In this week's Whiteboard Friday, we are covering some advanced techniques that you can use to optimize your landing pages. The typical web user has evolved and it's important for web marketers to evolve with them. By taking a look at how the web has changed we can make more informed decisions on how to optimize our pages and maximize their impact.
Please enjoy and don't forget to leave your comments below. Happy Friday Everyone!
Video Transcription
Hey everyone. I am Joanna Lord. I am the Director of Acquisition over here at SEOmoz. Welcome to another Whiteboard Friday. I am going to be stepping in for Rand today. So no, I am not Rand in case you are wondering. I want to be talking about something pretty exciting that I love talking about. So hopefully this goes well.
It is on-page optimization. We are going to be talking about a lot of the stuff that we do here for landing pages, and I am going to take a little spin on it. I know there are a lot of articles out there that help you with the basics of landing page optimization, but I think that that is really well documented and we are going to kind of skip through that really fast and instead we are going to talk about some of the more advanced things that we are doing, some kind of philosophical changes that we are trying to use to stir our test.
Traditionally, I put up here the kind of things that you would think about before. You are looking at your pages and you are like, "We really need to increase conversion, or we need to do better. What can we look at?" The first thing obviously is being specific, making sure that those landing pages really match up to what people are searching for. We can do this through headlines. We can do this through the images we put on the page or the paragraph text that you put on there.
Then you look and you want it to be clean and you want it to be concise. This one is really fun for designers, right? We want to make it visually appealing, and you want to make sure that what people are looking for is kind of well spread out on the page. It has got a lot of white space around it. It has got some bullets. It is really easy to find.
The third one is around the call to action, and I think that we are all pretty well versed on this. We want it to be big. We want it to be bold. We want it to be contrasting so that when people find the page, they know what we are expecting them to do.
The last one surprisingly a lot of people still kind of maybe mess around with or they haven't done enough for and that is this concept of the page really needs to branded. It needs to be trusted, and when someone shows up, it needs to be really obvious that you are the authority. You are the one they should go with. You can give them your money. It is all sorts of things around the idea of trust. For a long time, I think if you nailed those four things, you were doing really good. You were safe. You can make some money. You would have another day in your world. But I think that things have changed and users have evolved. That is kind of what we are talking about today.
I actually put up here a really beautiful, really sassy-looking diagram on why I think that the users' expectations have changed, and how we are going to solve for that we will get to in a little bit. The number one thing is I think just like what I just said, this concept that the user has evolved. Before, a person didn't see as many sites in one day. They didn't see as many sites on one topic. So they didn't have an expectation before they came to you. You might have been the first site they found that was e- commerce on this type of brand. But now, they are seeing so much more and it is saturated. So they have higher expectations before they even get to your site.
The second one is trust redefined, and this is a really big one. This one we can't understate, and that is that right now, because there are so many ways to show that you are authority and to show that people like you, that people expect to see it on the page. We will talk about some of the exact signals, but for the most part, they are really expecting more from you. The social engagement and the UGC expected, when people show up to a site, they really want to see that there is a community going on, that there is a number of people talking about you, that you are talking with them, and that there is kind of a sense of happiness around whatever the brand is or whatever the product might be. These too are already an expectation. It is not optional anymore. It doesn't separate you if you have it. You really need to have it.
Design expectations have been raised. I know Rand wrote a blog post about this a while ago, so I am not going to talk too much on it. But with sites like Dribbble coming out and just having so many great designers out there, the websites are beautiful and yours has to be beautifu, too. People are going to bounce if they just don't feel that your site is visually up to their standards.
Search equals discovery. I think before, if you answered their need, that was almost enough, but I don't think it is enough anymore. I think that they really want to discover more about who you are and what you do and why you are doing it. This idea of sentiment, which is just really this idea that when someone comes to you, they don't just need to feel that you can get them what they need. They don't just need to feel that you are there to answer their questions. They need to feel positive about you and that you are someone they can connect with on multiple levels. That is just because we spend so much more of our time online that where we spend our time is really that much more important to us.
I think that is a lot of how things have changed, and that is why these don't exactly answer it anymore. I am going to talk about some things that I think we really need to be thinking about as website optimizers.
The first, the basics. You do need to have these. Some people are getting really excited about their landing pages right now, and they are going out there and they are building these beautiful HTML5 sites, but they don't have the basics and people are bouncing because they don't feel comfortable. You do need to have these, but then you need to move on to some of these. Let us jump into some of these, and let us talk about what they are.
