Test little things? Or test for Impact?

Some people say, go do a split test or multi-variatetest on little things. Get the results quickly, and adjust quickly.

Some people recommend, don't just test and test meaningless things, test stuff with impact to the whole site.

I have tried both.  I happily test little things like a headline here, a copy there, layout, pictures, etc.  It takes me a long time to think of a test that will impact the whole site, but when I do think of something, I am very excited.

So what do I recommend?  While of course testing a hypothesis that will benefit the entire site should be the reflexive answer, testing little things is also imperative?

It's in testing the little things that you gather the ideas to have a grand hypothesis that will impact the site or the sales process.  It's in quick and "meaningless" tests that you realize there is this low hanging fruit of a hypothesis waiting for you to test to improve your site.

So I suggest do both.  Constantly work to do testing with big impact, but do your little testings along the way and learn from it.  Constantly try to integrate the big and little learnings, and truly your website will benefit in the long run.

PS. Warning to the faint-hearted:
Just because it took you days to think up a hypothesis for the entire site, doesn't mean that your traffic will gobble it up and give you quick results.  You may be surprised no one will pay attention to it :-)  I'm just saying.


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Your Website Never Gets Done, No.

I was introduced to do a business professor who immediately asked me the perennial, "So, what do you?"  ice breaker.

I said I help online businesses increase sales by puttering about the website, tinkering with copy, codes and stuff.

And upon learning I am a resident at some websites, he was quite surprised, "What else is left to do after a website is up?"

Hoo boy.  This business professor obviously knew his way only about brick and mortar stores.

Websites must be continually checked, tweaked, tested.  Yes, websites are living, growing beings.  And like people who become personable, a website has a lot of character-development to do.  If you are a person and you stop adapting or changing and remain "just the way you are,"  man, I can bet you'll be one helluva boring person.

It's the same thing with websites.  A product page may contain all the info you want to put in, but you have to continually check if the page is pleasing customers.  Are they buying?  What are they saying about why they didn't buy?  You note all the positive and less than positive things and continuously work on your web pages, until you get what customers like, earn their trust and buy from you.

Same thing with blogs.  If you put it up, put all the info you want to share,  then suddenly stopped updating, that wouldn't look very interesting now, would it?

So yes, resident online workers like us, we never run out of things to do in a website.  Especially if you keep testing which pages a customer likes, you have to continuously present different versions of a web page until you find one that customers really like.  (Me, I use the free but ever dependable Google Website Optimizer for this one.)  And besides pleaseing the customers, search engines, especially Google, like it when a website has a constant stream of activity.  It can see that the website is up and running and you get nicer search results when people look for your stuff online. 

Give your Website some TLC today.  Some simple ways:

• Look at your old copy, edit for changes.  I'm sure you have learned more about your business since you last put up your website.
• If you can, write some new stuff.  Doesn't have to be long.  Or if you can afford to shell out some, get a writer to add more to your content.
• If you are SEO-savvy, maybe you can look at your codes and see if there's anything you need to update.
• Add some pictures, even to your articles, not just the product pages.  Don't forget to tag for SEO :-)
• Try testing some of your pages with Google Website Optimizer.  Will definitely be worth your time.

Oh, and if you don't have it yet, it's never too late to add in Google Analytics. This will help you see the actual numbers of people coming in to your website.

Don't forget, keep your website activities regular to help your website be found in the searches, PLUS when people get to your website, they will like staying and availing of your products and/or services.