A fully updated guide to making your landing pages profitable Effective Internet marketing requires that you test and optimize your landing pages to maximize exposure and conversion rate. This second edition of a bestselling guide to landing page optimization includes case studies with before-and-after results as well as new information on web site usability. It covers how to prepare all types of content for testing, how to interpret results, recognize the seven common design mistakes, and much more. Included is a gift card for Google AdWords.
Features fully updated information and case studies on landing page optimization Shows how to use Google's Website Optimizer tool, what to test and how to prepare your site for testing, the pros and cons of different test strategies, how to interpret results, and common site design mistakes Provides a step-by-step implementation plan and advice on getting support and resources
Landing Page Optimization, Second Edition is a comprehensive guide to increasing conversions and improving profits.
By:
Tim Ash,
Maura Ginty,
Rich Page
Imprint: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 2nd Revised edition
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 180mm,
Spine: 31mm
Weight: 612g
ISBN: 9780470610121
ISBN 10: 0470610123
Pages: 480
Publication Date: 06 April 2012
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction xv Part I Understanding Landing Page Optimization 1 Chapter 1 Setting the Stage 3 What Is a Landing Page? 4 A Few Precious Moments Online 4 Your Baby Is Ugly 6 Your Website Visitors: The Real Landing Page Experts 6 Understanding the Bigger Online Marketing Picture 8 The Myth of Perfect Conversion 17 Chapter 2 Understanding Your Landing Pages 19 Landing Page Types 20 What Parts of Your Site Are Mission Critical? 22 What Is Your Business Model? 28 The Types of Conversion Actions 30 Chapter 3 The Matrix—Moving People to Act 35 The Matrix Overview 36 Roles 36 Tasks 38 The Decision-Making Process 39 Awareness 40 Interest 43 Desire 45 Action 53 Part II Finding Opportunities for Site Improvement 63 Chapter 4 Common Problems—The Seven Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design 65 A Sober Look 66 Unclear Call-to-Action 66 Too Many Choices 73 Visual Distractions 76 Not Keeping Your Promises 83 Too Much Text 86 Asking for Too Much Information 87 Lack of Trust and Credibility 93 Real-World Case Study: CREDO Mobile 106 Chapter 5 Conversion Ninja Toolbox—Diagnosing Site Problems 111 You Are Not as Good as You Would Like to Believe 112 Focus on the Negative 113 Web Analytics Tools 114 Visual Analysis Tools 125 Feedback and Survey Tools 131 Website Performance Tools 133 Competitive Analysis Tools 135 Usability Testing Tools 136 E-mail Enhancement Tools 139 Chapter 6 Misunderstanding Your Visitors—Looking for Psychological Mismatches 141 Empathy: The Key Ingredient 142 Researching the Whole Story 143 Demographics and Segmentation 144 Welcome to Your Brain 148 Cognitive Styles 152 Persuasion Frameworks 157 Cultural Differences 165 Part III Fixing Your Site Problems 169 Chapter 7 Conversion Improvement Basics 171 Web Usability Overview 172 Visual Presentation 173 Writing for the Web 192 Usability Checks 197 Chapter 8 Best Practices for Common Situations 201 Homepages 202 Information Architecture and Navigation 205 E-commerce Catalogs 211 Registration and Multiple-Step Flows 234 Direct Response Pages 243 Mobile Websites 246 Chapter 9 The Strategy of What to Test 251 How to Think About Test Elements 252 Selecting Elements to Test 261 Testing Multiple-Page Flows 264 Timeless Testing Themes 267 Price Testing 273 Part IV The Mechanics of Testing 279 Chapter 10 Common Testing Questions 281 Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics 282 Crash Course in Probability and Statistics 286 Have I Found Something Better? 293 How Sure Do I Need to Be? 295 How Much Better Is It? 298 How Long Should My Test Run? 300 Chapter 11 Preparing for Testing 305 Overview of Content Management and Testing 306 Content Management Configurations 308 Common Testing Issues 313 Chapter 12 Testing Methods 325 Introduction to Testing Terminology 326 Overview of Testing Methods 331 A-B Split Testing 332 Multivariate Testing 335 Variable Interactions 350 Part V Organization and Planning 359 Chapter 13 Assembling Your Team and Getting Buy-in 361 The Usual Suspects 362 Little Company, Big Company 372 The Company Politics of Tuning 375 Strategies for Getting Started 378 Insource or Outsource? 380 Chapter 14 Developing Your Action Plan 387 Before You Begin 388 Understand Your Business Objectives 389 What Is the Lifetime Value of the Conversion Action? 390 Assemble Your Team 401 Determine Your Landing Pages and Traffic Sources 403 Decide What Constitutes Success 405 Uncover Problems and Decide What to Test 407 Select an Appropriate Tuning Method 410 Implement and Conduct QA 412 Collect the Data 416 Analyze the Results and Verify Improvement 418 Chapter 15 Avoiding Real-World Pitfalls 421 Ignoring Your Baseline 422 Collecting Insufficient Data 422 Not Accounting for Seasonality 424 Assuming That Testing Has No Costs 424 Not Factoring In Delayed Conversions 426 Becoming Paralyzed by Search Engine Considerations 433 Failing to Act 436 Appendix Landing Page Testing Tools 437 Enterprise Tools 438 Free or Inexpensive Tools 440 Glossary 443 Index 451
Tim Ash is the CEO of SiteTuners, a firm that improves website conversion rates through landing page diagnosis and redesign, conversion consulting, A/B split and multivariate test plan creation, and client training/mentoring. Tim has worked with hundreds of clients including Canon, Google, Expedia, CBS, Sony Music, Facebook, Cisco, and Coach. He is a highly regarded keynote and conference presenter, and the chairperson of Conversion Conference. Rich Page is an Optimization Consultant and Web Analytics Manager for a Fortune 500 company. Maura Ginty is a digital-era word geek with deep expertise in search, content strategy, and social media programs at Fortune 500 companies as well as small businesses. All three authors are frequent speakers at online marketing conferences.