The concept of rethinking conversions is interesting because I think as marketers, we say to ourselves, "I need to track what's important to the bottom line," and we do, we absolutely do. You need to know your purchases, your conversions, your form fill-outs. You need to know even how many emails you are getting, if you are backing that out for lead gen.
All of those are still very important, but there is a lot of other conversions you need to be testing for and keeping an eye on. Your social counts, that should absolutely be an optimizer's job to increase. Getting people to like you, getting people to follow you, those should be your job. Member counts, can you get them to sign up for a membership? Where you put it on the page and how it is shown is all part of our job. Downloads and engagements, those are also important to us. It is not just about leaving them with something anymore. It is about getting them to go deeper into the site. Demo counts, I put this in there a lot because I think people forget about this. If you go to SEOmoz right now, you will see that we have our features there and we want you to take a free trial, but we also want you to explore the product, and we very much track how many people go into the feature section of our site and how do they interact there and how do they engage. That is a really important one.
Then feedback, I know a lot of marketers that when they put up a survey on the site, if they use something like KISSinsights, they get it up on the site and they say to themselves, "Well, we're not going to worry about conversions for the next seven days because we're collecting feedback." But that is not really the case. That should be your conversion. You should be testing to see how you can get more feedback, how you can get more surveys completed. All of this is about rethinking conversions, and you need to be testing for it as much as you would have tested for any of these more basic elements.
On the second here, we have the brand strengthening, really important and I think it is pretty fun stuff. Traditionally, as marketers, we might have thought to ourselves there is a certain job for that at the company. Whether it be the CMO or your MarCom manager, there is someone who is in charge of making sure that everyone sees us a certain way. I think that you can do this with your landing pages really effectively and you can build a story over time. That is what this column is all about. Traditionally, when you think of brand, you think we need logos up there, we need some testimonials up there, we need to make them feel safe. But I think there is more you can do. Things like mission statements, where you put them, do you just have a byline up? Is there more that you consistently use on every page on your site? Things like awards, have you won awards? Do you bury them in a press section or do you move them up? Things like consistency, making sure that whatever you say about your product or your company on one page you say across the whole site is really important. You don't change your key adjectives. You should be testing what adjectives really resonate with your audience.
Badges are also really important. I know a lot of people that they just put up kind of their phone number in one place, and they will put their email in another, or they will put their shipping policy over here. All of that should be compounded together into a badge. People want to see all of your trust signals in a very tight space because they are looking for all of them when they see one. They will just assume that you don't have a good shipping policy if they don't see it next to your phone number, that sort of thing. You need to think about that, where you are putting it, the placement.
Then positivity, I think a lot of people forget about this. They kind of put up words that they think are just kind of fun, maybe even a little bit snarky or comedic, but people don't know you. They don't know your culture. They don't know your brand. When they read it, they really want to feel positivity. They want to see positive words, happiness. There are some really great e-commerce sites out there that do this really well. Things like Sephora, they do it excellently. Think about those things when you are looking at your sites.
Then testing all truths, this is going to be the hardest one to push through. It is really, really challenging to walk into a room of people that have spent years on a website and say, "Everything that is the foundation of this site, let's go test it." But that is what you have to do, and that is what makes these really come to life. That is what makes these really big impacts across your entire site and your entire business goals. That is around the concept of traditionally you might test a feature or you might test an element on a page. Instead you are testing the whole kabang. You are saying, "Let's test the whole layout. Whereas, before maybe we were one picture and then text down here, let's do it dual columns." You are just changing up the entire visual aesthetic of your site.
The sentiment, so however you are presenting yourself, for example, if you are an outdoor site and you are saying, "We're adventurous and we're bold and we're exciting," maybe you think completely about it and, "We're about peacefulness and tranquility and nature," and you need to completely change the way that you are presenting yourselves and see how your audience reacts.
Things like features, a lot of companies know their key features really well and they always lead with them. Well, your audience has evolved, and lots of the message needs to evolve with it. What other features should maybe you lead with? What other features should you be testing as the true ringer, the one that gets their attention?
Design is really important. We have talked about it a little bit, but you get caught up in the design as a company and you think to yourself, "This is our vibe. This is the way that we're going to step forward." But that really needs to be tested ongoing, because what you assume might work is the baseline, but you have no idea where you are going to fall if you switch it up. Then navigation, a lot of people, they know when the navigation is working well and they are afraid to touch it. I think it is a real injustice to not try to revisit your navigation and say, "Maybe we should really swap this around a little bit."
These are all things that I think you really need to think about beyond these really common basic landing page optimization tactics. The whole point of it is that you are really supposed to be able to look at it and say, "I think we're making a difference. I think we're testing some really big philosophies around our site." If you can just nail one of those, you are going to feel the impact across all your channels.
