CINXE.COM

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:blogger="http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330</id><updated>2025-02-06T22:58:02.756-08:00</updated><category term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><category term="Learning Resources"/><category term="Announcements"/><category term="Tips"/><category term="Events"/><category term="Guest author"/><category term="Webinars"/><category term="Features"/><category term="Case Studies"/><category term="Series"/><category term="API"/><category term="Copy"/><category term="Experiments"/><category term="Google Analytics"/><category term="Videos"/><title type="text">Google Website Optimizer Blog</title><subtitle type="html">The most up-to-date product news, industry insights and testing strategies.</subtitle><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default?redirect=false" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/><link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default?start-index=26&max-results=25&redirect=false" rel="next" type="application/atom+xml"/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><generator uri="http://www.blogger.com" version="7.00">Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>87</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-9205724830716509583</id><published>2012-08-01T09:13:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:53.264-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Announcements"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Saying goodbye to the Google Website Optimizer Blog</title><content type="html"><br /> <div style="color: #232323; font: 12.0px Arial; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"> Thanks to everyone who has been a loyal reader of this blog over the last few years. As we’ve launched <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/06/helping-to-create-better-websites.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline;">Content Experiments in Google Analytics</span></a> and <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/07/making-google-analytics-content.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline;">continue to evolve</span></a> that feature set, from now on we’ll post about website testing and experimentation on our main Analytics blog, and we’re retiring this one. &nbsp;We encourage you to visit the <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline;">Google Analytics blog</span></a> or <a href="https://plus.google.com/b/111224383669619377607/111224383669619377607/posts"><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline;">follow us on Google+</span></a> for ongoing news and best practices about improving your online efforts.</div> <div style="font: 12.0px Arial; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="font: 12.0px Arial; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"> <span style="color: #232323;"><i>Posted By Enrique Muñoz Torres, </i></span><i>Sr. Product Manager, Google Analytics</i></div></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/9205724830716509583/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2012/08/saying-goodbye-to-google-website.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="1 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/9205724830716509583" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/9205724830716509583" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2012/08/saying-goodbye-to-google-website.html" rel="alternate" title="Saying goodbye to the Google Website Optimizer Blog" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14102657445542845876</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-9157611595944923462</id><published>2012-06-08T13:21:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:53.206-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Spurious conversions in Website Optimizer reports</title><content type="html"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> We have gotten reports of spurious conversions appearing in Website Optimizer reports over the last few days. &nbsp;We have since fixed the underlying problem and reprocessed the affected data. &nbsp;Please do let us know if you still see any problems with the numbers in your reports. &nbsp;We apologize for the inconvenience.<br /> <br /> Posted by Enrique Muñoz Torres, Sr. Product Manager, Google Analytics</div></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/9157611595944923462/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2012/06/spurious-conversions-in-website.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/9157611595944923462" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/9157611595944923462" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2012/06/spurious-conversions-in-website.html" rel="alternate" title="Spurious conversions in Website Optimizer reports" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/blank.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-1564299314833880265</id><published>2012-06-01T10:18:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:47.934-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Announcements"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Google Analytics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Helping to create better websites: Introducing Content Experiments</title><content type="html"><br /> Over the last 5 years, it’s been great to see how many marketers and publishers have improved the web by using insights from Google Website Optimizer to create better experiences for their visitors. Today, we <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/06/helping-to-create-better-websites.html" target="_blank">announced</a> that we’re bringing website testing to Google Analytics. This means that we’ll be saying goodbye to the standalone version as we welcome a fully integrated website testing tool in Google Analytics.