Website Optimization: An Hour a Day - A Conversion Rate Optimization and A/B Testing Guide [Paperback]

Rich Page (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2012 | ISBN-10: 1118196511 | ISBN-13: 978-1118196519 | Edition: 1

Captivate your website visitors, supercharge your conversion rates and beat your online competition!
This hands-on conversion rate optimization and a/b testing resource steps you through the tools, best practices, test ideas and strategies needed to effectively optimize and improve any kind of website and generate more revenue from it. From a/b testing and optimizing calls-to-action and text to using advanced personalization and targeting techniques, you'll dive into the crucial areas of this exciting new field. This book also takes a unique approach by using best practices from web analytics, web usability and online marketing to help you get the most out of your website and conversion rate optimization efforts.

• Zeroes in on fundamentals such as understanding key conversion rate metrics, choosing analytics tools, researching your visitors, and crafting a plan for what to a/b test and optimize
• Walks you through a/b testing ideas for many types of web pages including the homepage, product and lead generation pages, and checkout pages
• Guides you through important convesrion rate optimization areas such as optimizing calls-to-action, navigation, headlines and images
• Addresses advanced topics including mobile website optimization, paid search optimization,  email marketing optimization, rich media, and more
• Includes hundreds of a/b and MVT test ideas, 75 website optimization tools, and a website optimization checklist to help you with your efforts

Full of best practices and helpful examples drawn from the author's own experience, Website Optimization: An Hour a Day is the complete solution for anyone who wants to get the best possible a/b testing and conversion rate optimization results from their website.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Optimize Your Website, Conversion Rates, and Revenue

A Step-by-Step Guide

Captivate your website visitors, supercharge your conversion rates, and beat your online competition with this detailed guide to all aspects of website optimization. This hands-on resource steps you through the tools, best practices, test ideas, and strategies needed to improve and generate more revenue from any kind of website. From optimizing calls-to-action and text to using advanced personalization and targeting techniques, you'll dive into all the crucial areas of this exciting new field. This book's unique approach incorporates best practices from web analytics, web usability, and online marketing to help you get the most out of your optimization efforts.

• Optimize everything, from your homepage and checkout flows to navigation, forms, and other crucial functionality

• Analyze your visitors and their on-site behavior so you can better engage and convert them

• Create better test plans and optimization strategies to make sure your efforts succeed

• Take advantage of advanced optimization techniques for mobile pages, email marketing, and more

• Personalize and target your website to better fit your visitors' needs, lifting conversions even further

• Influence your visitors using powerful trust, social proof, scarcity, and reciprocity techniques

• Establish an optimization process and organization framework that drives better results quicker

• Combine best practices of web analytics, web usability, and online marketing to improve your results

You'll also find:

• Over 75 great tools to help you optimize your website

• Website optimization checklist to gauge your current efforts

• Success metrics and conversion goals for any kind of website

• Details of a testing team critical for your optimization efforts

• Example of a high-impact test strategy that any website can use

Advance Praise for Website Optimization: An Hour a Day

"If you want to learn how to supercharge your website business performance, this is the book you've been waiting for. It's practical, actionable advice delivered from a master practitioner."
—Lance Loveday, CEO, Closed Loop Marketing and author of Web Design for ROI

"In nine exciting chapters Rich shows you, soup to nuts, exactly how to leverage usability, testing, and web analytics to transform your organization and achieve magnificent success!"
—Avinash Kaushik, Digital Marketing Evangelist, Google, and author of Web Analytics 2.0

"This book is a must-read for companies serious about site optimization whether you are new to the game or have tried it in the past. Follow Rich's steps to avoid the common mistakes that will derail your efforts!"
—Jason Burby, Chief Performance Marketing Officer, ZAAZ/Possible Worldwide

"Rich Page provides a detailed road map for creating a powerful conversion improvement practice at your company. Get this book before your competition does!"
—Tim Ash, Chair of Conversion Conference, CEO of SiteTuners, and author of Landing Page Optimization

