You Should Test That!

Why Testing Matters

Every colleague, employee and customer has an opinion about your website. Most of their beliefs are out of date, biased, based on experience in some irrelevant realm or, most often, just plain wrong. Rather than going with your opinion, their opinion, the opinion of your CEO or the latest trend from the marketing department, pursue the most functional option: testing. Most likely, “your website is underperforming.” The gap between its performance and its potential importance and return on investment is the “opportunity gap.” You can fill that gap, but proceed with care: Whenever someone suggests something that affects your site, test it.

Your goal in testing is “conversion optimization”: getting “more revenue-generating actions from the same number of visitors.” Whatever your conversion rate – the ratio of website visitors “who complete your desired action” compared to those who don’t – you can improve it. Most people who visit your site leave disappointed. You may not even know about it – much less, why that happened. Your vision may be clouded by the “halo effect,” in which your site’s strengths blur your view of its other qualities.