SEM News and Free SEO Search Tool Website » Linda Bustos

Developing a Site Testing Process: Site Optimization 101

Linda Bustos — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:06:29 +0000

This is the fourth in a series of posts based on the material covered in our latest webinar: Taking Your Site Performance to The Next Level With Optimization Testing.

The ultimate goal of a Web optimization project is to improve revenue and profits driven through your site. Success is measured by tracking changes in KPIs (key performance indicators), most commonly AOV (average order value), conversion rate, days to purchase, bounce rate, cart and checkout abandonment…

Optimization Testing 101: Part 3 – Choosing Between A/B or Multivariate Test Design

Linda Bustos — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:00:37 +0000

If you’ve been trekking along with us in our Site Testing 101 series, you’re already familiar with the difference between A/B and multivariate testing (opens in new window if you haven’t read the article and would like to get up to speed). Today’s installment looks at choosing the appropriate testing method for your experiment.

A/B Split Testing

Use A/B split testing when:

You are just getting your feet wet with testing…

Optimization Testing 101: Part 2 – 4 Reasons for Site Testing

Linda Bustos — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:14:56 +0000

This is the second in a series of posts based on the material covered in our latest webinar: Taking Your Site Performance to The Next Level With Optimization Testing. The on-demand version will be available shortly.

According to Jupiter Research, 73% of marketers aren’t doing any testing whatsoever, with 49% having no plans to do so. Before I share 4 compelling reasons why you should be testing, let’s look at some of the reasons why marketers aren’t testing:

Lack of resources (in-house talent, budget for tool or consultants)
Lack of tool (now with Google Website Optimizer this is less of an issue)
Lack of buy-in from upper management
Lack of ownership of the testing process
IT bottlenecks
Lack of understanding of the value of testing / don’t think it’s important
Not sure what to test, how to prioritize testing opportunities or how to take action on results
Lack of understanding of tools or testing methods

Despite these challenges, serious Web marketers should push to overcome them and get testing capabilities because testing is the only way to truly know what works and what doesn’t for your site based on the combination of your industry, customers and product mix…

Optimization Testing 101: Part 1 – Introduction to A/B and MVT

Linda Bustos — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:06:02 +0000

This is the first in a series of posts based on the material covered in our latest webinar: Taking Your Site Performance to The Next Level With Optimization Testing. The on-demand version will be available shortly.

Part 1 provides brief overview of what site testing is and describes the differences between usability testing, A/B split testing and multivariate methods.

What is optimization testing?

First let’s talk about what it’s not…

The Ecommerce Get-Started-Now Guide for the Holiday Season

Linda Bustos — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:00:27 +0000

Though we’re only half way through the year, the holidays are just around the corner in the ecommerce world. If you want to grow your holiday sales over last year, you need to get very busy. Today.

What should you be doing now to ensure a successful holiday season? Here are some ideas:

Performance

Ten years ago, web users were more forgiving of slow page loads. But according to Forrester Research, 47% of today’s web shoppers expect a page to load in 2 seconds or less…

Top 10 Things Customers Expect from Your Online Store

Linda Bustos — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:06:17 +0000

Oneupweb has recently put out some interesting research which includes the top 10 consumer expectations that influence purchase decisions.

Let’s take a closer look at these items:

Pricing/shipping information clearly stated – 95.5%

No surprises here, as several studies have found that “sticker shock” (the unexpected inflation of final price due to shipping and taxes) is the number one reason for cart abandonment…

8 Tips for Permission Based Email

Linda Bustos — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:05:13 +0000

Asking for permission to add someone to your email marketing list is not just a courtesy, it’s an important part of your email program’s long term success. If you fail to ask for permission, email recipients may end up marking your messages as “spam” – hurting your sender reputation with ISPs, which can hurt your delivery rates, meaning your messages may not beat spam filters for your other subscribers…

5 Reasons You Should Copy Amazon

Linda Bustos — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:08:02 +0000

Last post I outlined 10 reasons not to copy Amazon, with a promise to follow up with reasons why you SHOULD copy Amazon. While I could easily have compiled a list of 50-100 tactical items that could improve your conversion like unusual shaped cart buttons, delivery cut-off dates, customer reviews, mobile apps, triggered email or point-of-action assurances, I chose today to focus on 5 strategic things Amazon does really well, that could make you or save you millions of dollars…

10 Reasons Not to Copy Amazon

Linda Bustos — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:05:51 +0000

Amazon has for years been held up as the gold standard in ecommerce because of its rapid growth and dominance in online retail. This success has created a halo effect, where some automatically assume “if Amazon does it, it must be right.” Many have implemented Amazon’s designs and features on their online shops based on these assumptions alone. This is dangerous. And here are 10 reasons why:

Reason #1: You Are Not Amazon

(My apologies to Jeff Bezos and his gang – if you are reading, of course you may take exception to this…

The 4 Pillars of Ecommerce Copywriting

Linda Bustos — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:06:25 +0000

When writing content for your ecommerce website, the challenge is to craft copy that is usable, search engine friendly, persuasive, that will build trust and communicate your brand promise. How can you satisfy all of these objectives? It begins with an understanding of the 4 pillars of ecommerce copywriting.

