Hopefully, many of you with a website have at least a few primary goals set for it. You may be trying to sell a product, get subscribers, educate, and the list goes on. Do you have goals set for those goals though? If you want to improve your website, having performance goals for your primary goals is a required step. Continue reading »
Jan 192010
Sticking to this weeks theme of speeding up your website, I thought I would address the most likely source of all our visitors, Google. Google may not be your primary source of visitors, but I’m sure you are getting at least a fair percentage of your traffic from them.
To make sure they are happy with your site, a good start would be to make sure you have taken their recommended steps to ensure your site is optimized for fast loading. Continue reading »
Feb 062009
This is the second of a three post article on a parallel design comparison. The first part of this article can be found here: Parallel Design Comparison
So if you have not voiced your opinion yet, only one of you have so far, it’s not too late to say what site will perform the best. I’ll be posting the answer in the third part. This post will give a basic review of each site, mentioning their selling points, and the steps a user would need to take to complete the desired goal. All three sites are credit card information sites that earn revenue by the visitors clicking on the optional cards they have listed.
0 Credit Card
The first site is 0 Credit Card.The site has two menus, one in the header, and left sidebar. Both menus link to the same pages so their may be some confusion for a visitor, but as the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome. When you click on one of the pages, depending on the visitors interest they are brought to a card information page. For example, you can look at their Reward Card page. The page offers a few paragraphs of advice, and then lists the available cards that offer the package.
So for this site to work, lets make a simple, easy for the site owner, assumption. Lets say that a visitor was looking for a Reward Card on Google. Google brings them directly to the Reward page, skipping the home page, and the visitor looks at it. What do you think they would do? My impression of the page would be that this is a credit card site, but it does not list any credit cards, at least at first impression. The cards are hidden below the fold. If this page is going to work, a visitor needs to get lucky finding the page, and then be lucky or intuitive enough to scroll further down. Most do not. My first guess for 0 Credit Card is that this site could be performing a lot better.
Credit Cards Comparison
The next site is Credit Cards Comparison. This site is in a blog format, offers similar information as 0 Credit Card, but starts out assuming that you are looking for a card. They have a great big side by side comparison of cards on the home page, and it is pretty much the first thing you see. Apply now buttons are right their as well so if a visitor came upon this sites home page all they would have to do is click one time, and the site could successfully convert. It could be a high converting site.
The downfall of this site is that if you were to Google looking for a reward card like the example I used for 0 Credit Cards, and you were directed to this sites Reward Card page, their are no cards to select. It is simply information about getting reward cards, and offers none to apply for. How will this site succeed? It will only work if the visitor is inclined t visit the home page.
Compare Credit Cards
The third site is Compare Credit Cards. This site would appear almost entirely as an advice site about credit cards. Their doesn’t appear to be any links to card sites with exception to just a sky scrapper banner ad on the right. The owner is still trying to fill this space, so a little hint here, this site is not performing the best, but to see an example, here is page that does have an ad: Prepaid Credit Cards. The idea that visitors will read the content, see that add, and then click it seems a bit dismal for me. I does have SEO potential though, so all is not lost.
Performance or Traffic
Looking at the three sites, all have some room for improvement. Some are performing better than others in regards to conversion, while some are performing better because their search engine traffic is superior. This is where the advantage of having a parallel design kicks in. Find out what is doing what, and you will gain the benefits of parallel design. These three sites could also very quickly transition from alright sites to great sites because the positives are found out quicker.
Part 3 of this post will reveal the real winner of these three sites, and some of the things they can now improve on. Have you told us what site you think is best? It’s not too late! Use the comment box below.
Sep 112008
Depending on your budget for building a site, an extremely worthwhile venture is to create an alternate layout, or parallel design. The benefits are almost endless, and features on the site quickly expose the good and the bad.
Parallel Design in Action
I recently wrote a post about a Dallas Real Estate website in how it made good use of its home page. Well the same company has another site, San Antonio Real Estate, that is parallel in design, but has clearly made different choices in regards to some of its layout. Most of the same features are there, but they have either selected to remove them or are testing the other with the design. Typically, creating a parallel design would be done before a site goes public, but obviously you could get a great deal more feedback doing it live.
The Benefits
Creating a, or a few alternate site designs can produce some fantastic benefits. When analyzing each layout, and then comparing to another, the good and the bad are quickly recognized. You then have the ability to include those good ideas from say, Site A, and then incorporate them into Site B. Very quickly you now have not one improved design, but two improved designs. After a few rounds of this, the designs should almost merge with only the best ideas shining through. Keep in mind that this isn’t just limited to the simple layout of the site, but all aspects of the site. Things like how a form is handled, or how search results are displayed, everything.
The main advantage of this is the overwhelming time it could save you. Using just one design, time and slow little tests are the only way to improve your site performance. Testing parallel designs will quickly kick out the junk, and bubble sort the best to the top giving you the best web design. It’s usability testing at an almost primal level, and it’s a great way to start your site.
No Budget
If you don’t have a budget to build a multiple designs, or you build your sites yourself it’s not the end of the world. This is where that time you spent doing your market analysis kicks in. When investigating your competitors, don’t just look at their sites, use them. Try their order forms, sign up for the mailing lists, and take notes on how they run their websites. Follow the money, and follow what ideas you like best. This is what your target market is most likely used to, assuming they have used one of your competitors sites already.
ariel (1)
Chris (1)
Curtis (1)