YouTube

If YouTube can grow their customer base by almost 16% using the tool what can your site achieve?

So What is Google Website Optimizer?

Website Optimizer is a tool which tests the effectiveness of various components on a webpage.  These include:

• headings
• text
• graphics
• forms
• menu items
• alternate page layouts
• and much more.

One of the elements tested on YouTube was a link enticing people to sign up for a YouTube account. Website Optimizer was used to test whether the link should be changed to all capitals – “SIGN UP” – or left as it was – “Sign Up”.

Which do you think was more successful – “Sign Up” or “SIGN UP” ? (Answer below).

How Does It Work?

With Google Website Optimizer you identify:

• which element(s) you want to test
• what correlates a success

In the case of YouTube one of the test elements was the “Sign Up” link. A success was achieved where someone landed on the “successful registration” page.

Once the test starts visitors to the page being tested are presented with alternative versions of the elements. Over time Google Website Optimizer can tally successful conversions for each alternative and when the test ends can identify which element(s) were most successful.

Sign Up or SIGN UP?

And returning to the YouTube.. which of “Sign Up” or “SIGN UP” was more effective… the results showed that the link should be left as it was – “Sign Up”.

More Info

To learn more about the YouTube test visit http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/08/look-inside-1024-recipe-multivariate.html

Hitwise are reporting a significant increase in visits to baby and pregnancy websites in recent months. Apparently this trend has been ongoing for the past three years.

According to Robin Goad of Hitwise people are spending more time online looking for baby and pregnancy information. He states that the three biggest online retailers of baby paraphernalia – Mothercare, Kiddicare, and Mamas and Papas are currently experiencing record market share – a factor which could imply that baby products are more recession-proof that other retail sectors.

Robin also points out that keywords such as ‘cheap’, ‘used’ and ‘for sale’ are becoming increasingly popular amongst searches for prams, pushchairs and cots.

Irish consumers still spending money online!

Despite the current economic downturn, recent studies indicate a positive outlook for online sales activity in Ireland as more consumers and businesses are going online to buy and sell products and services.

In recent weeks Irish online payments processors Realex announced a 38% increase in the number of businesses signing up for their services in the month of June compared to previous months. According to Realex these businesses represented a broad spectrum, selling items as varied as jewellery, IT products, alarm systems, party supplies etc.

As for consumer activity the most recent figures from the CSO indicate that over 1.1 million Irish consumers made online purchases in the 12 months to March 2008. Typically strong in activities such as travel booking, concert tickets and books, there has been significant growth in Irish online purchases of electronic items, clothing and household goods.

This growth in online consumer activity is not unique to Ireland. An Internet Retailing report states that online purchasing in the UK is up 38% for the first 6 months of 2009 compared to the same period the previous year. According to the report sales of clothing and footwear sales in physical stores were either static or falling in June, while online clothing sales were up 32%, lingerie sales rose by 37% and footwear 38%.

Internet Retailing also state that 17% of retail sales in the UK are now occurring online. They expect this figure to rise to between 30% and 50% in the next five years.

Indeed Paypal have published a report forecasting that UK consumers will more than double their online spending by the end of 2011 – a total of £21.3 billion!

I recently read an enlightening article  – Tests Indicate Ogilvy’s Old-School Layout Still a Winner – where Jeff Sexton discusses some of the beliefs held by advertising mogul David Ogilvy. Ogilvy believed that in advertising:

“…messaging and relevance had to have highest priority. Everything else – creativity, design, layout – should be subordinated to the end goal of conveying a salient message in as persuasive a manner as possible”.

There are times when working on web projects that I see clients focusing prematurely on design and layout. That’s understandable – they’re excited about having a new site and the design and layout are the first tangibles they see for their efforts. Now Ogilvy isn’t saying that design and layout are not important. We know these are key elements for any website as a study at Carleton University in Canada highlighted. In her 2006 study Dr. Gitte Lindgaard discovered that a visitor to a website will make a judgement on that site within 50 milliseconds (one twentieth of a second). And this judgement is based on the visual appeal of the website. So yes, design and layout are critical.

But Ogilvy’s statement reminds us that each site needs to have a goal (or goals) – and that this goal should be identified at the outset of any web development project. All other considerations – creativity, design, and layout – can only be considered and developed in relation to this identified goal.

And so why have I used a fish and a lighter to illustrate this piece? Well in his article Jeff uses this image to highlight Ogilvy’s belief that a good photo and heading are critical to entice people into reading the main body of text and accompanying call-to-action within an advertisement. And that’s why I’ve used it here! By the way the advertisement recounted the story of a Zippo lighter which was recovered from the stomach of a pike… and it still worked!