Performance Marketing with Google™ Analytics: Practical Strategies for Maximizing Online ROI

Chapter 8. Maximizing Web Site Performance

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Understanding Core Optimization Concepts

• Evaluating Web Site Performance

• Optimizing through Continuous Improvement

Imagine that your Web site draws 10,000 visitors every month, and 100 visitors buy your product. If you want to increase sales, you can either raise the number of visitors coming to the site through inbound marketing, or you can make better use of the traffic you already have and focus on converting more visitors into buyers. The latter approach is often cheaper and easier than attracting more visitors, and it has the added benefit of raising satisfaction with your Web site and raising ROI on your advertising spend long into the future.

Increasing the efficiency of your Web site as a sales and marketing tool is often called Web site optimization or conversion optimization. This chapter explains how you can use Google Analytics data and voice-of-the-customer research to identify problem areas on your site and mount a successful optimization effort. It will also introduce Web site testing, a scientific way to use data to educate design decisions.

Understanding Core Optimization Concepts

In September 2009, a retired statistics professor and winemaker named Robert Hodgson dropped a bombshell on the fast-growing community of expert wine critics and reviewers. After a careful study of data from The California Grapevine tracking the results from hundreds of wine competitions, Hodgson found that the probability a wine would ...