I did leave you guys with a really quick action list here that we can hopefully touch on, and that is just rethinking your goals as a company often really helps you hit some of these bigger things out of the park, because when you see that the goals change and they always do from quarter to quarter, it can help you steer what you should be testing for. That and connecting with other teams I think is really important. We do a lot of it here. We go into the Help Team. We ask them what is the trouble for them, and what they resonate to us is usually those bigger philosophical changes that we should address.
This last part is just get started, and I think it is because all of it is great in theory as always, but if you don't actually go try to test it or if you don't set up a new test, you are never going to know. Hopefully, that has helped you out, and I will see you next week for another Whiteboard Friday.
Just a question. Is Schema part of your regular optimisation now? on products and contact page?
Schema is a markup for search engines to better understand the content on your pages. It might help you stand out and give you a bit more clicks from the SERPS if the engines decide to use your markup and display rich snippets like star reviews, price information, etc. but other than that the users won't see the difference on the page.
Great WBF, but one question though, in your experience, while trying to implement the strategies that you have discussed here how much of an impact or difficulty did you face while managing timelines? Did you guys set a predefined timeline or was it on the fly? Please note that I totally understand the dynamic aspect to it and that it varies from project to project.
I am asking this question as this is something clients always ask us while discussing strategies.
- Sajeet
Very good job Joanna!
I want to say that there is an over-emphasis on social media. Social media is not the same thing as social proof, particularly in B2B transactions. Having community is not as important as having good delivery or transparent product specs for a good deal of people. While human connection is important to many buyers that is only one of the four modalities for visitors.
You also need to be careful about overloading your pages with things to do and be distracted by. Your list of conversions are great, but you shouldn't be trying to do all of your conversions on every page.
Great job filling in for Rand, Joanna.
I really like your point about leveraging certain signals, social proof, and awards on landing pages. It is very crucial to analyze where your business is doing best (whether that be in Twitter, on Yelp, by serving your community, ect) and then see how you can highlight that in your landing pages.
Again, great post. Hope to see more from you in the future!
Cheers.
Thanks Jason! You are so right. I know I've been guilty of it in the past -- Ive put all our signals on a press page or hidden them in the About section, but we really need to be testing how we can better lace them through-out the other pages to give a more compelling story.
Glad you liked it!
Hi Joanna, delighted to see you in the WBF video.
On-page optimization seems to be "ease to fullfill" tasks - but you showed us to go beyond those limits. And then it is getting really hard and we have to think on many different aspects (even psychologically) for succeeding with our websites.
That's when probably the wheat is separated from the chaff.
Nice video Joanna, I know landing pages are a huge area in PPC, too many companies do not focus on having fantastic landing pages with are COR friendly, even brand driven. But overall fantastic WBF =)
But also I noticed online today a few articles about how you are in the top 16 most inflentual SEM marketers from PPC associates in the US? Nice work!
Very nice presented - who was the man who did it in the past ;-)? Perhaps a little bit too fast. And the text on the whiteboard is a little bit diffucult to read.
Great and importent content. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to your next WBF :-)
Definitely too fast ha. I swear when I was doing it I thought I was going slower ha. Doh! You are right about the text too, next time Ill def work on those things :)
Joanna,
This was an excellent WBF on a lot of levels. While I see it speaks very well to the "Company" SEO, etc. it is very strong for agency as well. Being that we are an agency that does web dev as well, I was struck by two things: "Website Opimization" as a term and "Test All Truths." First, we talk constantly here of on page, of good nav, good structure, etc., but the term Website Optimization and the WBF really will speak well to our dev team. As to "Test All Truths," it really makes us face as marketers those things we take as a given all too often. In life if we do not test our truths we become dinosaurs, in marketing we become...broke. Great sentiment around landing pages!
One thing I harp on a lot here is the very issue of, "Are we answering the customer's query?" you have now created "Are we providing the expected experience.?"
Truly outstanding. Thanks,
Hi Joanna, Great WBF, it was really great to watch, nice to see the passion for what you do coming across. some very valid points ad directions to take.
Ahhh thanks! The whole team over here actually gets super excited about all the things we can test and tweak. We have a queue of dozens of things we'd like to test over time. :) I think its a mixture of geekiness, coffee, and sugar that keeps us so "passionate" ;)
Great whiteboard, Joanna! And very timely as I'm putting together some landing pages for a brand new campaign today.
Hi Joanna - my first WBF video and I found it compact and concise, very interesting. The part about trust signals was informative. Thanks.
