How can you identify the best website elements to test for CRO?

Determining the optimal website elements for testing in CRO requires a blend of data analysis, comprehension of user behavior, and strategic planning. Here's what else you should be looking at: 1. Expert Evaluation - Have UX/UI experts or CRO professionals conduct heuristic evaluations of your website 2. Competitor Analysis - Study your competitors' websites and identify elements they have implemented successfully; ...and last but not least... 3. Create an Impact vs. Effort Matrix - Have a matrix that assesses potential changes considering their influence on conversions and the implementation effort needed.

(!) In my experience, the "Pareto Principle" or the 80/20 rule is a game-changer in CRO. Often, just 20% of website elements drive 80% of the conversions. For example, tweaking the call-to-action button on a primary landing page can sometimes create a ripple effect on conversion rates. It's not necessarily about testing everything—it's more about zeroing in on the right things

Use tools like Google Analytics to understand user journeys and identify pages with high bounce rates or drop-offs. Collect feedback directly from users to understand their pain points and preferences.

??CRO is the art of fine-tuning website components to turn visitors into customers, but discerning which elements to test is crucial. Key Elements to Consider: ?Headlines and Subheadings: Are they attention-grabbing? ?Calls-to-Action: Assess button color, size, and copy. ?Images and Videos: Do they resonate with your target audience? ?Form Length and Fields: Opt for brevity without sacrificing essential data. ?Navigation and Layout: Ensure a seamless and intuitive user journey. By systematically evaluating and testing these components, brands can realize their site's fullest conversion potential.

To identify the best website elements for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), start with data-driven analysis. Utilize tools like Google Analytics to pinpoint high-traffic and high-drop-off pages. Conduct A/B tests on critical components like headlines, calls-to-action (CTAs), and form fields to measure their impact on conversion rates. Additionally, user feedback and heatmaps offer insights into what elements are confusing or compelling. Regularly monitor metrics, focusing on bounce rates, click-through rates, and conversion funnels, to fine-tune your CRO strategy. Continuous testing and adaptation will help you discover and optimize the elements that have the most significant impact on your website's conversion performance.

(!) From my personal journey in CRO, a critical aspect I've noticed when prioritizing hypotheses is to keep the customer's voice front and center. Often, while data points us in a direction, real feedback from customers can provide deeper nuances. A simple method I've employed is to occasionally pair a hypothesis with direct customer feedback or even a suggestion from customer support tickets. It not only validates the hypothesis but sometimes offers a fresh perspective or a tweak that we hadn't considered.

Using PIE to prioritize is one of the best frameworks you can use. Potential, Importance, Ease, can give you a heads up on what can be implemented, when, and why. I often use points from 1-10 to give 1 to the most impactful and 10 to the most easy. If the easiest gets also 1, which is the most impactful, then you know what your next step is once the lights of the office go on.

After collecting and analyzing data, the next step involves crafting hypotheses to enhance your conversion rate. A hypothesis is a predictive statement linking a test outcome to a problem and its solution. For instance, "Changing the headline from X to Y will increase the click-through rate by Z%." Hypotheses must be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and testable. Use a framework like PIE (Potential, Importance, Ease) to prioritize hypotheses based on expected impact and feasibility.

Once you have the datasets broken down into several segments, it will be easy to form hypotheses. Based on your experience and heat map data, start experimenting your hypotheses.

there could be a lot of things you can work on. your time is limited so you should work on something that is worth your time. you can use a spreadsheet or a project management tool to help you prioritise, i use the ICE framework on a tool like monday.com categorise all the things you could work on by ICE (impact, confidence, and effort): impact: how impactful do i expect this website test to be? is it high/medium/low? confidence: how sure am I this test will prove my hypothesis? is it high/medium/low? ease: how easy is it to launch? can i do it myself / do i need 2 weeks of someone else's time? --> then look for the high impact, high confidence, and low effort and start there. if it isnt high/high/low, it might not be prioritised

A/B testing method is the best to go about CRO for most businesses in the beginning. Multivariate testing might not be ideal for all businesses. Once you have found and implemented clear winners in A/B testing, you can start testing the combinations using multivariate testing.

(!) One invaluable piece of advice I'd share is the significance of understanding your website's traffic volume when choosing a test type. If you're working with a page that has a lower traffic volume, running a multivariate test could lead to inconclusive results because there might not be enough data to distinguish between the variations' performances. In such scenarios, it's wiser to opt for A/B tests, focusing on one key change at a time. This ensures that you can arrive at a conclusive result faster and move to the next iteration. Always align your test type with the data you have available; rushing into complex tests on low-traffic pages can lead to wasted time and resources.

A/B testing is one of the very good methods to test. However, we usually prefer the sampling modeling method. This method is basically creating the same website with different CTAs, for instance, and circulating it around in the same GEO audience (remember to compare apples with apples). Then you get around 1k or 2k traffic a day and after 5-10 days, depending on weekends and timezones, you can start doing sampling. We also developed a calculation after the A/B testing no.20 on how to predict certain changes based on lower sampling numbers ( to shorten our testing period). This should give you already a way to start your A/B testing.

when i am part of smaller companies and smaller teams, generally the data set and traffic data is minimal. this has meant that running "statistically significant" tests quite hard when volume is low. this means choosing a multi-variate test might be tricky and not significant to find the "winner" in your test. A/B testing might be easier and try to drive traffic to it / run it for longer to get more data to see the impact of your test. a split test can be another alternative with low website traffic -- run something for a month and then swap. but that being said, try to prioritise what to test and dont run too many tests otherwise you will not know what really impacted the conversion rate choose a test and be patient with your tests

Depending on your hypothesis and available resources, various types of tests can be employed for CRO. Common ones include A/B tests, multivariate tests, and split tests. A/B tests compare two versions of a single element (e.g., a headline, button, or image) to determine the superior performer. Multivariate tests evaluate numerous variations of multiple elements concurrently (e.g., headline and button combinations). Split tests contrast two versions of an entire page or website, such as a redesign or new layout. Opt for the test type aligning best with your hypothesis and traffic volume.

