But statistically 50% of your visitors will leave within a few seconds (bounce rate) – thats a lot of potential customers lost very quickly! Fortunately, AB testing helps you give your visitors what they want, keep them on your site and turn them into customers. And prove its all working at the same time!

Increase your websites conversion rate

or: How to I learned to stop guessing and love my website

AB testing is a process where you create 2 different pages for the same product or service. Changes and tweaks to the page content, layout, text, images and design are made. You then monitor which of the pages has the higher conversion rate.

It’s that simple.

A successful small business website converts visitors to customers. But 99% of the time you will not meet your prospective customer face to face, or even have a conversation over the phone. Your website is left on its own to persuade your potential customers to choose you over your competition. Your message has to be right; first time, every time. AB testing can literally be the difference between one or two sales per month or one or two (or more) per hour.

Small changes can have a big impact

Even small tweaks to the 5 key areas listed above can have a huge cumulative impact to the conversion of visitors to customers on your website. Watch the video below to see how Colonial Candles increased their conversion rate by 20%.

A low cost improvement for any website

AB testing is its suitable for both new and old websites. Without the expense of having a new website designed and built you can maximise your current websites potental.

AB testing is a long term investment to your online marketing. Lessons learned and improvements to the content and site can all be carried over to any future website development as well as any other online marketing in place such as google adwords, email marketing and banner advertisements.

Google Website Optimiser Guide

Google UK provide a great beginners guide to Google Website Optimiser that helps guide you through setup and integration on your site.

Ultimately however, its not about the initial cost – it’s about the long term value offered.

For instance if a website costs £10,000 but brings in £1 million worth of business most people would see that as a very good investment.

And that’s the best way to approach your web design project – not as a one off cost but rather a long term investment.

Some websites are better than others

Now it may be obvious but not all websites are created equal. A quick google search will bring up numerous websites in your industry, some google will rank 1st some 500th. Some websites look great, others like they are from 1985. Some easy to navigate, others a complete mess. And the list goes on.

So why does this matter? Well there are a few basic factors that determine how many enquires your website will get. And it’s this that determines the real value of your website .

Great websites are an investment

Effective websites can deliver fantastic returns-on-investment so when deciding on the amount to invest ask yourself how much a web site that delivers sales enquiries and customers is worth to your business.

Lets imagine you spend £1000 on your website and it brings in 1 new customer worth £300 profit each week. Your website earns you £15600 per year (£300 x 52wk) or £46800 over 3 years.

Now if spending more time on the website build; optimising it for search engines, visitors and potential clients means not only doubling the initial development costs to £2000 but also doubling the enquiries and profit to £93600 over the 3 years would you?

£1000 more investment for £45800 more income? Well obviously most businesses would say yes!

How about if it was possible to receive 10 times as many enquiries? How much is that website now worth to your business? How much would you be prepared to pay for that website?

It’s easy to see the value of your website is not its initial cost.

Web design is a bespoke service

Websites aren’t products. You can’t shop around and get exactly the same website from two different designers. A website costing £3000 isn’t the same as one costing £250. And in reality the biggest disparity in quotes and costs are due to the amount of time spent on your website – not the designers hourly or daily rates.

Obviously a web design agency that take times to research your market and thoroughly plan your website, craft and test the design to maximise trust and convert your visitors into customers and finally hand code and optimise your website to maximise search engine visibility is going to take a little longer – and perhaps cost a little more – than one thrown together in a few days without any care. But ultimately this initial investment pays off – big time!

The real cost of your website is not the initial invoice total, but rather how much of a long term investment it is to your business. This is why a £500 website from your brother’s son’s friend’s uncle, or the cheapest ‘web designer’ you can find, may not be the ‘bargain’ it first appears.