I thought she is going to spoil a whole good topic in WBF but believe me you are Awesome, and infact much better than Rand in explaining certain things.
Very well done, hats off/thumb up Joana...
Great video Joanna. Very informative. Another classic whiteboard Friday!
Well Joanna i must say you are a good teacher :)... Anyways i like to ask on thing here, my website is well managed and optimize according to SEO so is this important to create landing page for PPC, although my home page have all the things which fullfill the need of visitor and force him to fill up contact form !!!
Having loads of fun with onpage optimisation - running at 4 variations on a homepage at anyone time and dropping the worst performing, must admit it's a bit headscratching sometimes when trying to figure out what the user actually wants! Next job is to run similar experiments on the 2,000 category pages (which is a bit daunting!)
Whoa! Running experiments on 2,000 category pages does sound crazy! you sir are a CRO over-achiever :) Definitely start with the bigger "truths" for those more templated pages, if you can nail some of those bigger elements all of them will do better.Keep us posted on how that testing goes! :)
Luckily, although there are about 2,000 category pages (probably more) they run on similar templates and formats etc and although they will all need to be done individually at some point or another we can fairly safely assume that the lessons learned from one category can be applied to 15% of the category pages (depending on the template)
Joanna, superbly done. I hope you do more WBF's. Not that I'm tired of Rand, but it's always refreshening to see a new face, particularly when so well versed on the topic at hand.
Concur with your points. On-site SEO is changing quickly based on higher expectations by consumers. Looking forward to your next contribution.
Ohss! I mean you end up the presentation with the best tip I can ever come across... that is to 'Get Started!' I mean if you are learning all the theories and not implementing them (at least test few of them) then you are doing nothing but wasting your precious time...
When it comes to designing a landing page (especially for PPC) few things that i consider as important are:
> Look and Feel of the page
You should provide comfortability to the visitors landing on the page. If your design is not appealing to the target audience, you will end up getting a big amount of bounce rate and a very low conversion rate.
Research the nature of your audience and see what colour they like, what kind of page that are ok with, what type of content they are looking for... and then design the page accordingly.. If the user is not comfortable then there is no reason they will stay on the page and convert.
> Clear call to action
People are busy, don’t test them with confusions, don’t play hide and seek and make clear call to actions. If a user land on the page and in the first few seconds he/she cannot find the call to action then, there are good amount of chances that people will switch/bounce.
Make Big and Clear (I really mean it) call to actions that not force but encourage people to convert.
> Gain User’s Trust
This is another great idea and if you can use it properly, you will not only get a good amount of conversion rate but can also get a good amount of user recommendation to other users (may be through social media). The best way to gain users trust is to include testimonials, awards or a cause your company have participated or supported this allows user to come close to you and convert!
Joanna, this is a great WBF!
These are awesome reminders Moosa! Thank you for sharing them, and thanks for the tip on Twitter about the thumb down craziness! Really appreciate you being on top of it like that :)
Awesome video Mam,It's really informative about on-page optimization updated, Still I was on old way. Thanks for sharing such tips.
Hey everyone
After watching Joanna Lord's SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday piece (very inspiring by the way), I wanted to try some if her ideas.
I’m currently working with a client and I want to try some landing page re-designs to improve conversion rates. If I was to make a new landing page and upload it to the same server (everything the same, just a design change), how would think affect my SERP rank?
Are you planning to design the whole page with the new layout? Or chaning the theme? Or replacing the page content with some images?
All the above mentioned can be utilize for CRO.
Thanks for these great suggestions! I've seen some excited tests around images verys text on larger portions of the page's layout. Excited to try more as we continue to evolve the site over here at Moz!
That's great Joanna. Awesome!
Great video, Joanna. I've been waiting for something more in depth about CRO to come up on SEOmoz, and I think you nailed it.
Useful information.........
https://www.iconwebservices.com/
Great video Joanna! Excellent information for beginners :-)
seriously awesome whiteboard friday , many many useful points here.
Nice video, thank you for the transcription.
Hi Joana.
Good one :) the whole aspect of Goals is an excellet way to get things moving. Companies should reassess their Goals every 6 months or so... sooner for smaller organisations.
Right? We get really caught up over here and often we forget that we are steering an entirely different direction than we were when this funnel or those pages went up. Its great to revisit the larger goals like that :)
Great WBF. VERY informative. Time to get started.
Thanks for a great WBF Joanna! Great tips for creating and tweaking landing pages to increase goals and conversions!
Thank you That was a good one (:
Great post Joanna,
I was wondering what else we can do more as far as on-page is concerned. This post has actually briefed the next level in on-page optimization.
