

when there’s a call to action that tells them what to do.

How to apply: On your website and sales pages, use calls to action to direct

customers to take whatever step you want them to take next. Do this by making a

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 17

simple yet gentle command such as “buy now,” “click to learn more,” or “click to

share on Facebook.”

It’s important to know that gentle commands are more effective than asking

questions. Instead of saying “would you like to buy now” make a direct call to

action such as “buy now.” The latter has been proven to be more effective.

The last lesson is this: less is more.

The biggest mistake people make online is trying to include everything possible on

every page. They think that if they forget the smallest feature, they’re whole

business will fall apart.

This is the worst thing to do.

The less you try to do on each page of your website, the more effective your sales

funnel will be. Conversely, the more features that get added to a page, the less

likely it is that people will take the action you want them to take.

When pages get cluttered, there’s just too much that can potentially get in the way.

Either customers won’t be able to find the buy now button that will make you the

money you need, or they’ll get distracted by pictures in your Flickr album and

forget to finish the order.

Ensure customers don’t get distracted or miss your important calls to action by

deciding to do less instead of more.

How to apply: Figure out which steps you want customers to take, and make sure

it’s easy for them to take those steps. Anything else that could possibly be a

distraction needs to be removed.

If it’s a sales page, get rid of sidebars, extra pictures, or external links that can

distract customers from buying your product.

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Do whatever it takes to make your site as streamlined as possible. Instead of trying

to dream up more widgets that can go on a page for the sake of taking up space,

spend your time figuring out which features can be removed without detracting

from the user experience.

If a feature isn’t helping customers do what you want them to do, it needs to go.

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by Sherice Jacob

Why does a particular call to action fly, while another crashes and burns?

What are the design considerations behind creating compelling call-to-action

buttons?

This article will shed some light on the subject and guide you in creating a high-

flying call-to-action button.

The positioning of your call-to-action button is crucial to ensuring it gets the

attention you’re aiming for. Putting ample amounts of white space (in the form of

margins and padding) around the button will help offset it from the rest of your

content. Too often, a call-to-action button is more like an afterthought thrown in at

the last minute by the designer, and the result is that it (predictably) gets lost in all

the clutter. Even big corporate sites with bottomless pockets aren’t immune.

How many calls to action do you see in the image below:

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When it comes to getting your call-to-action button recognized, make sure it’s large

enough (compared to the other elements on the page) and colorful enough, the call

to action should not blend in with the design.

Like this:

Along those same lines, if you’re going to have a call-to-action button on your

page, make it clickable. Our eyes instinctively go to the middle of the page when

we first view a website. The design below was created by a company that

specializes in user interfaces! Logic tells us that the large button hogging all the

space in the middle of this page is clickable – but it’s only for illustrative purposes.

If this brand were to use heatmap tracking, the results would likely show an

inordinate amount of clicks on that huge button. So why isn’t it clickable?

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Putting the button “above the fold” (in the first third of your site’s overall screen

space) also helps ensure it’s the dominant force on the page. GoWalla does a great

job of including its call-to-action button not just in the top half of the page, but also

after explaining exactly what the service is and does – making you want to sign up

and experience everything they have to offer:

The best call-to-action buttons use action-oriented words like “Get,” “Download,”

and “Add to Cart,” rather than simply “Learn More” or “Continue Reading.” The

latter two calls to action are passive, which subconsciously tells us they’re not

worth acting on… at least not right now. Unless the teaser copy before the call-to-

action button is so titillating that we’re chomping at the bit to keep reading, it’s

likely we’ll look around a little more before making that click.

Tumblr is the perfect example of getting people to take action. It structures its

sign-up form more like a checklist and lets you immediately start posting.

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Email? Check. Password? Check. URL? Check. That’s all there is to it. And they put

the exclamation point on the end with a powerful call to action: “Start posting!”

Publishers Clearing House makes excellent use of urgency in its call to action. The

urgency in a call to action answers the question, “Why should I do this

now?” Background use of arrows here also helps direct the eye to the button.

