Landing page optimization can potentially be far more powerful than an increase in traffic when it comes to generating more conversions. In order to optimize your landing page successfully, the key is to use a scientific, data-driven approach. While you may have gut instincts about what will and won’t work, the only way to tell for sure is by carefully collecting and analyzing the data. Following are some of the most important tools to take a look at in order to optimize your landing pages and increase conversions.
Google Analytics: The Standard in Analytics
Google’s analytics software has become a de facto standard in the web world. It is available for free and is relatively easy to install, although, some instances, like cross-domain tracking, are a bit more complicated. Google Analytics gives you insights into where your visitors are coming from, what pages they’re looking at, how long they’re staying on your site, and so on.
Tip: Define Your Goals and Sales Funnel in Google Analytics
While Google Analytics is already a powerful platform, the real key to using it to optimize your landing pages and maximize conversions is by defining goals. In your Analytics profile, you can define a goal based on a specific URL visited, the amount of time spent on site, or the number of pages in a visit. For landing page optimization, you’ll probably be using a URL visit. You can also define a goal value in dollars, which can be helpful in calculating ROI for your website conversions.
Another optional but important step is to define a sales funnel. This allows you to list multiple pages leading up to a conversion – for example, if you have a multipage shopping cart check out process. This can help you determine when visitors are leaving your site and highlight pages you may need to change or simplify.
Google Website Optimizer: Scientific Testing of Landing Pages
Another Google Tool on this list? Yes – Google’s Website Optimizer is that important. A tool that exists outside of Analytics or AdWords (though accessible through the AdWords interface), many users overlook this valuable tool. Website Optimizer allows you to perform A/B or multivariate tests on your landing pages to determine how different configurations of text, images, headlines, and so forth impact your conversion rate.
Relatively easy to install, you just need to prepare your different page versions or configurations and drop in snippets of Javascript code. When it has collected enough data, Website Optimizer shows which page, statistically, is most effective at generating conversions.
Click & Scroll Heatmaps: Understanding User Behavior
The overall data provided by Analytics and Website Optimizer is great, however, it leaves you wondering what is actually happening when a visitor is looking at your page. A service like ClickTale, which ranges from about $900 to nearly $9,000 a year, is capable of recording users mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, and scrolling behavior. You can even play back movies of an individual user’s browser session. Data is also aggregated to show mouse and click heatmaps based on a large number of users.
Similar services include Mouse Eye Tracking, Crazy Egg, clickdensity, and Codynamix (open source). Most provided a no cost option with limited functionality and a professional or enterprise solution.
Form Analytics: Why Aren’t People Filling Out My Forms?
Have you ever started signing up for a product or download, but abandoned the site, because the form was too demanding or complicated? Form analytics gives you insight into how users are interacting with your forms and can help you improve or streamline form questions to improve your conversion rate. Form analytic software can help identify why users are abandoning forms, browser compatibility issues, and even reveal detailed information about form abandoners. Examples of form analytics software include ClickTale (mentioned above), Revenue Expect, and Form Alive.
Get the Most Out of the Traffic You Already Have
Why focus only on increasing traffic with advertising or SEO, when you could be getting more conversions from your existing traffic? Landing page and conversion optimization tools allow you to carefully and scientifically analyze what is happening on your landing pages and take steps to improve them to increase the number of visitors who convert.
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Jason Mikula works as a freelance search engine marketing and social media marketing consultant. He has experience working with pay per click, search engine optimization, and email and web marketing.