05 MayConversion Optimization – Opinion or Science?

Republished from EyeView’s blog. Original author Daniel, 18th March 2010.

I have always thought it would be fun to be a consultant. I’ve got opinions, plenty of them. You name a subject and I can give you my opinion on it. I’m good like that. It’s a useful skill in conversation. I’m much in demand for dinner parties. I can say something semi-intelligent on a broad range of topics. I have an ever-expanding stream of anecdotes that I can apply to bolster my point of view. I am, like many others, a seething cauldron of eloquent subjectivity.

But that all stops when I get to the office. When we talk about optimizing conversion with our customers, we don’t bring a bunch of stories and best-case scenarios. We bring evidence – data captured from live traffic – that proves objectively what is happening for that customer on that landing page with that traffic from those sources.

Furthermore, we don’t rest on our laurels. We encourage our customers to ask “What have you done for me lately?” and we push ourselves to provide an answer. We do this because optimization of your site’s conversion rate is not a one-time cure.

Causing an increase or improvement is easy enough. If a picture is hung at a crooked angle, anybody can nudge it and improve on what there was before. Getting it perfectly straight requires something more. It requires measurement and testing. Getting it perfectly straight when the wall and perhaps the whole house is rocking from side to side requires planning.

There’s little room for subjectivity and opinion when it comes to optimization. If you want to ensure that your landing page is always performing in the most effective way, you need someone to build a plan that draws on the classic Scientific Method‘s cycle of hypothesis, experiment and conclusion, repeated for as long as necessary.

So, when you talk about optimizing conversion, are you giving your opinion or looking at the latest results of a scientific test?

What are your thoughts on this subject or article, please feel free to share your thoughts or experiences with us by commenting on this post below.