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Sometimes, you just need two call-to-action buttons on a page. It’s

understandable, especially if you want to funnel customers into different

groups. Take CampaignMonitor for example. They showcase two call-to-action

buttons of different colors, making “View Features” stand out a bit more than “Try it

for Free”. Both are the same size, and spaced equally, letting customers decide

which path they want to take right from the start.

If you have two alternatives and want to make one much more visible than the

other? Simple – make that button stand out much more than its partner. Here’s

how Adobe BusinessCatalyst (formerly known as GoodBarry.com) did it:

Having the “Chat with us” button grayed out almost makes it appear as if that

option isn’t available. In that case, most people would go ahead and give it a try,

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clicking the much-more-noticeable red “Try for Free” button. I wonder how many

hours (and how much money!) Adobe live chat agents have saved by making that

choice practically invisible?

Hosting and service companies with several packages take this idea one step

further, putting the best option at the forefront of their call-to-action section:

To keep all these best practices top-of-mind, here’s a quick checklist that

summarizes the do’s and don’ts:

Use ample whitespace, margins and padding around your call-to-action

button to offset it from your content.

Use an alternate color not ordinarily found on buttons elsewhere on your site.

Make sure your call-to-action appears in the first third or first half of the

user’s screen space (“above the fold”).

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Convey a sense of urgency along with the button, such as “Offer Ends

October 15th” or “Available for the Next 30 Subscribers Only.” Make sure your

button lives up to that claim by removing it when you’ve met that limit.

Transform bland calls to action, such as “Call Now,” to actions where the user

is in control, such as “Request a Callback.”

When giving the user several choices, make each button an alternative color,

or stack them so that the most important choice is at the top, followed by the

next.

With two choices of equal value (i.e. “Take a Tour” or “View Pricing”) you can

place buttons side by side with some added space for breathing room.

To highlight your best deal or package, use a panel-style summary with the

premium package in front of the others.

Ease users into the process by having them perform a few simple actions in

order to get started (such as Tumblr does).

Show a mouseover or hover state when the user moves their mouse over a

button. This further implies that it’s clickable and not just a standard

graphic.

Include a prominent call-to-action button that isn’t clickable.

Have several calls to action on one page without any real direction to draw

the eye in.

Let your call to action get lost in your content by making it the same size or

color relative to all the other page elements.

Use a call-to-action button solely on your homepage. Give users several ways

to take action — even if they’re on your About Us page, they should easily be

able to start from there.

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Avoid using bland and overdone text on your button (like “Submit Form”)

unless you can follow it up with text that explains what happens AFTER they

click.

Want more information? Here’s a link to some excellent studies that can help you

improve your call to action.

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That’s the goal right?

Forget traffic and retweets, Google rankings and Facebook “Likes.” Increase my

web sales every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

But how do you get started? We asked eight of our Crazy Egg Marketing Experts

the first steps they take in increasing web sales:

Before I focus on conversion optimization, I evaluate conversion barriers. Basically,

if a user was pretty certain they wanted to buy the product, what would prevent

them from completing that task?

Common Conversion Barriers:

Incomplete product description/specs

Inadequate/missing product imagery

Required creation of an account to checkout

Too many steps to complete a checkout

Hidden/delayed costs/fees display (i.e. shipping, parts, etc.)

Inadequate/missing secure site certificate and trustmarks

Slow page load

Once barriers are removed, optimization of factors like copywriting, prominent/clear

call to action, UGC (reviews/ratings), enhanced digital assets (video, image sets,

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 28

image zoom, etc.)

~Angie Schottmuller, Interactive Artisan

Here are the first things I look at:

Does it offer something that people really want to buy? (This may sound like

a flippant comment, but some business owners make the incorrect

assumption that there’s a big enough demand for what they’re selling.)

Does it have a clear USP that differentiates it from the competition?

Does it look like a professional site run by a reputable company that people

would want to do business with?

Is it crystal clear what (simple) steps a user needs to take to complete a

transaction?

Is there a strong call to action?

~Adam Kreitman, Words That Click

The first thing I look at is “the big picture.” I like to work from the outside in. So, I

look at major issues that are failing first. These might be things like unclear

branding, no unique value proposition, usability problems, technical issues, etc.