Drawing from my experiences with CRO, a tip that many overlook but is crucial: (!) resist the urge to peek at preliminary results and stop the test early, even if initial results seem promising. Prematurely concluding a test based on early trends can lead to false positives, potentially leading you to make changes that don't genuinely benefit your conversion rate in the long run. It's always tempting to act quickly in the fast-paced digital world, but with CRO, a measured approach often yields the most trustworthy and beneficial results.

Number one “best practice” I see most people break is that they end their tests early. Initial results always look better until you hit a statistically significant number of visitors. Be patient.

Something I often see people miss is the size of the sample. You can have a sample of 2k if your monthly audience is 100k. You need to have at least 20% of your audience as a sample to make accurate decisions.

To ensure the credibility of your CRO tests, adhere to best practices. Begin by establishing clear, objective test goals and success metrics. Utilize a sample size calculator to determine the required test duration and visitor count for statistical significance. Employ a random, representative visitor sample to prevent selection bias, and run tests for at least one complete business cycle to account for seasonal and weekly fluctuations. Avoid making alterations to your website or test during the testing period to mitigate confounding factors. Lastly, employ appropriate statistical methods and tools for results analysis and meticulously document your test process and findings for future reference and learning.

I've realized getting reliable results takes diligence! Isolating variables, validating tracking, changing one element at a time, and using server-side testing prevents data issues. I check traffic allocation regularly to ensure equal distribution across variants. Segmenting results by audience also provides deeper insights. And while p-values are useful, I also look for meaningful lifts. Documenting thoroughly allows replication too. There are so many ways testing can go awry! But combining rigor with rapid iteration leads to high-quality learnings to boost conversions.

In the world of CRO, always remember the "Kaizen" approach (!), a Japanese term meaning "continuous improvement." Just because one iteration showed positive results doesn't mean there's no room for further optimization. Often, the most significant growth comes from stacking small, incremental changes over time. It's also beneficial to periodically revisit previous tests. External factors like changing market dynamics, user behaviors, or technological advancements might make a once-successful element less effective. So, even if you've found a winning formula today, be open to challenging and retesting it in the future.

Testing isn't a one-time endeavor but a perpetual learning and enhancement process. Once a test is conducted and results analyzed, it's crucial to continue. Use insights and feedback to form new hypotheses and test concepts. Apply successful variations to your site and monitor their performance over time. Through iterative optimization of website elements, you can realize consistent, sustainable enhancements in conversion rates and business objectives.

Creating a high converting website it not a one time task. Every industry is different with their different target audience. Sometimes it can happen that what is working for someone might not work for you. So, it's always recommend and best practice to optimize your website as you go and learn from the data.

Doing one-off CRO tests here and there is tempting, but real gains come from iterating systematically over time. I've found it crucial to build a prioritized roadmap based on effort vs. impact to focus our optimization team's efforts. Our structured framework of hypothesis, test, measure, learn, repeat gives discipline to the process. We start small with MVP versions to validate ideas first before major investments. And we monitor results over the long-term, continuously optimizing our site's top pages. CRO is not a quick win but a habit and culture.

Everything about marketing is iterative and evidence-based. Even the most effective marketing campaign or highly converting website can be better through ongoing testing and refinement. Every cohort, user journey, or advert impression is a learning opportunity that can be applied to improve something.

In most cases, the elements to analyze are the following: 1. CTA 2. Social Proof 3. Page load times 4. Relevancy of on-page content

Tools like Crazy Egg or Hotjar can reveal where users are clicking and where they're dropping off, helping to identify potential test areas. Focus on optimizing elements on pages that receive the most traffic to maximize the impact of your CRO efforts. Stay updated with industry trends and research to understand what works for similar websites in your field.

Remember, every interaction with your audience is a brushstroke on your digital canvas. Pay attention to the subtleties, understand the psychology, and adapt as needed. CRO is an ongoing journey, a quest for optimization, and a commitment to delivering the best possible user experience. With every iteration, you get closer to creating a masterpiece that not only converts but also leaves a lasting impression on those who engage with it. Pro tip: Every day or once a week, spend at least 20-30 minutes navigating around your website to understand how users feel when using it.

Three critically important things to understand: 1. Your website is your single source of truth. 2. The site is a funnel in and of itself. 3. You can and must own your brand story. Yes, optimize for conversion, and test sequentially in priority order. But don’t forget about visitors in the consideration phase. Be sure to optimize for them too. While they may not have purchase intent now, educate and convince so you’ll be top of mind when you do. Social proof, testimonials, free demos, FAQs, contact/support sections, etc. are key elements to integrate. Include an “about” page clearly illustrating your mission and vision. Share your “why.” Demonstrate your competitive edge. This is your chance to stand out and connect emotionally.

In addition to the steps mentioned, it's crucial to emphasize the significance of user feedback and qualitative data in identifying elements for CRO testing. Actively collect feedback from users through surveys, on-site feedback tools, and direct customer inquiries. Users can provide valuable insights into what elements or aspects of your website they find confusing, frustrating, or appealing. This qualitative data can help pinpoint specific areas that may need improvement and guide your CRO testing efforts in a more user-centric direction. Combining quantitative data analysis with qualitative user feedback creates a comprehensive approach to identifying the best website elements for optimization.