How to Check a Website for Optimization
Search for a website optimization service., Choose what type of optimization testing you want to do if applicable., Decide which areas of a web page to test., Choose a web page to start testing., Check your website's code and text content for...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Search for a website optimization service.
Google and SiteReportCard both offer free website optimizer tools.
Sign up for an account to use the optimization service if needed. -
Step 2: Choose what type of optimization testing you want to do if applicable.
Before and After testing has you track visitor traffic and behavior on a web page.
After making a change to the web page in some way, you continue tracking statistics to see if the web page's performance improved.
A/B testing is a controlled form of testing that may not take long to prepare before being run.
In this test, you divide visitor traffic between 2 or more web pages and see which page gets the highest number of conversions.
Multivariate testing splits a web page into sections to test 1 section at a time.
Different versions of each section's content are tested to see which performs the best.
This type of testing may lead to high conversion rates but needs more technical work, time, and traffic than A/B testing requires.
Segmented testing, also known as personalized or experiential testing, is the most sophisticated form of testing that uses the most time, technical effort and resources.
It may be performed if you have improved your website as much as possible through A/B and multivariate testing and still wish to increase your conversions. , Areas that you may want to focus on for optimization purposes include web page titles, images, layout of content, your selling points, and the benefits or incentives to visitors for making your desired conversion.
Consider changing the length of a title to see whether a shorter or longer title is more effective.
Test rephrasing the title as a question or statement, making the tone more or less formal, or choosing a different point to emphasize.
See how traffic and conversions change if your web page images are made bigger or smaller, if photos replace illustrations or vice versa, and the use of customer images is compared to using product images.
Experiment with your website's layout, such as making it a single or multi-column layout.
You can also try adding written content or reducing the amount of content your visitors need to read.
Highlight different types of selling points.
Compare quality to convenience, making money to saving it, and product features to customer service.
Try pointing out different benefits or advantages to customers who make a conversion.
Consider focusing on free shipping instead of a money back guarantee, for example.
You can also measure whether taking orders by telephone does better or worse than receiving orders through an online form. , Pick a page that has high traffic but does not get many conversions or otherwise performs poorly.
Look at the web page from a customer's or visitor's point of view.
Determine the 3 most important issues that need fixing and possible solutions for those issues.
Consult with others, if possible, to brainstorm different content ideas to test.
Manage your own and others' expectations for this first test.
You may need to change the testing process or conduct more tests before seeing any results. , Remove any bugs in the code or spelling errors you find. , Links that do not work, called broken links, may drive visitors to leave your site or prevent them from making a conversion. , Meta tags are words or phrases embedded in HTML tags to describe that page and help search engines return the page address in its results.
Inspect another web site's meta tags by selecting "View Source" from your browser's "View" menu or after right-clicking the web page.
This will help you see the HTML code.
Look for a section near the top that contains "meta name".
The keywords are listed there as text to be used by search engines. , Check that your website or web pages appear in the results from each search engine.
If don't, submit your site using the search engine's submission instructions. , Offer to link to their site in return.
This should increase your link popularity, a factor that may be used in determining where your web site falls in search result rankings. -
Step 3: Decide which areas of a web page to test.
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Step 4: Choose a web page to start testing.
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Step 5: Check your website's code and text content for errors.
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Step 6: Test that your website's links all work correctly.
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Step 7: Compare your meta tag information to that of competitor websites.
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Step 8: Use different search engines to find sites or web pages similar to yours.
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Step 9: Ask relevant web sites to link to a page of your site.
Detailed Guide
Google and SiteReportCard both offer free website optimizer tools.
Sign up for an account to use the optimization service if needed.
Before and After testing has you track visitor traffic and behavior on a web page.
After making a change to the web page in some way, you continue tracking statistics to see if the web page's performance improved.
A/B testing is a controlled form of testing that may not take long to prepare before being run.
In this test, you divide visitor traffic between 2 or more web pages and see which page gets the highest number of conversions.
Multivariate testing splits a web page into sections to test 1 section at a time.
Different versions of each section's content are tested to see which performs the best.
This type of testing may lead to high conversion rates but needs more technical work, time, and traffic than A/B testing requires.
Segmented testing, also known as personalized or experiential testing, is the most sophisticated form of testing that uses the most time, technical effort and resources.
It may be performed if you have improved your website as much as possible through A/B and multivariate testing and still wish to increase your conversions. , Areas that you may want to focus on for optimization purposes include web page titles, images, layout of content, your selling points, and the benefits or incentives to visitors for making your desired conversion.
Consider changing the length of a title to see whether a shorter or longer title is more effective.
Test rephrasing the title as a question or statement, making the tone more or less formal, or choosing a different point to emphasize.
See how traffic and conversions change if your web page images are made bigger or smaller, if photos replace illustrations or vice versa, and the use of customer images is compared to using product images.
Experiment with your website's layout, such as making it a single or multi-column layout.
You can also try adding written content or reducing the amount of content your visitors need to read.
Highlight different types of selling points.
Compare quality to convenience, making money to saving it, and product features to customer service.
Try pointing out different benefits or advantages to customers who make a conversion.
Consider focusing on free shipping instead of a money back guarantee, for example.
You can also measure whether taking orders by telephone does better or worse than receiving orders through an online form. , Pick a page that has high traffic but does not get many conversions or otherwise performs poorly.
Look at the web page from a customer's or visitor's point of view.
Determine the 3 most important issues that need fixing and possible solutions for those issues.
Consult with others, if possible, to brainstorm different content ideas to test.
Manage your own and others' expectations for this first test.
You may need to change the testing process or conduct more tests before seeing any results. , Remove any bugs in the code or spelling errors you find. , Links that do not work, called broken links, may drive visitors to leave your site or prevent them from making a conversion. , Meta tags are words or phrases embedded in HTML tags to describe that page and help search engines return the page address in its results.
Inspect another web site's meta tags by selecting "View Source" from your browser's "View" menu or after right-clicking the web page.
This will help you see the HTML code.
Look for a section near the top that contains "meta name".
The keywords are listed there as text to be used by search engines. , Check that your website or web pages appear in the results from each search engine.
If don't, submit your site using the search engine's submission instructions. , Offer to link to their site in return.
This should increase your link popularity, a factor that may be used in determining where your web site falls in search result rankings.
About the Author
Mary Patel
Creates helpful guides on crafts to inspire and educate readers.
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