CoreCommerce

Many people have heard of Google Analytics, but have you heard of Google Website Optimizer? Google Website Optimizer allows you to test and fine tune the workings of your site. Basically, you set up “experiments” to change around the layout and wording of your content. Google serves up these different versions to your visitors and then tracks which experiment had the best conversion rate. And best of all, it’s completely free!

The wording and layout of a page can significantly affect the amount of sales you make and Google Website Optimizer allows you to track which content performs better. If you’re familiar with using Google AdWords, then this should sound familiar to you. This allows you to test which call out button performs better, if it’s better to have your content on top or below a fancy image, or if it’s better to have a longer or shorter product description area.

When using the website optimizer, be sure to only test one or two things at a time, unless your testing completely different layouts. If you change both a headline and a paragraph at the same time, how do you know which of those really performed better? What if the headline from the first experiment and the paragraph from the second is really the best option? So make sure you test one thing at a time.

Here’s a list of some things you could test on your store:

• The wording of headlines
• The wording and placement of your Buy Now or call to action buttons
• Whether you should use large images, small images or no images
• Promotional text
• The design and layout of a page, should you have a page with more info, or something more clean?

There are two types of experiments that you can do on Google Website Optimizer. A/B experiments allows you to test multiple variations of a page against your original page and is best for single page testing. Multi-variation testing allows you to make changes to your site globally and testing several different changes at once.

You could be losing sales dues to the wording of your site and layout and not even knowing it! Google Website Optimizer will alert you to this and allows you to understand what needs to be redone on your site. Used in combination with our built in SEO tools, this can be a powerful ally in gaining visibility and sales to your site.   The nice thing is CoreCommerce already is integrated with the Google Website Optimizer API for easy test implementations.