The Problem: Superior products and services – inferior website results
Improving your conversions through AB testing
- Read time: 3 mins
- Tech level: low
- Key point: A/B testing differentiates a good website from a great website.
You can offer the best product or service and still fail on the internet. Quality can be rock solid but sales limp if your website does not connect with your target audience. You know this. It’s why you’ve invested in the design and development of a website. It’s a key component of the brand. How do you know if the site design will turn visitors into customers? Can you quantify the effectiveness of a design before it launches?
An effective website is user-friendly
To achieve your organisation’s goals (such as increase in leads or sales), potential customers must find your website easy to use.
Unfortunately, website designs are often driven by back-end developers who want flawless code or front-end designers who want the trendiest look. The end user (the most important player) is often forgotten.
That’s where information architecture (IA) and user-focused design helps. These practices are concerned with making information accessible, easy to find and easy to use. When you hear terms used like “user experience” and “user interface” it’s all about making things user-friendly. Because if you don’t make it easy for users, they won’t use it; no matter what “it” is.
Just as buildings are designed to be accessible to all people, web content must be designed to be navigated and used by everyone, regardless of their experience or the type of computer technology used.
Can ‘user-friendly’ be tested?
At first glance, usability and accessibility seem to be highly subjective. But just as a building can be tested to determine its accessibility, web content can be tested for accessibility as well.
A/B testing compares two versions of a page or bit of content to see which one performs better. You're probably familiar with split testing for ads. Two ads are tested to determine which one produces more favourable results. The winner is implemented while the loser is thrown on the rubbish heap.
A/B testing services apply the same split testing to all aspects of your web product. Navigation, photos, and text can all be subject to A/B testing. Not only can user friendliness be tested, it must be tested to maximise your results.
Good UX versus Great UX
The degree to which a user experience (UX) design company understands your business, understands your target audience, and tests to make sure the end product achieves the results you want, is what distinguishes an average UX design company from a great one. There are many UX designers, but not all are results focused.
A/B testing in practice
Better results and more conversions are just some of the benefits of A/B testing services. It must be a standard part of an effective UX design process.