<br /> <br /> Content Experiments helps you optimize for goals you have already defined in your Google Analytics account, and can help you decide which page designs, layouts and content are most effective. With Content Experiments, you can develop several versions of a page and show different versions to different visitors. Google Analytics measures the efficacy of each page version, and with a new advanced statistical engine, it determines the most effective version. &nbsp;Take a look at this video to learn more:<br /> <br /> <center> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TGrujIh2H0I" width="480"></iframe></center> <br /> Testing and experimentation of websites may sound complicated, but we've worked hard to provide a testing tool that makes it as easy as possible:<br /> <br /> <ul> <li>Content Experiments comes with a setup wizard that walks you step by step through setting up experiments, which helps you quickly launch new tests.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Content Experiments reuses Google Analytics tags so that you only need to add one additional tag to the original page.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Content Experiments helps you understand which content performs best, and identifies a winner as soon as statistically significant data has been collected.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Since content testing is so important, we’ve placed Content Experiments just a click away from your regular diagnosis reports in Google Analytics.</li> </ul> <br /> We’re excited to integrate this important functionality into Google Analytics and believe it will help you meet your goals of measuring, testing and optimizing all in one place. With full integration in Google Analytics, we’ll be able to grow and evolve website experimentation tools within our broader measurement platform. Initially, you’ll be able to utilize important features like optimized goal conversions, easier tagging and advanced segmentation in reports. We’re also working hard to release page metrics, additional goal conversion options and experiment suggestions.<br /> <br /> The last day you’ll be able to access Google Website Optimizer, and any reports for current or past experiments, will be August 1, 2012. While it won’t be possible to migrate experiments or reports to Google Analytics, up until August 1 you can download your reports to retain your data. &nbsp;We encourage you to start any new experiments in Content Experiments. For those of you that are new to website experimentation, we hope you’ll try out the new <a href="http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;topic=1745207&amp;answer=1745147#utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=gwoblog&amp;utm_content=content&amp;utm_campaign=content_experiments_launch" target="_blank">Google Analytics Content Experiments</a>.<br /> <br /> This is just the first step we’re taking to simplify website testing, and we look forward to integrating more features into the experimentation framework of Google Analytics. &nbsp;Content Experiments will be gradually rolling out over the next few weeks to all users. Once available in your account, you can start testing by going to <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/?utm_source=gwoblog&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_content=content&amp;utm_campaign=content_experiments_launch" target="_blank">Google Analytics</a> and accessing Experiments within the Content section of your reports. If you’re new to Google Analytics, you can <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/?utm_source=gwoblog&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_content=content&amp;utm_campaign=content_experiments_launch">sign up here</a>.<br /> <br /> We’ll continue to have a strong network of <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/partners/index.html?utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=gwoblog&amp;utm_content=content&amp;utm_campaign=content_experiments_launch">Google Analytics Certified Partners</a> who will be able to provide advanced support for Analytics, including Content Experiments. If you would like professional assistance in designing, implementing, or interpreting the results of a test, simply go to the Google Analytics Partner page and select "Website Optimizer" from the Specialization menu. &nbsp;You can also find more information in our <a href="http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;topic=1745207&amp;answer=1745147#utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=gwoblog&amp;utm_content=content&amp;utm_campaign=content_experiments_launch">help center</a>. Please try out Content Experiments and let us know what you think.<br /> <br /> Happy testing!<br /> <br /> Posted by Nir Tzemah, Google Analytics team</content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/1564299314833880265/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2012/06/helping-to-create-better-websites.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="11 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/1564299314833880265" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/1564299314833880265" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2012/06/helping-to-create-better-websites.html" rel="alternate" title="Helping to create better websites: Introducing Content Experiments" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14102657445542845876</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/TGrujIh2H0I/default.jpg" width="72"/><thr:total>11</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-5286778452913730559</id><published>2011-03-09T14:28:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:51.094-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Case Studies"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Case Study: Universal Technical Institute Increases Application Requests Eight-fold With Website Optimizer</title><content type="html"><div style="text-align: left;"><i>UTI revved up their conversion rate with Google Website Optimizer. By conducting rigorous testing, making design improvements to their landing pages, and increasing AdWords investment to capitalize on their higher conversion rates, UTI cut their cost-per-application request in half and increased their request volume by more than 700% in in marketing campaigns that used the new landing pages. Read more to learn how they did it!