Really liked this video. We definitly do not do enough (ok if I'm honest any) continued oprimization of our landing pages & product pages. This video definilty caused us to add a brainstorming session to to the schedule.
Great Video Joanna - some great points to think about. Somet things I agree on are that you need to gain the users trust and that they expect more from a site. You can't get away with an old design or outdated site anymore because the competition is just too good.
I also agree on the testing portion - we don't do enough of that. It's important to know why you are testing certain things and to track the specific things that you are trying to improve on whether it's time on site, bounce rate or conversion %.
Look forward to your next video!
Awesome video. Straight to the point. I've been slacking on my "testing". Looks like its now a good time to get started. :)
I love the fact that things are getting better for websites and that customers are really familiar with what to expect. It shows that this is a medium that will continue to get better and better. Thanks for the nudge to keep improving and the vision for the future.
A great video, Joanna. The first time I've watched a WBF (it was your friendly smile that made me press the play button). Currently doing some onpage optimisation for a client and this has helped me with going the step further. Thanks. I hope you do another. :-D
Thank you Jonna
I have been away for a while and now I am back. Enjoyng WBF as usual. Design and bouce rate .. yeah !!! for so many years i got by without a good design on my site but now it's high time for me to rethink all my website from scrath. But i am scared as hell. My site rank n. 3 on both important italian keywords locally and one very important for SEO nationally. Ok, I'll take a deep breath and star over .. Thank you
Really good job...
Hi Joanna, thank you. Good Whiteboard Friday;
to the point, good info and I loved the speed of your presentation.
Hey Joanna,
Great Whiteboard Friday! Rand will be out of a job soon!
I found it very informative and thank you for including some of your newer ideas and thoughts. It seemed like you weren't really sure whether to include some of them, but you seemed passionate about it enough to go for it, I love that.
In particular, the demo counts, wow, great idea. I never would have thought about that, I have seen most everything else, but that is new, thanks so much. Right after this comment I am going to email my development team to add 'demo counts' to my free online demo to my software.
Thanks so much, great job!
You really bring up things that I never thought about before Joanna. I actually never heard of dribble before, an AMAZING tool.
Hi,
Thanku so much for this posting and useful information and tips. Recently I am working in SEO company so this information will help me a lot.
Thanks again and have a nice day.....
Hi Joanna! Great job filling in for Rand. You just explained everything so well here. Hats off to you. I hope to see you on another Whiteboard Friday. Good job! Keep up the good work.
Nice one Joana. There's a lot more to on-page than meta tags (as you pointed out in the video). I hope this adds some value to SEOs that spend hours helping their client's on-page issues.
To link to from a blog post I remembered, searched, and found this video. This is one of the best instructional videos that lays down what a conversion oriented website is and how it needs to be run. Never has this been more true than in today's small to medium size business market. Sure there are DIY sites available everywhere, but good layout and design is still essential to land and convert. A user today is going to bounce if it the site is not above the bar of simple functionality or any problem in the design.
Thanks Moz
Really good video... As an SEO beginner, I can say SEOMoz Videos have been helping me a lot, not only me but a lot of others. Although I don't have that knowledge in SEO, I like to think about it like, for example, when you own a physical shop and you have to know everything that is happening inside of it and take care of everything inside. At the same time, you have to think about the external elements, like the name of your shop store, people opinions, marketing and everything else, willing to improve everyday to meet the costumer's expectations and have everyday more better results (conversions). Online, what we have to do is to know the rules, factors and all the others aspects evolved in the well development of a company (website), since on to offpage improvements, but the feeling is the same, my goal has to be to offer a good product, to reach people (ethical way), to care about what people are thinking, saying.. Well, don't know if I could express what I wanted to (my English is not so good too, so sorry), but this is the way I think. Great video, Joanna. Think you spoke clearly and right to the point. Thanks!hug.
I think I'm in love....
Nice job Joanna, I think we as SEO'ers need to think more holistically about design, trust, as well as content and technical signals. Good thoughts, nice post.
Joanna, I think you should do more WBF. I really liked your explaining style.
Thanks.
its really good.......so thanks for the information.it really helped me to understand on page optimization.
Thanks
Additional comment) U look beautiful :)
Joanna excellent WBF. I would definitely like to see more WBF's conducted by you.
The example on positivity you shared which was Sephora may I request you to share some more examples of e-commerce websites which are good examples of websites having positivity.
Ensuring positivity on the website helps increases the stickiness of the website for sure.
Thank you for providing food for thought on the long weekend.
Cheers.