After that, I’ll typically start as close to the sale as possible. That means, if I’m

working on an e-commerce site, I’ll look at ways to optimize the checkout process

first before moving forward.

~Naomi Niles, ShiftFWD

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 29

The first thing that I’d want to know is who is the customer that is being targeted,

and do they in fact have the need and means to buy whatever the site is selling

(you’d be amazed at how often this is overlooked). Then I’d want to know where

the traffic is coming from, because that will tell me how “warm” they are, and what

sort of a selling job the website needs to do in order to close the sale. Only then

should you look at the actual site, and see if it is doing the job that it is supposed to

be doing.

Danny Iny, Firepole Marketing

I have a whole list of things I evaluate, but the main things are:

Navigation: Is it easy for people to get around the site AND get back to

where they were?

Call to action: How straightforward is it for the visitor to take the action you

want them to take?

Support: Who do I get in touch with if I have questions? How do I do that?

Pre-sales and After-sales service: Many sites lack both these crucial

things. They simply send a little “thank you” email and that’s it. Customers

need to feel like their order is valued, and need to know approximately when

to expect it, what’s included and so on. Follow up could mean the difference

between a returning customer and one who shops elsewhere!

~Sherice Jacob, iElectrify

The first thing I evaluate is how much clutter is on a site.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 30

I ask this question: Is there anything that can be removed from the site without

taking away from the users experience? It’s easy for information that’s been added

as a placeholder to take attention away from the step you’d like customers to take.

So what can be removed to attract attention back to the most important action a

customer will take?

The next thing I evaluate is the goal is for each page. Is it to get visitors to click

through to learn more about the product? Is it to get customers to call in for a free

consultation? Every page is different for each business, so the right goal needs to

be identified for each page.

Next, I consider what actions customers should take in order to move through the

sales funnel and make sure calls for those actions are easy to find and clear to use.

~Joseph Putnam, BlogTweaks

Are they communicating clear benefits to the customer? Do they have a clear and

compelling offer? And are they asking for the order?

~Demian Farnworth, The Copybot

Clarity of purpose (is the website overly busy or focused on just a couple quality

methods of revenue), visitor usability (is the site easy and logical to navigate), and

is there any sort of call to action (people need to be told what you want them to

do).

~Cori Padgett, Big Girl Branding

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 31

by Sherice Jacob

If you’ve done enough A/B split tests to determine that your site converts

best with a sidebar, you’ll want to know how to maximize that space for more

conversions. The good news is that, when done right, a sidebar can be an

attractive addition that compels visitors to act. Here are five conversion elements

that have been shown to increase conversions — and are worth testing on your

website.

Including a short form in your sidebar with specific questions can help you not

only generate leads, but qualify them as well. By asking specific questions rather

than just a name and email address, you’ll also cut back on pure freebie-seekers.

For example, Hubspot’s Website Assessment form asks a heap of pertinent

questions to better qualify their leads, including who you primarily sell to, your type

of business, your biggest marketing challenge and more. This in turn helps them

craft relevant content that matches their prospects’ interests.

The important thing to keep in mind about sidebar forms (particularly if they’re

more than a few basic questions) is that in many cases, the more you ask, the less

inclined people will be to complete the process. They’re looking for an avenue

that’s quick, easy and rewarding. The reward needs to be compelling enough to

get them over that initial effort to complete the task.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 32

Hubspot’s Lead Generation Form asks specific

questions to help them filter out pure freebie-

seekers. It’s a bit long, which could be a turn-off

to visitors, but auto-fill can often make up for it.

This strategy works well for She-conomy.com, which

showcases its top rankings in Forbes predominantly on

its sidebar. You can also do this with testimonials from

well-known clients or companies, newsworthy sites

you’ve been featured on and more.

Showing your best credentials helps build authority and

expertise in your industry. Consider making a graphic

with logos from top customers or clients.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 33

Putting your best credentials “above the fold” (in the first

1/3rd of the user’s screen space) will immediately attract

their attention, since our eyes tend to naturally follow

an “F” pattern when browsing a new site.

And, if you guest blog for well-known sites in your

industry, don’t forget to include links to your articles

featured on these sites as well. Featuring your best

moments in the digital spotlight prominently on your

sidebar can even open up new opportunities for future

work.