</i></div><span class="byline-author"><div><span class="byline-author"><div><br /></div><div>Since 1965, Universal Technical Institute has helped automotive enthusiasts turn their passions into careers. Offering programs in Automotive, Diesel, Collision, and Motorcycle Repair, as well as courses to become a Marine or NASCAR technician, UTI has trained more than 140,000 professionals in the automotive industry. Today, UTI operates 11 campuses, and currently has more than 15,000 students that are working with their hands to learn career skills that will last a lifetime.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Goal: Improve Conversion Rates Through Website Optimization</b></div><div>UTI has been an AdWords advertiser since 2004. After years of fine-tuning their search campaigns, and successful investments in Display, Mobile, and YouTube, UTI was looking for their next big avenue of growth. After doing some research - they realized the opportunity was right in front of them, on their own site! With the help of Website Optimizer, UTI tested different calls-to-action, images, videos, buttons, and button placements. After many different landing page combinations, they ultimately settled on a winner.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Results: A Great-looking Landing Page and a 300% Increase in Conversion Rate</b></div><div>UTI's new landing page was a dramatic departure from their previous landing page. Most notable is their use of “gradual engagement” - asking for user’s information in several steps rather than showing an intimidating 15-field sign-up form.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TXgBgib4XsI/AAAAAAAABGg/E2UBwE3VMLU/s800/UTI%20Old%20Page.png"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TXgBgib4XsI/AAAAAAAABGg/E2UBwE3VMLU/s400/UTI%20Old%20Page.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span">Original landing page (click to see full size)</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TXgBghHBeYI/AAAAAAAABGc/stb772_fPX0/s800/UTI%20-%20New%20Landing%20Page.PNG"></a><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TXgBghHBeYI/AAAAAAAABGc/stb772_fPX0/s800/UTI%20-%20New%20Landing%20Page.PNG"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TXgBghHBeYI/AAAAAAAABGc/stb772_fPX0/s400/UTI%20-%20New%20Landing%20Page.PNG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TXgBghHBeYI/AAAAAAAABGc/stb772_fPX0/s800/UTI%20-%20New%20Landing%20Page.PNG"></a>New landing page (click to see full size)</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">“Prospective Students responded extremely well to our new landing pages,” said Loring Kohrt, Online Marketing Manager for UTI, “not only did we triple our conversion rate, we reduced our exit rate and saw a boost in site engagement metrics across the board.”</div><div><br /></div><div><b>More Good News: The Effect on Advertising</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The jump in conversion volume was substantial and immediate, but UTI didn’t stop there. Realizing that their increased conversion rates had dramatically lowered their cost-per-lead, UTI decided that they had room to bid much more aggressively on Google’s Search and Display Networks. By doing so, they increased their average position, and brought in eight times the conversions at about half the CPA!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TXgAtpS4SzI/AAAAAAAABGU/VC7iNdur49Q/s400/uti-flow-chart.png" /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span">Improving conversion rate amplified all other marketing activities</span></i></div><div><br /></div><div>Reflecting on his experience, Mr. Kohrt said “We are tremendously happy with the results of our redesign. We were able to dramatically improve the profitability of our advertising, increase our enrollments, and deliver a better experience to potential students.”</div></span></div><div><br /></div>Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/5286778452913730559/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2011/03/case-study-universal-technical.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="3 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/5286778452913730559" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/5286778452913730559" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2011/03/case-study-universal-technical.html" rel="alternate" title="Case Study: Universal Technical Institute Increases Application Requests Eight-fold With Website Optimizer" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TXgBgib4XsI/AAAAAAAABGg/E2UBwE3VMLU/s72-c/UTI%20Old%20Page.png" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-5866992653008409736</id><published>2011-01-05T12:27:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:51.272-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Announcements"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">New Year, New Asynchronous Tags for GWO</title><content type="html"><span class="byline-author"><div><span class="byline-author"><div>Happy New Year fellow testers! We’ve just made a change to the Website Optimizer tags that will help your pages load faster, improve data accuracy, and eliminate tracking errors when tags are not fully loaded.</div><div><br /></div><div>The next time you go to create an experiment, you’ll be given the new tags, which use asynchronous JavaScript. Asynchronous tagging, which is already <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-now-easy-to-set-up-new-sites-with.html">a standard for Google Analytics</a>, allows the Website Optimizer tracking and conversion scripts to run in parallel to your site loading. For Website Optimizer veterans, these new tags appear in Step 2 of the setup wizard -- be sure to read the instructions as the installation is slightly different. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here’s five things you should know about the new tags:</div><div><ol><li>The traditional (non-async) snippets will continue to work if you want to use them. And there’s no need to retag experiments.</li><li>We’ve combined the Control Script and Tracking Script into one snippet of code. Be sure not to double tag your pages.</li><li>Async tags go immediately after the opening <span class="Apple-style-span" >&lt;head&gt;</span> tag on your test and conversion pages, not at the bottom of the page like the old tags.</li><li>If you <a href="http://www.google.com/support/websiteoptimizer/bin/answer.py?&amp;answer=140486">customize your Control Scripts</a> (for experiments with <a href="http://www.google.com/support/websiteoptimizer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=151978">cross-domain experiments</a> and the like), the Control Script still uses urchin.js-style methods.</li><li>Articles in the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/websiteoptimizer/">Help Center</a> have been updated to reflect the new tags though we still have <a href="http://www.google.com/support/websiteoptimizer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=117912">articles with the traditional tag</a> for your reference.</li></ol></div><div>Here’s to winning experiments in the new year.</div></span></div><div><span class="byline-author"><br /></span></div>Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/5866992653008409736/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-new-asynchronous-tags-for-gwo.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="12 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/5866992653008409736" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/5866992653008409736" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-new-asynchronous-tags-for-gwo.html" rel="alternate" title="New Year, New Asynchronous Tags for GWO" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>12</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-6554999656267137012</id><published>2010-12-09T14:39:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:51.741-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Announcements"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Welcome, Google Apps users!</title><content type="html"><div>Google Apps recently <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/11/ten-times-more-applications-for-google.html">launched an improvement</a> that made dozens of exciting Google services available to Google Apps users for the first time. As part of this launch, Google Website Optimizer is now available to our Google Apps users for free with their Apps accounts.</div><div><br /></div><div>Google Apps is Google’s suite of cloud-based messaging and collaboration apps, including Gmail, calendar, documents, spreadsheets, and more, specifically optimized for use in organizations. These services, which run entirely in the cloud, are used by more than 30 million users in small and large businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations around the world. You can learn more about how Google Apps can lower IT costs and improve productivity and collaboration at your organization at <a href="http://www.google.com/apps">google.com/apps</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>For those users who have a Google Apps account, if your administrator has already transitioned your organization to the new infrastructure, you can get started using Google Website Optimizer at <a href="http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer">google.com/websiteoptimizer</a> with your existing Apps account.</div><div><br /></div><div>For more details, read the complete post on the <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/12/now-available-with-google-apps-google_09.html">Google Enterprise blog</a> and follow all the <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/search/label/%23moregoogleapps">updates on other newly available services for Google Apps users</a>.</div><div><span class="byline-author"><br /></span></div><div><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></div></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/6554999656267137012/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/12/welcome-google-apps-users.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/6554999656267137012" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/6554999656267137012" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/12/welcome-google-apps-users.html" rel="alternate" title="Welcome, Google Apps users!" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-2754511111903595734</id><published>2010-12-07T10:14:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:48.577-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Update your Website Optimizer scripts to secure your site</title><content type="html"><span class="byline-author"><div><span class="byline-author"><div><div>Earlier this week we notified affected Website Optimizer users of a potential security issue with the Website Optimizer Control Script. If a website or browser has already been compromised by a separate attack, a hacker might also be able to execute malicious code by exploiting a bug in the Website Optimizer Control Script.</div><div><br /></div><div>We have not seen any evidence indicating that sites using Website Optimizer have been targeted through this bug, but wanted to proactively reach out to site owners. While the probability of this attack is very low, we are urging Website Optimizer users to take action by updating their Control Scripts. We have taken action, so all new experiments created after December 3 are not susceptible. </div><div><br /></div><div>Any experiments you are currently running need to be updated to fix the issue on your site. Additionally, if you have any Website Optimizer scripts from paused or stopped experiments created before December 3, you should remove or update that code as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are two ways to update your code:</div><div><ol><li>Stop current experiments, remove the old scripts, and create a new experiment.