Every day, I run into marketers who believe their website work is “done” once they launch a new or updated page. They’re so busy, it’s easier for them to cross “update website” off their list and move on to another task.
But leaving a website alone can be costly. Why’s that? Because how will you ever know if it’s working? And how can you take the opportunity to make it work even better?
It’s critical to monitor your site and then test some changes to boost your online leads and sales. Here’s how.
First, take a look at your web traffic reports (also called logs) each month so you can see how your site is performing.
Most website hosting companies provide a free traffic report each month. Usually, you simply login with a username and password, and you’ll find a wealth of data about the number of visitors your site received, what keywords they used to find you, where they came from, what page they visited the most, what page they left the most, and other insightful tidbits.
Plus, you can view your site’s traffic data using Google Analytics (GA). This free program tracks in-depth site traffic information and gives you bar charts, lists and pie charts with oodles of details about your site visitors. To gain access to GA, you set up an account and then you’re given a code. Give that code to your web programmer so he or she can add it to each page of your site. That’s it. You’re off and running!
Second, test different copy on your site to see if you can boost response.
Take one page of your site where you’d like the visitor to DO something specific. For example, your email newsletter signup page. Create a second version of this page, using a different headline, offer or order button. Then test this page for a month and see if it performs better than the previous month’s page. You can tell by reviewing your traffic reports and also getting a count of email sign-ups from month to month. Then try testing a different page. Over time, you’ll see which content generates a better response, and you can update your pages accordingly.
According to Marketing Experiments.com, site changes can lift response rates like crazy. They regularly help companies test web pages, and they’ve recently seen response rates improve by 50%, 85.51%, even 346%! All with just a few copy changes.
You can see that it may be time to check out your traffic reports and try some testing for yourself. If you need help, please let me know.
Until next time,
Here’s to a clear and prosperous site!
Pam
PetCopywriter.com