I had a chat with our upcoming webinar guest, Bryan Eisenberg at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, 2008. Bryan’s an expert in both Google Website Optimizer and testing for conversion optimization - he’s also the author of Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer.

In a brief 7 minutes, we discussed several issues around testing your website. Be sure to attend our full hour webinar to glean more tips and tricks for making the most out of testing with Google Website Optimizer.

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Here’s a recap of the interview:

Just because Amazon does something, doesn’t mean you should follow. On Bryan’s blog GrokDotCom, you can find a visual history of Amazon’s add-to-cart buttons over the years. Bryan recalls clients calling him up and saying “Amazon changed the button and we want to do the same.” But changing the cart button was not done to improve Amazon’s conversion - in fact, it lowered conversion. But Amazon was changing its business model to offer used books from other sellers and wanted to make room for the used book links. Even with lower conversion, Amazon could make higher profits. So to simply copy the giant without testing on your own site or understanding the reason for the change is poor decision-making.

A friend of Bryan’s saw conversion plummet 1000% when following another site’s course of action!

Internet Retailer reports 76% of sites are not testing.

Seems trivial to spend so much time testing a cart button? Don’t laugh. Incremental gains from small improvements to calls to action can have large impact over time.

And it’s okay to start small. Dont’ test sacred cows, start small and work big. Testing is like tasting: when you eat spicy food for the first time your mouth hurts, but after getting used to it, you’re hooked!

It all comes down to tools, people and process. Get good at free, and then pay. Like a web analyst, your people are important and they should have a process — which Bryan, John Quarto-VonTivadar and Lisa Davis spell out for you in the book along with 250 ideas for testing.

How should you approach split-testing your checkout process?

This question was asked of Bryan Eisenberg in yesterday’s Google Website Optimizer webinar. Bryan recommended split-path testing, reducing the number of steps in your process and using your analytics data to determine what part of your checkout path needs attention.

What is Split-Path Testing?

The definition of a split-path test, according to GrokDotCom:

Split-Path Test — This test will split your traffic among different linear paths containing multiple pages for each path. This is different in that you’re testing the performance of grouped pages against other grouped pages. For example, you could test a checkout process by splitting it into two variations; one with four steps (or pages), and another with only three steps. Each variation of grouped pages will have the same Goal Page (e.g., order confirmation page). Once the data is collected, the winning checkout process will be the one that converted a higher percentage of visitors.

Reducing Checkout Steps

Different ecommerce stores have different checkout paths, ranging from one-page AJAX checkouts to 6 steps or more. Bryan believes less is more - in fact, he recommends going under 4 steps. But you can find out for yourself if this is so for your website by doing your own testing.

I’ve gathered some examples of checkout steps (many are generally the same aside from labeling) that can give you some ideas for how to simplify your process. For example, you may want to test a new path with a combined billing and shipping page vs. your existing separate steps. Or you may want to ditch a step that may be clogging your funnel, such as “Rewards Program.”

Continue Reading:
Checkout Process Split-Testing Tip from Bryan Eisenberg »

While preparing their upcoming report Customer Focus Study, 2007, Future Now observed “nearly half of the top online retailers still require people to register before they checkout.

The issue is not whether site registration itself is a bad idea, there are clearly benefits to both customer and seller which I will mention in a moment. The question is: Why are ecommerce websites still making registration a requirement, and asking for registration before the checkout process — especially when most of the user’s information will be entered in a standard checkout process anyhow?

How Registration Benefits the Customer

• Facilitates post purchase order tracking
• Allows visitors to bookmark products for later / add to wishlists and so on
• Enables one-click re-order convenience
• Makes for a quicker checkout process next visit
• Allows user to submit product reviews
• Registrants may be entitled to loyalty discounts and other creative membership perks (you gotta motivate ‘em!)
• Shipping and tax estimates are easier when the user’s zipcode is remembered
• Makes it easy for B2B customers to open and maintain accounts for scheduled orders

Continue Reading:
Required Registration: Top Etailers’ Favorite Usability Mistake »

Your ecommerce bucket is about to be filled with tons of eager holiday shoppers, ready and to buy. Plugging your conversion leaks now will maximize your holiday success. We will show you 7 simple ways to lift your conversion rate that do not require a ton of effort to implement.

7 Simple Ways to Boost Your Holiday Conversion Rate View Full Webinar Video ~ 45 minutes

The holiday ecommerce rush is around the corner. Are you prepared? The good folks over at eTail dTail have created an ecommerce top 10 list of last minute hints for online merchants. Though some of the suggestions require a lot of resources to implement, it is valuable nonetheless.

If you DO NOT have free resources to make sweeping changes to increase you ecommerce sales and conversion rate, we have a complimentary webinar on Wednesday September 12th at 9am PT / 12pm ET - Sign up today to attend “7 Simple Ways to Boost Your Holiday Conversion Rate“.

You will walk away with really easy, quick win, low-hanging fruit type tactics that can be put to use immediately. A conversion rate expert from Future Now, Inc. will be presenting. The founders of the company are well-known for being New York Times, Business Week and Wall Street Journal best selling authors - Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg.

• Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing
• Call To Action: Secret Formulas To Improve Online Results

They also have an outstanding blog covering online marketing, conversion optimization, and various ecommerce related topics - if you aren’t already subscribed, stop reading this and go visit GrokDotCom now.

Register for the free webinar:
“7 Simple Ways to Boost Your Holiday Conversion Rate”