Note the “F” Pattern heatmap from Jakob Nielsen’s 2006

Eye-tracking Study. This is how visitors tend to “see” a

website.

Many sidebars, particularly in blogs, feature the “Latest Posts” or “Latest

Comments” widget. This by itself is fine, but it may not garner as much attention

as a combination of your latest posts with images and social proof.

The Huffington Post, one of the most popular blogs on the web, uses every possible

advantage to maximize its sidebar posts. In addition to displaying the latest topics,

it also adds an attention-getting photo and a quick note of the number of Facebook

likes a particular article has gotten. This one-two sidebar punch also includes

numerous social sharing buttons — including ones for popular smartphones like the

iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

WordPress users can add a similar type of functionality by using the “Use Image as

Thumbnail” feature whenever you upload an image to a post. Blogger users can add

a Gadget which does something similar.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 34

If you sell products, the sidebar is the perfect

place to highlight additional accessories – such

as what Amazon does for its Kindle

page. Showcasing the accessories could be

improved even more by putting the starred

reviews and the number of reviewers beside

each one.

In this example, Huffington Post combines

photo appeal and social proof in its sidebar

articles.

By default in WordPress, archives are separated by month and year. Unfortunately,

that doesn’t tell readers much of anything.

Instead, you could follow Cracked.com’s lead and do a “Flashback” segment of a

few noteworthy posts or articles worth reading (again). If you’ve got a good deal of

“evergreen content” on your blog, or even if you’ve freshened up a post from last

year, highlight it again to catch both new and regular visitors.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 35

Copyblogger also does this by highlighting its most

popular articles based on the number of

comments. Some of them, such as “Five

Grammatical Errors that Make You Look Dumb” and

“How to Be Interesting” are the kinds of topics that

are always fresh and worth a click.

Cracked’s Flashbacks showcase some of its

evergreen content from years past.

Here is a sorely under-used feature that should be included on more sites —

specifically sites that encourage a community to grow. Darren Rowse’s Digital-

Photography-School.com does a brilliant job of this by not only showcasing his

reader’s latest photos, but hosting a weekly assignment to improve their

photography skills — all right from the sidebar. Once you click on an assignment,

you can read more about it in the community forum, as well as see the winners.

Many blogs have ways for readers to comment, subscribe, or download a freebie —

but few of them motivate the user to actually think about participating through a

weekly assignment of sorts.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 36

The sidebar on Darren Rowse’s

Digital-Photography-School.com

encourages user participation with

weekly assignments.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 37

by Adam Kreitman

I’ve got some deep, dark secrets to share with you in this post.

But first a little background is in order.

When it comes to online marketing… particularly search engine marketing…

keyword research is the foundation of success.

You simply can’t guess which keywords or phrases your prospects are typing into

Google to find you. You have to know for sure.

These tools, like the free one from Google, provide invaluable insights into the

actual terms your prospects type into Google to find the products/services you

offer.

And using them is pretty easy. Simply enter one or more keywords related to your

business and, in a few seconds, the tool will spit back lots of helpful data including:

related keywords/phrases, the number of people searching on those

keywords/phrases, and the level of competition.

This data is enormously valuable and I use keywords research tools every day.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 38

In fact, one of the key pieces of data you get from them — the number of searches

done for a particular keyword — can be inaccurate, sometimes wildly so.

Which brings us back to Google AdWords.

This tool is about more than just driving traffic. Used strategically, it can be used to

boost your overall marketing efforts in a number of ways. My favorite “non-traffic

generating” use of AdWords is keyword research.

You get a plethora of data when running a Google AdWords campaign. One of the

things you can see is the EXACT search terms people typed into Google before they

clicked on one of your ads.

To truly understand how powerful this data is, I’d like to share a story with you…

One day I was looking through a Search Query report for a client’s account (this

report shows the exact search terms people typed into Google to find your ads).

I can’t use the actual location and keyword for this client, so let’s just say this client

offers underwater bowling lessons in Miami.

While digging through the search queries, I noticed there were a lot of people

searching for underwater bowling lessons in Coral Gables (an affluent suburb of

Miami).

