Mar

Landing Page Optimization: Subtraction is the New Addition

You’ve already been running numerous tests on your best landing pages – those that contribute the highest value to your business. Unfortunately, sometimes you’ve run out of optimization ideas or hit a few roadblocks on what you should test next for even more conversion gains. What should you do? Luckily, just as often when you are running a multivariate test or a/b test to improve the desired results of a given page on your website you will discover that you will gain improved conversion results not by altering a page element or adding a new or section to the page, but instead by removing one or more of your existing elements or sections.

Why is this so? Although each page, situation, and context is many times unique, a few of the more common reasons for the improvement in conversions include:

1) Removing distractions that enable the visitor to more clearly focus on your desired page goal.

2) Reducing the friction that forces the visitor to contemplate if the desired action is worth what is being asked of them to give in return.

3) Replacing confusing elements that prevent the visitor from understanding if they are on the correct page or even knowing what they are supposed to do next.

A few broader ranged ideas to consider include:

Removing to clear up page real estate
Removal to speed up page load time
Removal of potential road blocks or barriers

More detailed removal considerations include:

Removal of parts/all of navigation
Removal of sections of copy
Removal of unnecessary graphics
Removal of just the large file size images
Removal of flash elements (or those that require plug-ins or longer load time)
Removal of non-vital third party java-scripts
Removal of non-essential registration form fields
Removal of traffic-leaks
Removal of premiums or special offers

These should be enough start ideas to get you thinking in the right direction when you are looking at your landing page. You undoubtedly will develop various unique hypotheses for doing these (or any other “removal” ideas) based upon your own site’s data you have extracted and analyzed-or even from basic usability knowledge. The end goal is ultimately almost always the same – to uncover what page elements are negatively impacting your page’s ability to do its job properly so that you can fix them to increase the level of success your site achieves. Remember, removal testing doesn’t have to be done in isolation; removal can always be a part of any test when it’s appropriate to do so as judged by you.