Oh Thanks! It was super fun to do one, now I just need to keep chipping away at my fear of cameras and hopefully I can do more :)
Thank you Joanna for such a great presentation, testing new strategies in design and presenting content the way visitors love it, always works and brings some real customers. At least great visual appeal reduces the bounce rate.:)
You did a great job presenting this huge topic, Rand .. eh.. I mean Joanna
Really great WBF... some very useful content.
In my opinion, some caution should be exercised in making layout and nav changes, especially in the pursuit of improving converstions, i have seen many sites conversion rates fall as a result of layout restructure.
Maybe A-B testing layout/nav changes is better way forward, especially for a website already experiencing good conversion rates?
Great presentation though, so good in fact, that i have forwarded a link onto our design team to take a look at!
WOW... very fast, you covered a lot in short time due to speed.
Thanks for the great information Joanna. I completely agree that great design is really important. I think people strongly associate design with trustworthiness. I believe people assume that content on a poorly designed site may not be as accurate and will bounce to seek out a more trustworthy source. They may also be hesitant to link to a poorly designed site because they are not sure the information is trustworthy and because it may hurt their reputation to recommend it.
Thank you That was a good one (:
Top video - I like the tips on using postive words & rethinking existing goals/objectives when it comes to conversions :)
Great suggestions Joanna. I think that the challenge for most companies is the communication hurdles across different departments or teams. Your ideas require design, programming, analysis, branding, legal and of course executive level input and approval. We are currently looking at some issues implementing on-site elements for better SEO and conversions for regulated industries and it's a pain. What you have explained here in 11 minutes might take 6 months for certain companies to implement due to these challenges. :)
However, we have prioritized and are on our way. I'd like to get your opinion as well as other contributors on assigning a CPA amount for different conversion types and tracking through analytics. How important do you think it is? It's pretty straight forward for Ecommerce, however for lead generation, it can be a bit tricky especially if the internal lead tracking to the final sale in a company is not very efficient.
Good Job!
Right on! I think I need to just let our clients see this video to cut time explaining stuff to them. About why this and that about LPs is needed, etc, etc.. =)
Right on Joanna - shared this right away. I really like that you brought attention to rethinking company goals, and taking the time test the "truths." How can we truly know what's working, if we don't test it? Now, if I can just convince the Principles. :--)
Great video! You showed us how to take on-page optimization to the next level. Excellent points about trust and social signals.
Great job Joanna!
As the owner of SEO Services, this is definitely an area that we want to put more focus on for our clients.
Brilliant.
We are standing directly in the crossroads of these evolutions.
Thank you.
Good WBF Joanna. Great things to look at for and improve on so thanks
JL: Wow, WBF. Congrats & well done. I think there are two elements here that resonate with me along with a comment for us as an industry:
a) Test all truths: This is like a zero-base budget. You can add some fudge factor number every year to your budget and pretty soon all of the assumptions are worthless. A zero based budget is a pain for an entire organization, but when you rebuild from the ground up, it's a great exercise. When I was in corporate, I've seen it done every 2-3 years just to focus hard on what we believe. The same is true for any marketer's website with the expected time compression.
I know that our messaging often changes and we've added and dropped services. We're working hard now to consider ourselves a client and budget time accordingly, and your "test all truths" message speaks to that.
b) Excellent perception about actively pursuing feedback. This is especially true in marketing practices where long-term clients become friends and the client begins treating the agency differently. Getting objective, strong feedback about how you are meeting client needs becomes more difficult as personal relationships emerge and grow. But if there is something that should be said and isn't, then the time it festers can cause a huge problem. You may even lose the client over something seemingly trivial. And we shoud never underestimate the power of simply asking, "What can we do differently to make you happier as a client?"
As an industry and speaking to some earlier comment, we need to work with clients from the beginning to help them understand that, just like on-page SEO, nothing about their online presence is "set it and forget it". The client may not want to budget for constant testing, but we're doing our job the best when we help educate them about this process.
We can't sell SEO or other marketing services as a one-off. Doing so just puts misunderstanding in the marketplace and makes it harder for our entire industry.
Lots of great strategic stuff to consider this Friday morning, mozzers!
Awesome job, Joanna! Lots of thought-provoking advice.
As was said by others, your passion for what you do comes across in spades, but you also explained things in a clear and simple, "follow along with me" kind of way.
What does everyone use TO DO THE TESTING? Are you just changing the landing page after two weeks and measuring the prior weeks to the next two weeks? Are you using Google Website Optimizer? Another tool? I think this was a key piece missing from the video but overall very good info here.
There are many good tools that you can use. I prefer Visual Website Optimizer but you really need to find something that will work for you. Chec out https://www.whichmvt.com/, the guys at Conversion Rate Experts did a really good job comparing these tools.