In fact, over 200 people a month were looking for keywords related to underwater

bowling lessons in Coral Gables (which is not an insignificant number of searches

for a local keyword).

Now, here’s the eye-opener.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 39

If you were to go to Google’s keyword research tool (or any other keyword research

tool for that matter), guess how many searches it reports for underwater bowling

classes in Coral Gables?

Not one.

Zero.

Zilch.

Nada.

But because of AdWords we now know that’s not true. This is key information that

very few of this client’s competitors have (even many of the ones using AdWords

don’t even know it’s there).

Well, once we knew there were around 200 people a month searching on that term,

we set up a new landing page on the site specifically targeting underwater bowling

classes in Coral Gables.

And that new landing page converts at a 54% higher rate than the previous page

the traffic was going to.

This is because the closer you can match your messaging to what people are

actually looking for, the better able you are to convert them into customers. So, in

this case, people in Coral Gables are much more likely to respond to a page that

mentions Coral Gables specifically instead of the Miami area in general.

Every keyword has a story behind it. It represents a conversation your prospect has

going on in their brain at the moment they’re typing that word into the search

engine.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 40

And one of the interesting things with keywords, which becomes crystal clear when

running AdWords campaigns, is that seemingly very similar keywords represent

very different conversations.

Even to the point that you may find the difference between the singular and plural

versions of a keyword makes a huge difference in conversion rates. In fact, it’s not

uncommon for me to see 3x-4x differences between the singular and plural

versions of a keyword in AdWords campaigns.

After getting the real scoop on the keyword data from AdWords we also did search

engine optimization SEO for “underwater bowling lessons in Coral Gables” related

keywords… with the deck heavily stacked in our favor.

Think about what we had by that point because of AdWords…

A keyword we knew for a fact got around 200 searches a month (despite

what the keyword tools were reporting).

A landing page we knew was converting well.

For a local business like this, that’s a recipe for SEO gold!

SEO is a great strategy to get traffic to your site. But it can cost a lot of time and

money, plus there’s no guarantee of success.

So what if it turns out your best converting, most profitable keywords are not the

ones you think they are?

What if that new landing page you set up and SEO’d doesn’t convert? You can be

$1000s and many months in the hole on an SEO project before finding these things

out.

By using the search query data from Google AdWords, we eliminated that risk.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 41

Using AdWords to gather more accurate keyword data than is available anywhere

else is my favorite use of AdWords.

So the question I leave you with is this… how sure are you about your keywords?

They can make a huge difference in your conversion rate.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 42

by Henneke Duistermaat

Creating web content is complicated, isn’t it?

You need to delight your web visitors, please your bosses, and seduce Google. You

need to consider keyword strategies and product hierarchies.

No wonder many websites resemble a jungle with useful content hidden away —

only reachable via a meandering path of clickable buttons and text links.

Let’s get this straight.

Your website should be designed for your target audience. And if you do this right,

then Google will reward you with relevant, profitable traffic. With each algorithm

update Google is getting better at fulfilling searchers’ needs for relevant

information. Don’t worry too much about Google, focus on your target audience

instead.

So, how do you create content that Google likes and your target audience loves?

Simply answer the following six questions.

A buyer persona is a distinct group of potential customers, an archetypal

person whom you want your marketing to reach.

~ David Meerman Scott

You may target one buyer persona, or a few. You also may need to consider

potential job seekers or the press when you’re designing your website. Make sure

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 43

you know who you create your website for. Unless you know who they are and

what they care about, you can’t produce content for them.

Introducing content dedicated to buyer personas can massively increase your

conversions. Check out these case studies on David Meerman’s blog: Brand

Regard increased click-throughs three-fold when they introduced a persona-focused

website, while RightNow Technologies increased conversions four-fold.

Do you speak the same language as your target audience? Do you use the same

terms they use when discussing your products? Use these terms and you’ll increase

your chances of being found via search engines and being considered relevant by

your target market.

You need to give each buyer persona a reason they should buy from you. Think

about it from their point of view. Your buyer personas aren’t interested in your

products. They want to know how you can help them solve their problems; how you

can help them boost profits, save time or cut costs; or how you help them become

more productive, healthier, or happier.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 44

KISSmetrics explains how its analytics software solves problems for each buyer

group.

