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Website Redesign Strategies
Tiffany Early Director of Digital Branding, Apperian
@tiffanyearly
Steve Petersen Senior Website Marketing Coordinator, Western Governors University
Matt Vandewouwer Marketing Manager, j2 Global Communications
Ryan Garner Co-Founder & EVP, Clearhead
@ryanTgarner
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Redesign to Rebrand Tiffany Early Director of Digital Branding, Apperian
@tiffanyearly
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March 2012
@tiffanyearly
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May 2013
@tiffanyearly
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today
@tiffanyearly
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Process, Process Steve Petersen Senior Website Marketing Coordinator Western Governors University
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WGU Website Redesign Goals
• Upgrade www.wgu.edu from Drupal 6 to 7
• Update years old design
• Incorporate Responsive Design
• Harness tall pages with scrolling
• Increase lead conversion rate
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WGU Website Redesign Optimizely Strategy
• Diverted live traffic to beta site
• Targeted specific audiences
• Kept forms on Drupal 6
• Monitored many metrics
• Tolerated unpolished user experience
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WGU Optimizely Advantages
• Built confidence of major redesign
• Helped identify issues to address
• Involved stakeholders in process
• Promoted iterative design process
• Eased shock of change
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Matthew Vandewouwer Marketing Manager, j2 Global
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CRO Lead for the Domestic Cloud Connect Division at j2 Global
Agency SEM and CRO for 9 Years
I Love Data
What Is Your Research Process? The data inputs that inform your new design.
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Gathering User Data
Analytics
Click Tracking
User Feedback
Vendors Vendors such as Google AdWords will provide site UX videos of you and your competitors.
Usertesting.com is a great resource. Exit surveys can provide insight on “what went wrong” with your website.
Solutions such as crazyegg.com (Optimizely friendly) provide click maps and scroll maps.
A Solid analytics Platform is imperitive. Do you have enough traffic to run a test?
Designing Your Test Plan & Establishing KPIs
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Direct & Organic
eMail Paid (non-brand)
Paid (brand)
Gathering User Data Using Channels & Attribution In Your Test Plan
Mix of brand and non-brand traffic. Potentially seen a special offer.
Existing customer or a user who has downloaded a white paper.
Wants a straightforward headline and CTA. They know who you are.
Potentially knows who you are. Needs more trust and value to act.
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Google CPC Mostly branded traffic. User expects a free-trial of the named service.
6% CR Google GDN
Mix of brand and non-brand traffic. User expects a free trial of the service.
2% CR Bing CPC
User has been presented a lower-price offer that is not reflected on the landing page. User bounces and goes to a competitor.
.5% CR
Gathering User Data Website Performance & User Fallout
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Gathering User Data Website Performance & User Fallout
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User enters the funnel here from paid “free trial” offer. You are seeing a high CTR to the next step!
Funnel Step 1
User is presented with a credit card barrier (billing). Most fallout occurs here.
Funnel Step 2
User has completed the transaction.
Funnel Step 3
Test Funnel
Control
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Gathering User Data Website Performance & User Fallout
0
10
20
30
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50
60
70
80
90
5/1/2015 6/1/2015 7/1/2015
User enters the funnel here from paid “free trial” offer. You are seeing a high CTR to the next step!
Funnel Step 1
User is presented with a credit card barrier (billing). Most fallout occurs here.
Funnel Step 2
User has completed the transaction.
Funnel Step 3
Test Funnel
Control
Should I Redesign My Home Page …or The Entire Site?
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• Biggest wins will be here • Less is more (KISS)
• Remove distractions • Site Navigation • Phone Numbers • Live Chat
Make sure that the headline and CTA’s state exactly what the user is doing on each page
For most ecommerce sites, this will be The Sales Funnel
User testing on the funnel pages works wonders. What makes sense to you might not be apparent to your customers.
Focus On The Pages With The Biggest Impact
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• Be Clear and Concise With Your Messaging • Use high-quality words such as “premium” and ensure that the CTA matches the desired action.
• Try Testing Position
• I have found that, in general, when presenting multiple prices on a page: putting the price that I want the user to click on the left results in higher CR%
PROFESSIONAL
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Focus On The Pages With The Biggest Impact
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If you are a lead-gen business then this is your “bread and butter” • Make sure that the headline and CTA’s state exactly
what the user is supposed to do on each page • Add Testimonials • Add Risk Reversals • Keep the “action” above the fold.
Landing Pages and Lead Gen
Focus On The Pages With The Biggest Impact
Source: Conversion Con 2015!
If your home page is your primary landing page… • Change this immediately Home pages should be a table of contents for your site. Take the learnings from your tests and apply them to the home page, but remember that the home page is not a destination for your users.
How Testing Can Help You: Leading Up to the Redesign & After
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The Testing Process Validates Your Redesign You should test your major changes before committing to a 100% swap to the new design
• Having a page-by-page spreadsheet with page design, CR%, previous tests and outcomes is invaluable when referencing why a new design may not have performed as well as the control.
• Be sure to segment by channel
• Sometimes new and attractive designs simply do not convert as well as the “uglier” page, and it is important to have a point of reference on where and why.
Have and Reference Your CR% Baseline
You can use negative test results to build out a business case to grant a timeline extension on site rollouts, etc.
Does The New Design Perform as Expected?
Ensure that your new pages match the source/medium messaging (across all channels), and test optimizations before applying them to the site.
Does Your New Messaging Match?
Record all test outcomes (wins and losses) and apply the knowlege to new tests.
Maintain a Thorough Test Plan
Ensure that new designs have clear and consise direction on each page. Double check your analytics integration to ensure site performance.
Are Your New Headlines and CTAs Clear?
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Thanks For Watching
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Panel Discussion
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Question #1
• How do you know if you should re-design? • How have you made the decision and what
specific info did you use to transition from iterative testing to redesign?
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Question #2
• A multi-part question: First, what’s the state-of-the-state for re-designs? And how do you see them typically done?
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Question #3
• What goals are meaningful to track through a redesign?
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Question #4
• How can testing help you leading up to the redesign and after?
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Question #5
• We thought it would be helpful to cover a common tactical concern: SEO. What are a couple of the most important SEO considerations?
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Question #6
• Looking forward, the future seems to be mobile apps, not mobile web. How can we apply this process to mobile apps in the future?
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Question #7
• What is one final piece of advice each of you would offer before we open up to questions from the audience?
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Audience Q&A
Tiffany Early Director of Digital Branding, Apperian
@tiffanyearly
Steve Petersen Senior Website Marketing Coordinator, Western Governors University
Matt Vandewouwer Marketing Manager, j2 Global Communications
Ryan Garner Co-Founder & EVP, Clearhead
@ryanTgarner
#opticon2015
Thank you!
Tiffany Early Director of Digital Branding, Apperian
@tiffanyearly
Steve Petersen Senior Website Marketing Coordinator, Western Governors University
Matt Vandewouwer Marketing Manager, j2 Global Communications
Ryan Garner Co-Founder & EVP, Clearhead
@ryanTgarner
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