I am a big fan of Unbounce.com, but I also work there so I might be biased. :)
Interesting WBF. I agree that an amalgamation of Design, Social Media, Trust and Content (Most important) does delivers adequate results.
The biggest change of the site should be the social media part. And the problem is how to make an effective present on the website. I think it was a time cosumming work to do.
Really good job...
Joanna,
I like the whiteboard friday and its post...
Good WBF with a lot of advises and tons of old & new tips to improve page quality!
I can just add the "bounce rate" as a metric to use to measure engagement into the "basic stuff". Many SEO's might think that obvioulsly everyone care about bounce rate or exit rate on key pages but in general when you suggest on-page optimization to a client start with bounce rate and exit rate on the page; it really works because it expresses end users feelings. Then use Joanna great stuff!
Am I missing something, Why all the thumbs down on the first few comments? I’m new!
Hey there! We are looking into it but sometimes people get a little thumb happy on the thumbs down. This def isn't normal. Thanks for checking!
Thanks for the reply Joanna just never seen that before! Seen they have reduced a little. Great WBF btw, normally try and switch off on a Friday night and watch them Saturday but this one has got me thinking on all levels. Late night I think.
I love to hear it "got you thinking"! There is something about evaluating huge truths that does that to us marketers :) I think our nature is to move the needle in substantial ways and this new approach to CRO is all about that!
Jtay,
Given the edits, and the few comments that are about the video (only), my guess is some felt that some of the comments were not directed at the quality of the information nor the cogency and thought processes use to develop the message, but rather at the fact that Joanna is a pretty lady. While that is not unreasonable to point out, it does minimize her knowledge, presentation ability, cogency of thought, etc. as a colleague who has earned the right to be deliver the WBF and be respected for her accomplishments.
Given I am one of those few who are a bit over 30ish(etc.) on the moz, I am a bit surprised as that lack of appropriate focus is a bit more expected of my generation than of some of those who commented, seemingly, in this fashion. Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way that respect given a colleague for their stature in the profession is much more appreciated by the colleague than pointing out something that the colleague was for the most part born with. Focusing on the gift in this fashion, minimizes the important - that which was earned. BTW, did I mention that as a registered nurse the person who taught me the most about truly caring for others was a woman or that the smartest person I ever worked for was a woman (who ran a company). No kidding.
To those who might be offended or think I meant them, please note - I, personally, ignored the comments as opposed to granting them any type of thumb movement because i do not believe that I am prescient enough to know others motives. Two people who say the same thing are not necessarily meaning it with the same intent. I am too experienced in life to believe I can decipher intent.
Best to you and welcome to the best group of minds on the Internet,
Cheers for the insightful response and warm welcome.
Interesting stuff. It would be great to hear more about specefic reports to use to measure and test all this "now" optimization.
If we're going to test against multiple conversion KPIs (emails, likes, feedback, downloads, etc) but optimize with a lot of different brand strenghtening tactics (positivity, consistency, testing truths) how exactly do we collect that data, analyze it, and report on it. The high level thinking and strategy makes perfect sense, but how do the nuts and bolts work? As always, the devil is in the details.
You should only be testing against one KPI hypothisis at a time. But, you should track all relevant KPIs. So it might look something like this:
Hypothisis:
If I move my testimonial next to my newsletter I will get more subscriptions.
Result:
Subscriptions up, downloads down, likes from this page down and time on page down.
Analysis:
Moving our testimonial has resulted in improved subscriptions, but people are no longer reading all the way to the download action.
So, there you have smart test that takes in multiple conversion types. If you have assigned dollar values to your various conversions then you have a pretty simple formula for defining test success: Positive Gain(s) - Negative Gain(s).
In the above example your follow-up hypothosis might be: "If I add a direct download to my thank you page I will get more downloads without sacrificing newsletter subscriptions"
See how that works?
Joanna, you were on a roll!
The reason I like this WBF is I think it goes beyond the typical onpage SEO. Here are somethings I use on my site:
1) Facebook Comments on all landing pages including my Contact Page.
2) Create Survey using Google Docs - Joanna mentioned KissMetrics. I have used iPerceptions and the popups caused Google to pause my AdGroups. Popups are against Google Adwords policies. Now I use Feedback Surveys in Google Docs > Create > Form. I installed embedded this into my website last Friday (heard Rand mention this in last weeks WBF) and received 225 since! There is no need for ANNOYING popups/popunders from iPerceptions or KissInsights.
I hope this helps my mozzer friends!
