Web Design for ROI
Jul 22nd, 2008 by msdanielle
I’ve just finished reading Web Design for ROI which was recommended to me by a colleague I’m assisting in restructuring an ecommerce site. While it’s an easy read and pretty intuitive to active marketers, it does serve as a checklist of sorts — although it claims not to be one — for anyone interested in increasing conversions. I really like the use of screen shots and sample charts, which serve to illustrate the authors’ points quickly and effectively.
So is there one way to create the ideal landing page, shopping cart, or checkout process for your site? No way. There are as many successful variable combinations as there are sites, which WD4ROI points out. Use of color, placement, word choice, and images can all affect how a user may or may not successfully navigate through your site to the shopping cart, and eventually, checkout. Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus provide suggestions that should be tested for improvement, as they cover the basics of why you should attempt to improve your conversion rates, as well as landing page, home page, category page, detail page, form, and checkout process optimization.
It only took me a handful of sit-down sessions to read through the book, it’s that intuitive of a read. But it’s great food for thought. Design plays such an important role in today’s online business. No longer can webmasters and project managers expect to build a site and have sales come pouring in just because the site is “there.” It affects the way we browse sites, fill out forms, purchase, and so forth. I mean, how many times have you been on a site and thought, Where the hell is the shopping cart?! Or, How do I get to the next page?? At that point, as a user, I usually “X out” and find another site to satisfy my ADD tendencies and impulsive online shopping habits.
I recommend checking out this book if you’re interested in increasing your site’s conversion rates (which means, all of you!). If you test something and it fails, the worst thing that can happen is you change it back to its original design. But if something works to your advantage, it could mean a significant increase in sales or leads, with little to no increase in marketing spend.
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do you think it’s worth it for those who are more familiar with ecommerce and etc…or does it have more value to beginners? does it have any information that you can’t find online that when you read it…you were like “A-HA!”.
hey johnny! yea, it was helpful for both ecommerce and other types of sites as well. For instance, there is a pretty lengthy section on forms. as we all know, forms can be used anywhere for any type of site (newsletter forms, registrations, checkout, feedback, etc…). i think anyone with little to a lot of experience would find this book useful. it’s structured well, which is good if you don’t know where to start searching for this type of information (especially in one place) online. it’s thorough in a general sense…does that make sense?
Hey, thanks very much for the mention of our book! I hope your readers find it helpful for improving their site’s conversion rates.
One additional resource I want to mention is our Web Site Strategy document, which helps site owners gain a better understanding of their web site goals and audiences. There’s a blank template and filled-out example available here: http://www.wd4roi.com/bonus-materials.html
Best,
–Sandra
Hi Sandra, thank you for dropping by. the Web Site Strategy doc looks like a pretty thorough evaluation. i’m auditing another site of my own and i’ll be using this as a guideline. thanks to you and lance loveday for providing this resource!
got it! thanks. i’ll give it a try and let you know.
Nice site. Good work. Quite interesting and informative content as well.
I should check this book out. Perhaps next time I am at the local Chapters I’ll see if this have this too and take a peek through it!
that’s actually a really good idea. there are a lot of screen shots and charts, and the chapters are grouped intuitively so you could save some cash by spending a couple days at the bookstore. if they have free wi-fi you can even do some tests and tweaking to your site while you’re there
I just ordered this book per your recommendation. Since I just changed jobs and now work at a .com, I really need to brush up on externally facing applications.