Chapter 15

Making More Sales with Google Website Optimizer

In This Chapter

  • The power of website optimization
  • Establishing a benchmark with Google Website Optimizer
  • Generating and prioritizing testing ideas
  • Ongoing testing for continual improvement

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays a surly, cynical weatherman fated to relive the same day — February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania — over and over again. Along the way, he learns to sculpt ice, play piano, and dance. Eventually, he falls in love with his producer, played by Andie MacDowell. In his quest to win her heart, Murray's character fails repeatedly to impress and attract her. But he learns from every failure and adapts his behavior, until he has transformed himself into a suave, considerate, and heroic companion.

When you split-test pages on your website, you can accomplish the same sort of trial-and-error adaptation with your visitors and prospects, without having to spend quasi-eternity in Pennsylvania. Your tool of choice, compliments of Google, is the free, powerful, and elegant Google Website Optimizer (which we'll just call Optimizer from now on).

Optimizer allows you to test different variations of your web pages to see which ones give you more of the results you want. Will your visitors respond better to a product photo, video, or testimonial in a given region of the page? Will more people buy if you offer a 50 percent discount or a two-for-one sale? Should your headline read, “Natural Soaps for All ...

Get Google AdWords™ For Dummies®, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.