Oct

Optimizing the Cart Before the Horse?

When you are launching your website optimization program I can’t blame you for being anxious to jump in and start seeing those high double-digit conversion increases that is proudly displayed in almost every optimization article that you read. It makes me excited too just thinking about it. But wait; don’t put the optimization cart before the testing horse just yet. And if you are already in the midst of your optimization regimen rethinking the basics of site functionality, usability, and accessibility might just help you take your program to the next level.

Make sure that you site is working properly, if not, fix it first.

If you are optimizing your checkout page and your server is consistently slow as a turtle, fix it.

If your site times out every other time when the visitor hits the submit button, fix it.

If the privacy policy link on your newsletter signup page goes to a 404 error, fix it .

These are just a few examples to get your brain moving in the right direction, but you get the point. These are no-brainer optimization “techniques” that need to be done first and will be likely to help you in your quest to achieve those double digit conversion results. What’s the point of optimizing a page or path consisting of errors unless your goal is a fully, and I use the term sarcastically, optimized, non-properly functioning page. This thought probably sounds like it should be followed by a “duh”, but trust me, go through the process a few times of checking your site, have a few others do it too – just to be that extra confident before launching that next test. A few simple fixes can be an automatic gain towards you ultimate goal.

Want to learn about the Hierarchy of Optimization? View the video Hierarchy of Optimization by Bryan Eisenberg of FutureNow and Scott Milrad of MarketMotive discussing Bryan’s theory or watch it below