About the Author

Rich Page is a Conversion Specialist at Adobe, working with Fortune 500 clients to help improve their website testing and optimization strategies. Rich has been analyzing, testing, and improving websites for over 10 years and has previously worked for Disney Online in their web analytics and optimization team. He has a unique background of online marketing, web usability, and analytics, and has a popular web analytics and optimization blog at rich-page.com. He is also a regular speaker at industry conferences and the coauthor of Landing Page Optimization, Second Edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Sybex; 1 edition (May 8, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118196511
• ISBN-13: 978-1118196519
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #898,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rich Page has been analyzing and improving websites for over 10 years, and is currently a conversion solution specialist at Adobe helping major Fortune 500 clients improve their testing and optimization strategies. Before this he worked for Disney Online in their web analytics and optimization team.

Rich comes from a background in online marketing, website usability and web analytics, and has previously worked in roles like these for Z57 Internet Solutions, Gartner and several start-up web companies. He has considerable expertise with Omniture SiteCatalyst and Test & Target, in addition to Google Website Optimizer and Google Analytics.

Rich graduated with a Masters in Information Technology from University of San Diego, where he did a thesis on website usability. Rich also holds a Bachelors in Management from Royal Holloway University of London where he did a pioneering thesis on ecommerce. He has been blogging about web analytics and optimization topics for over 5 years at http://www.rich-page.com, and is a regular speaker at Conversion Conference and other industry conferences.

He currently lives in London, England where he just returned to after spending 10 years in Southern California. In his spare time, he is a passionate classic rock fan and loves to play tennis.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best website (and conversion rate) optimization book out yet! May 11, 2012

By O. Prusak

Format:Paperback

Let me start by saying that I have been doing conversion rate optimization (and more generally - website optimization) professionally since 2005. I have personally reviewed, critiqued, optimized and split tested hundreds of pages and sites. I have also read just about every book on the topic (and have contributed to a few as well).

There are plenty of good website conversion books out there that give you a good overview and present you with plenty of ideas and concepts.
Unfortunately, they all either read like an encyclopedia or only cover a subset of website optimization.
This book is different - It gives you step-by-step instructions and an easy to follow plan on how to actually go about implementing everything you need to do.

As the author states, there is no silver bullet for successful website optimization. It requires working on several fronts and integrating several disciplines but if you follow the plan you WILL get great results.

The only thing "missing" from the book is that at times it doesn't go into enough detail and depth.
I'm fine with that as I don't expect a "how to" book be as thorough as an encyclopedia, but at times I did feel that the process covers 95% of cases and not 100% :)

if you are looking to increase you site's conversion rates and overall user experience and want a complete process that works - get this book!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Website Optimization: An Hour a Day...it's that easy...sort of! October 21, 2012

By Stacy Lytwyn Maxwell VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I am far from a techy, yet author Rich Page of "Website Optimization: An Hour a Day" manages to pack in a lot of information that is easy to understand and, most importantly, once digested, simple to incorporate in order to drive website visitors.

I think the book title could have been amended to read "An Hour a Day A-Z." Soup to nuts, or in this case, from web analytics to targeting techniques, I do not think Mr. Page left anything relating to the topic unaddressed! You could easily utilize the information in the book into a full semester college syllabus. It's that thorough!

With so much information, however, I did get a little overwhelmed and instead of optimizing an hour a day, it amounted to zero hours a day. These overdoses of information made me feel muddled, not knowing where to begin and where to end. The convenient checklist does help you get back on course, and then it is simply a test of how many online surfers you can actually draw to your website. I do believe that in his book the author provides all the bait necessary for optimal website optimization.

Stacy Lytwyn Maxwell, Marketing Guru/Motivational Speaker/Journalist
Author: CONSUMMATE CONNECTICUT: DAY TRIPS WITH PANACHE

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read! August 7, 2012

By G. Bruno

Format:Paperback

This book has something for everyone, and is a great resource if you're looking to build a successful optimization program. Rich provides so many great insights, I guarantee you'll learn something new and have some great action items for your business!