Writing for usability

As many usability gurus have said, your visitor decides in 3 seconds or less whether he or she is going to abandon your site…

Creating Bundles from Advanced Search

Linda Bustos — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:03:06 +0000

Every once in a while I come across something truly unique on an ecommerce store. This time it’s Alibris, which does a very cool thing with its Advanced Search tool.

Customers can create a custom bundle at the lowest price by entering multiple ISBN numbers in Advanced Search.

While this makes sense for a site like Alibris which is a marketplace of competing sellers (with cheap, cheap, cheap prices), this approach can have application to other types of businesses…

Bloggers Digest June 2010

Linda Bustos — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:07:59 +0000

Bloggers Digest is our monthly ritual that highlight posts from other blogs that are of value and interest to online retailers and Internet marketers.

This month I’ve added Twitter accounts for the contributors of this great content so you can connect further with the gurus. Hope you like!

Advanced segmentation in Web analytics is the most powerful way to extract true insights from your mountains of data — but most folks need a little help figuring out what to segment…

International SEO: Keyword Research With Google Trends

Linda Bustos — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:03:28 +0000

If you run multiple stores for different English-speaking countries (geo-targeted with subdomains, subfolders or top-level domains like .co.uk, .co.au, .ca etc), it’s important to pay attention to the keywords in your category names and product page titles. The terms that your countrymen (and women) use to describe your products may not be the same as the lingo abroad. And the keywords you choose to describe your categories and products have a huge impact on SEO in your international markets…

17 Ways To Minimize Friction in the Sales Process

Linda Bustos — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:01:17 +0000

In landing page optimization, friction describes “the psychological resistance to a given element of your sales process that causes aggravation, fatigue or confusion,” according to the Yoda-smart Dr. Flint McGlaughlin of Marketing Experiments. The goal of the “ecommerce optimizationist” (yes, a totally fabricated term) is to minimize this resistance as much as possible.

Where do customers experience friction in your sales process? Let’s examine some of the common areas:

Home Pages

1…

Visual Search: A Vision For Ecommerce

Linda Bustos — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:08:34 +0000

Though it’s rare to find visual search implemented on an ecommerce site (Zappos had it but took it down), visual search and image recognition technology has a lot of potential in online shopping. I’ve been asked in the past what I think they can do for ecommerce. This post is a brain dump of a bunch of ways I could see retailers benefiting from image recognition and visual search.

Visual Search

1…

Top Online Software Retailer Symantec Shares Web Analytics Secrets

Linda Bustos — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:06:47 +0000

There’s still time to reserve your seat for next week’s webinar Desperately seeking insights: How eCommerce leaders can harness the power of their data with our special guest, Sandy Gantt of Symantec Corporation.

Sandy will discuss how to define and implement the right combination of people, process, and technology that will turn raw data into actionable business intelligence for your organization…

Make it Clear: Search is for Search and Email is for Email

Linda Bustos — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:07:06 +0000

Often times retail sites offer search and email signup boxes that look almost identical. It’s very easy for customers to mistake one for the other (you’ll know if your email signup logs contain “addresses” like “nose hair trimmer.”)

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Rather than leave them blank, the retailers above label the fields with instructions like “keyword or item number” and “your email address…

Adwords Campaign Experiments Brings Split Testing to PPC

Linda Bustos — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:05:25 +0000

Split testing – it’s not just for emails and landing pages anymore.

This week, Google Adwords announced a new tool for its paid search advertisers: ACE (Adwords Campaign Experiments) (Beta) which allows you to split test your PPC campaigns.

Until now, decisions to raise bids, add / delete keywords, change keyword match type or create different campaign structures have been made on gut feel without hard data on their efficacy…

The SEO Tip Online Retailers Still Are Not Taking Advantage Of!

Linda Bustos — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:00:29 +0000

A while back I posted about the opportunity most retailers miss out on – optimizing their own websites for their store names plus “free shipping.”

Related searches in Google indicate the suggestions are highly searched, and therefore valuable to optimize for.

Add to free shipping searches for “promo code(s),” “voucher code(s),” “coupon code(s),” “discount code(s)” et cetera…

Ecommerce Tip: SEO for Product Pages [Video]

Linda Bustos — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:04:59 +0000

Did you know we (at Elastic Path Software post an “Ecommerce Tip of the Week” video on our home page? Here’s a sample:

Search engine optimization for your product pages

Email and RSS subscribers, can’t see video? View this post on Get Elastic.

Want to catch up on tip videos you’ve missed and receive new ones? Check out or subscribe to our channels on Youtube and Vimeo…