Web site Usability Test Drives Conversion Optimization

We recently did a website usability test and found out that:

• The pop window with more information could not be closed
• There was no link to a contact page on most page on the website
• There was so much stuff on the reservation page that you couldn't see the form without scrolling.

Is it any wonder that people complain that there are not enough conversions?

Pop up window cannot be closed because the close icon is to the right of the scroll bar. It also blocks the phone number on the top right so the average web user is stuck and the hotel succeeds in annoying the client.

Read more about website usability testing…

If your company is typical, one of the hardest things for you to do is to implement changes to your site in order to increase conversions. You have no trouble with Google Adwords, YSM and MSN PPC campaigns because all you have to do is add landing pages to the site.

Search engine optimization is a little harder as you sometimes have to adjust your website by focusing on user language as opposed to company language, and structuring the page to allow for better spidering by the engines.

However, conversion optimization is in a league of its own. Improving conversion can sometimes require significant changes which may require IT, marketing and copy writing resources. In these cases I recommend that you forget about conversion optimization and do a usability study first.

Usability Test as a Convincer

The usability test provides you with a video of the user's attempts to complete tasks on their website. It is a real eye opener. Watching people use a shopping cart that doesn't cooperate is enough to drive anyone to action. In addition we provide a short easy-to-read recommendations report which gives you actionable items--some of which are usually very easy to implement.

New York Hotel Website Usability Test Video

Website Usability Test Report (PDF 656kb)

Example of usability studies we do

Other recommendations may require more resources. The video can easily be used to show others in the company and to convince them that improving the website is critical to increasing conversions.

Web Traffic is not Everything

By this time everyone realizes that traffic is not the only game in town. We can now talk about AB landing page testing, persona development and other conversion optimization techniques as well as website usability testing.

One of the best kept secrets is that it is best to improve the site before increasing traffic. That way there will be less people with bad experiences who will never come back to your site again.

Why don't more Companies do Website Usability Testing?

If website usability testing is so useful then why don't more companies do it? One of the reasons is cost. A search on the web shows that usability tests can cost $6000 - $50,000

We have developed a powerful low-cost website usability test procedure which breaks the cost barrier. We are able to do this by using low-cost software, focusing on the most important tasks and changing the strategy. Instead of doing one big usability test we advocate starting with a focused test and implementing the recommendations as soon as possible. The decision to conduct further tests can then be based on the ROI. We have conducted many tests for many companies using this strategy. The problems you see after conducting this test will amaze you. Learn more…

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