</li><li>Update the code on your site directly. We strongly recommend creating a new experiment as it is the simpler method. </li></ol></div><div>Instructions for both methods are available here at the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/websiteoptimizer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=1083131">Website Optimizer Help Center</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>We’re committed to keeping Website Optimizer secure, and we will proactively work to prevent any future vulnerabilities.</div></div></span></div><div><span class="byline-author"><br /></span></div>Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/2754511111903595734/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/12/update-your-website-optimizer-scripts.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="3 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2754511111903595734" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2754511111903595734" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/12/update-your-website-optimizer-scripts.html" rel="alternate" title="Update your Website Optimizer scripts to secure your site" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-1687304504470394910</id><published>2010-10-12T20:43:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:47.992-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Learning Resources"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">New Google Website Optimizer Online Video Training Released!</title><content type="html"><span class="byline-author"><div><span class="byline-author"><div>A <a href="http://bit.ly/lyndaGWO">new online video training course</a> is now available from lynda.com to help you get the most out of using Google Website Optimizer. It’s called <i>Google Website Optimizer: Essential Training</i>, and it's created by David Booth of <a href="http://www.websharedesign.com/">WebShare</a>, one of our <a href="http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/woac.html">Website Optimizer Certified Partners</a> and <a href="http://seminars.websharedesign.com/">Seminars for Success Leaders</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>The course itself is available both <a href="http://bit.ly/lyndaGWO">online</a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/GWOlyndaDVD">on DVD</a> and contains almost 4 full hours of step by step instruction around how to identify test pages, plan and implement your experiments, and read and interpret the reports. Advanced topics like sample size calculation, <a href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/using-website-optimizer-with-google.html">Google Analytics integrations</a> and dynamic page testing are also covered among a wide variety of conversion optimization and testing topics.</div><div><br /></div><div>I sat down with David and asked him to share with us what he likes best about this new course, and here’s what he had to say:</div><blockquote><div>A video course is great for a few reasons: First, it lets you accomplish things you can’t necessarily do in other formats. As an example, in this course we have start to finish screen captured demonstrations of how to create a new test, tag your pages with Javascript, and then launch both A/B and Multivariate tests. Someone watching this course can actually see it happening and not have to rely on instructions or a help file.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also like the variety of learning styles that can be accommodated by what the lynda.com team has put together. If you’re a visual learner, you’ll love this - there’s a nice mix of presentation styles, screen captures and visual aides throughout the whole course. If you learn by doing, you’ll enjoy the step by step, narrated demonstrations you can follow along with. </div><div><br /></div><div>And it’s all broken up into videos that are just a few minutes long. If you want to block off a morning and watch it straight through you can, but if you want to catch a couple of videos when you’ve got 15 minutes of down time you can get through it that way too. Or if you just have a question on a specific topic, such as when to use A/B vs Multivariate, you can jump directly to that video and have your answer a few minutes later.</div></blockquote><div>Take a look at the trailer below:</div><div><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BXKQ0elgHdY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;hd=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BXKQ0elgHdY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Well, we like things that make it even easier to use Google Website Optimizer in even more effective ways, so thanks Dave. You can <a href="http://bit.ly/lyndaGWO">find the course at lynda.com</a>!</div></span></div><div><span class="byline-author"><br /></span></div>Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/1687304504470394910/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-google-website-optimizer-online.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="4 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/1687304504470394910" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/1687304504470394910" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-google-website-optimizer-online.html" rel="alternate" title="New Google Website Optimizer Online Video Training Released!" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-3218100963810246907</id><published>2010-09-24T09:59:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:49.043-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Events"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Join Website Optimizer at eMetrics & Conversion Conference in Washington DC</title><content type="html"><div>In less than two weeks, <a href="http://www.conversionconference.com/east/home.html">Conversion Conference East</a> will take place in Washington DC. Google Website Optimizer will be there along with Google Analytics.