Website Optimization

Foreword

“How do we make our website better?”

I’ve been answering that question for 15 years and had to write eight books on the subject to lay it all out. But I could not have written this book.

“What should we measure on our website?”

I’ve been answering that question for eight years and had to write a book on the subject, create a category-dominating conference, and start a professional association to lay it all out. But I could not have written this book.

I wrote about strategy and philosophy. I blazed a trail of logic and common sense, bringing marketing and technology together in the service of customer centricity and increased profitability. At least that’s what I told myself.

I spouted opinion, conjecture, perspective, and punditry. To others, I said that this was a Brave New World and that although the jury may be out, the insight was obvious. I created 10,000 PowerPoint slides showing the good, the bad, and the ugly in an attempt to diminish the quantity and grief of aggravating encounters with electronic brochures laden with bad electronic penmanship.

When pressed for examples and case studies, I pointed to the newness and shininess of the art and practice of Internet marketing and declared that companies that had a clue and had figured out best practices were not talking. It was all too secret sauce and competitive edge to give away to potential competitors.

Today, we not only have examples, but we also have experiments and documentation. The result is scholarship.

One of the ...