To maximize sales, you need to overcome all objections potential customers may

have. Do they think your product or service is expensive? Is your product too

complicated? Are buyers concerned your product may not be suitable for their own

specific circumstances?

Address objections on your sales page or refer people to a page with frequently

asked questions. Ensure you overcome all potential objections to optimize

conversion into sales.

Crazy Egg explains why you should buy its tracking technology even if though you

can get Google Analytics free of charge:

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 45

Unless you sell commodities, most buyers have questions about their purchase.

Answer all their questions, and you’ll become a trusted supplier and an authority in

your field.

Change your mindset from How to sell widgets to retired workers to How can I help

retired workers select the right widget for their requirements.

Think beyond straightforward sales copy. Consider questions like:

How …?

What …?

Where …?

When …?

Why …?

Who…?

Can I…?

Do I…?

When you’re launching a new website or expanding your existing website, you don’t

have to answer all questions in one go. Just answer the most important ones and

create an editorial plan to address the remaining questions.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 46

Email marketing provider MailChimp uses their online training section to answer

email-related questions. These pages rank high in search engines for phrases

like What is a double opt-in, How do I create an autoresponder, and When is the

best time to send emails.

Potential buyers use Google to search for answers to their questions. This is a great

way to generate relevant long-tail website traffic, and be helpful to potential

buyers.

What choices do your potential customers have to make before buying? And how

can you help them make the right choice?

Consider choices between models, brands, product attributes or categories. For

instance, when researching your new phone, you may Google phrases like iphone

vs android, iphone 5 vs galaxy s3, iphone white vs black, or iphone 16 vs 32gb.

Google autocomplete can suggest the most frequently searched for choices and

give you an excellent starting point:

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 47

Your sales pitch will become more persuasive when you let others do the selling. Do

you have any case studies to illustrate your value? Can you gather testimonials?

Don’t make your case studies and testimonials too sugary. Overly positive reviews

aren’t believable. Create a little story, show the doubts your customer had before

they bought from you, and explain how these doubts were overcome, and how

happy your customer is now.

Marketing Strategist Sean D’Souza uses his testimonials to overcome his

customers’ doubts. Here’s an example:

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 48

Stop selling. Instead, help potential buyers make purchasing decisions.

Answer the questions they have about your industry and your products. Create the

best buyers’ guide in your industry. Develop the most comprehensive FAQ section.

Growing your web traffic requires hard work, energy, and perseverance. There are

no shortcuts. But if you put in the effort and share your expertise, you’ll be richly

rewarded.

Focus on your target audience, become an authority in your field, and your

business will grow.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 49

To achieve the best conversion rate possible, you need to know what people are

doing on your website:

Where do they click?

How far down do they scroll?

Are they reading your copy?

What page elements do people respond to?

Some of this information, you can glean from Google analytics. But unless you have

advanced technology such as Crazy Egg’s heatmaps, you’re often just guessing.

If you don’t already use Crazy Egg, you’re missing out on one of the simplest, most

revealing testing tools on the market.

It’s easy to use and gives you loads of data to understand what works and what

doesn’t.

The heatmap tool tells you

exactly where people click. So

you don’t have to guess. You

know without a doubt what

needs to be redesigned,

rewritten, or removed from

your site.

Crazy Egg makes it that easy.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 50

Best of all, you can try it for free for 30 days. And if you like it, prices start at $9

per month.

We’re so confident you’ll love the difference Crazy Egg can make, we’ve removed

all the risk:

Use the suite of Crazy Egg tools

Watch our tutorial videos

Learn from the examples and apply them to your website

You can even call our support team if you get stuck

But if you aren’t absolutely delighted... if you aren’t increasing your website’s

revenues within 60 days… you’re protected by our 100% NO-RISK DOUBLE-

GUARANTEE.

Our Guarantee: If you don’t increase your website’s conversion rate or revenues

over the next 60 days, just let us know and we’ll send you a prompt refund. No

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your money back.

The Basics of Conversion Optimization Crazy Egg 51

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