I was thinking about using facebook comments on all my blogs as a way of avoiding the poisonous comments and spam. I'll need to look into it, but it's reassuring to see someone recommending it here on SeoMoz. Thanks.
Interesting post, really like the idea of showing off awards more on landing pages rather than burying them in press sections. It's all about the trust! One tip for you tho, breathe!! I like to take notes when watching wbf, but found it was like trying to keep up with a race car with a push bike!! Slow it down :)
Nice job on the WBF! Has anyone had any feedback good or bad with BBB or McAfee badges for trust signals?
Time to get started then I guess. Very nicely consolidated.
Great Job :)
Thanks for filling in for Rand Joanna, it is a great video.
I really enjoy the idea of branding, I think a lot of companies focus about the facts and forget to really market the brand and it's impressions. In my opinion this really goes hand in hand with the trust of the site and mostly a trust of the brand the site is representing. With the ability to control all of these factors and really try and hone in on what works it will get more and more competitive as searches go from being less a discovery process and more of a shopping process to find the right site for them.
Thanks again Joanna!
again nice video from seomoz ,;)
Worth watching! Thanks
Once again great WBF. Great job Joanna, the idea of branding is highly impressive thanks for sharing..
Thanks! The branding piece is a favorite of mine as well ;)
This is very great topic. I'm so glad that you cover on-page and shedding new light to it. Now with so many changes in search via Google. I was starting to scratch my head for a minute. Of course, we all know about having great content that is king,but that has been old talk and will continue to be a top topic. The user has indeed evolved and feel entitled to more. I think that it's great and it will push more site owners to push boundaries in a great direction.
Great job Joanna, and a great overlap of what perhaps people consider to be conclusions taken from paid marketing with more traditional aspects of day-to-day that you can weed into the wireframe of normal business and that can be so easily overlooked - people can try and be happy and confident with their product and not bother testing. Unless you start testing, it's always a (usually late at night) "I wonder if ..might make a difference.." until you actually start testing!! I rememeber we spoke briefly just after Mozcation Barcelona about when might be a time to start re-marketing and we both almost at the same time said "well, you can start the buckets right away!" cos it's always gonna help!
@aleyda did agreat job translating that day (you said you talked really fast, but was clear as day here!) so let's see you again more on WBF!! Big thanks and keep em coming!!
This is a nicely timed post. I've been working with companies specifically on this issue. Too many have focused on singular landing pages for SEM/PPC. In some cases when visitors land and start wandering, the trust factor starts dropping quite a bit. A lot of what you said here I've been paying attention to but you did introduce a few new ideas I haven't focused on as much, thanks for that!
Now if only I can convince clients how important these changes are and get some action happening.
"Trust Signals" is what really resonates with me. Including social network followings or mentions/graphics of other trusted/known clients or brands you do business with. Especially for brands like ours that isn't extremely well known.
I really like this but i wonder if its all a Dilbert moment?
WOW! What a presenter. Great job... When you mention test are you talking about an A/B test? Are you talking just try it out on a few pages and get some feedback?
Also, what do you think of bringing together multiple business models under one roof via the wordpress platform and using mostly single linear page design to make each tab essentially its own website?
-Jonathan
It's always important to view your site through your visitor's eye and appreciated the section on "how users have evolved" which helps us keep current on what our visitors are thinking/experiencing/wanting from our sites.
Thanks!
Hi Joanna,
Great Job on page optimization + design is 100 % important.
Thanks,
Baruch!
Thanks Joana. Very enlightening video and I'm glad you include the video transcript as . I didn't capture all the key points in my first viewing. But it's definitely worth a second and third review - and take action.
hey Joanna,
It;s really nice video and helpful information.. as i feel that the trend must be change from the basic onpage optimization to some advanced and new techniques..
it's perfect timing for me as i m just designing my new landing page and this video helps me a lot to understand the visitors behaviours and how i can do onpage on that page as well as i need to change for all of my pages..
thanx again it;s really appriciate..
You speak too fast and quickly as if you are in hurry, but anyways, very nice and helpful WBF...
I love the ideas, but I have practical concerns. It's hard enough to get some clients to sign off on one design for a home page. To convince them they need to keep looking at ways to make it better is going to be a significant challenge where the client is not wholly engaged.
It also seems to me that you need to find your core audience before you can start working with variations and tweaks of this nature. For a new site in particular, it is hard to carry out this work and know how to attribute outcomes, particularly as the audience is growing.
Really nice vedio and as we are just started to focus more on SEM this is some thing that we need to work on thanks
Hey Joanna, I like the video Explanation.. :-)
Thanks.
Nice Video!!!