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DISC’s Web Site Usability Reports Will Maximize Your Conversion Rates
Executive Summary
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the essential counterpart to SEO and PPC, and in most cases it delivers even better web site ROI (return on investment). More widely known as
web site “usability,” CRO is the process of maximizing the likelihood that visitors to your site will choose to become customers (or to take some other conversion action, like filling out a contact or RFP form). This requires that every aspect of
your web site – writing, visual design, navigation, the check-out process, interactive modules, company information, "information architecture," and much more - is finely tuned to conform with the best web site usability practices. The goal of conversion rate optimization is to make the e-commerce user experience of web sites as smooth and satisfying as possible, which is a necessity if you want to convert site traffic into business profits. Fortunately, attaining this web optimization goal is entirely within reach, and requires only a surprisingly modest investment.
One can achieve at least 80% of ideal usability without costly usability testing. A 2007 ClickZ.com article trumpets testing and derides any usability re-engineering that doesn’t perform expensive testing, but that argument ignores ROI considerations for small- and medium-sized businesses, many of which can double conversion rates merely by applying well-established usability rules. Of course if you have a sufficient budget and revenues, methodical usability testing may be justified. For such customers, DISC will assist in designing such tests with Google’s website optimizer tool, which provides superb efficiencies in setting up and tracking multivariate tests.
DISC will conduct a rigorous usability critique of your site, identifying any elements that could be depressing your conversion rates. Drawing on ten-plus years of intensive research and experience in CRO and usability reports, web site development, online marketing, and ROI analytics for businesses of all sizes and types, DISC is extraordinarily well-qualified to provide this crucial web site optimization service.
In addition to many years of web site CRO experience, we have read every major usability book and study published by usability researchers, and compiled all of the dos and don'ts, so that we can check each significant aspect of your site for conformity with well-established principles of top web site design.
For pricing, please see our web site CRO price page.
Explanation and Details
According to extensive research conducted by the web site usability field’s preeminent practitioner, Jacob Nielsen, low usability means lost sales. When web site users are
deterred from their goals, this usually turns into a “sales catastrophe” – that is, the site loses these potential customers forever.
With online competition as tough as it is, your site must get all the details right. The importance of usability in web design is major. Online buyers will not tolerate confusion or aggravation. Their user experience on the best web sites has led them to expect near-perfect service from any e-commerce site they deal with. The effect of companies like Amazon and eBay is that the web site usability bar has been set high.
The web is all about choice, and when customers encounter even a slight hitch in accomplishing their online buying goals, they’re liable to look for another site without
delay. Conversely, a customer who has had his shopping or information needs satisfied tends to return to that site. This means that if your competition’s site is only 10% more
usable than yours, they can get almost all the repeat customers.
Web Site Usability Improvements Provide Great Returns
What’s most amazing about usability in web design is how even small adjustments and additions translate into large CRO gains. And virtually every site can benefit from a professional
usability evaluation techniques. According to Nielsen’s research, “the conversion rate can be increased by 10% through even the smallest web site usability project, if the site has never been
subjected to systematic usability evaluation.”
As Nielsen says, it is a “logical conjecture that if a site is 10% easier to use than a contending site that has same search engine prominence, the more usable site will win
much more than 10% of the time.”
Those paying attention to online marketing trends know that conversion rate optimization has become the metric that everyone is trying to boost. But the onsite optimization field’s increasing prominence is hardly a fad. More companies have come to realize not only that flawed web site usability is disastrous, but that online usability can offer astonishing returns: It’s not uncommon to get a 100% to 400% boost in orders or other conversions from improving a site’s user interfaces.
And as for the relationship between CRO and SEM, doing all you can to raise your site’s search engine status doesn’t come cheap. Why leave the job incomplete by not
ensuring that the site itself is perfectly usable?
Fortunately for e-commerce proprietors, the web site usability field is still wide open. In fact, Nielsen emphasizes the following three points:
- “Common sense still isn’t common practice.”
- “Degrees of compliance [with web site usability guidelines] and rates of success closely correspond.”
- “Becoming one of the most usable sites on the net is still relatively easy.”
DISC Excels in CRO/Usability
DISC is especially well-suited to conduct CRO evaluations – as demonstrated by our clients’ superb results. Our combination of extensive hands-on
experience, design and technical expertise, linguistic background, and web site marketing strategy orientation allows us to go far beyond the mere mechanics of usability in our analyses. DISC
also covers the subtler aspects of e-commerce excellence – copywriting, visual design, “look-and-feel,” and much more.
A partial list of the types of issues we’ll tackle for you includes the following:
- Is your text perfectly pitched to your customers’ needs and desires?
- Is your site’s navigation structure making it easy and intuitive for customers to find the products they’re looking for?
- Is your search feature yielding the best results for your customers?
- Does your home page accomplish everything it should without overwhelming first-time site visitors?
- How can you minimize the percentage of visitors that abandon the site during the checkout process?
- Are your product descriptions and images exactly suited to a buyer’s requirements and expectations -- and to top search engine positions?
- Do you offer the kind of information about your business that inspires trust among online shoppers and B2B prospects?
- Does your site provide the type of value-added knowledge that inspires visitors to bookmark it?
- How well does your site stack up against your competition?
- What features can you add that will increase web site usability and enhance the user experience?
- Are you adhering to SEO design precepts that optimize search engine placement along with user experience?
- How should you prioritize web site usability improvements – what’s the best order of implementation, based on your budget and other resources?
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For pricing, please see our web site CRO price page. |