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Conversion rate optimization is still a young discipline in the world of interactive marketing. The event was founded by Tim Ash, president of <a href="http://sitetuners.com/">Site Tuners</a> (a Website Optimizer Certified Partner). What's exciting about Conversion Conference is that the entire program is dedicated to the discipline. Experts in the field, as well as those who are just learning the art and science of conversion optimization, now have a forum to share best practices, network, and learn from each other.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are anywhere near Washington DC October 4-5, we hope you'll join us there. We have a coupon for $250 off for Website Optimizer blog readers. Enter the code <i>CCE631</i> when registering at the <a href="http://www.conversionconference.com/east/home.html">Conversion Conference site</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Here’s a taste of some of the presentations at Conversion Conference:</div><div> </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Monday, October 4th</b></div><div>The Four Pillars of Building Instant Trust Online (Tim Ash)</div><div>The Power of Split Testing (Brooks Bell and Lance Loveday)</div><div>Pay Per Click Landing Page Continuity (Lauren Vaccarello and William Leake)</div><div> </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Tuesday, October 5th</b></div><div>Getting Started with Google Website Optimizer (I'll be giving this one)</div><div>Multivariate Testing (Eric Hansen and Chris Duskin)</div><div>The Science of Pursuasion (John Whalen)</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div>Be sure to stop by the Google booth and say "Hi" and grab a squishy HiPPO. Looking forward to seeing you.</div><div><span class="byline-author"><br /></span></div><div><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></div></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/3218100963810246907/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/09/join-website-optimizer-at-emetrics.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/3218100963810246907" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/3218100963810246907" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/09/join-website-optimizer-at-emetrics.html" rel="alternate" title="Join Website Optimizer at eMetrics & Conversion Conference in Washington DC" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-6958420735674919080</id><published>2010-08-02T13:09:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:52.152-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Guest author"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Creating Targeted Tests using DoubleClick Ad Planner and Website Optimizer</title><content type="html"><div style="text-align: left;"><i>This guest post was contributed by <a href="http://twitter.com/danielwaisberg">Daniel Waisberg</a>, the Founder and Editor of <a href="http://online-behavior.com/">Online Behavior</a>, a Marketing Measurement &amp; Optimization website. Daniel looks at how you can use DoubleClick Ad Planner to find ideas for testing.</i></div><br />Testing is probably the most effective way to optimize websites. Through testing we can understand what our customers like, which ultimately will help us create a better customer experience for our audience. But "our audience" is usually not a unique type of person; it is important use techniques such as <a href="http://online-behavior.com/testing/test-segmentation-234">Test Segmentation</a> to understand the differences in the tastes of each cluster of customers.<br /><br />However, where can you get ideas for tests? How do you choose, for example, if you should use an image of a man, a woman, a couple, a baby or a family? Most of us do not have the privilege of testing the YouTube homepage: traffic is limited for most sites, so it is important to run tests that have a high chance of making a difference. We have to focus our efforts on our best guesses. In this post, we will show a way to use <a href="http://www.google.com/adplanner">DoubleClick Ad Planner</a> to research for testing ideas that will be tailor made to the segments you are trying to target in your website.<br /><br /><b>Finding Your Audience on Ad Planner<br /></b><br />In a recent <a href="http://doubleclickadvertisers.blogspot.com/2010/02/better-site-traffic-data-in-doubleclick.html">blog post</a> on the DoubleClick Advertiser Blog, the DoubleClick Ad Planner mission is described as:<br /><blockquote>...to provide the deepest, most accurate insight into online audiences possible. This insight helps display advertisers select the best sites for their media plans and drive results for their campaigns.</blockquote>However, I believe this description is missing an important part, which is not less important to advertisers: to understand your audience tastes and which kind of websites they like. The DoubleClick Ad Planner provides important insights into how to design your campaign landing pages and your website at all.<br /><br />So, let's suppose I am working to optimize the <a href="http://www.emetrics.org/">eMetrics Summit</a> website for the San Francisco conference in 2011. The Summit targets marketing managers, web analysts and business intelligence experts that are trying to understand how to increase the return on online investments. Here is how to find the tastes and preferences of this audience:<br /><ol><li>Sign in to DoubleClick Ad Planner and <b>create a new Media plan</b>;</li><li>Go to <b>Research</b> tab, choose the <b>Research by Audience</b> secondary tab;</li><li>Choose among the various segmentation options in order to narrow the audience and the websites they visit. Below are the segments chosen for eMetrics San Francisco audience:</li></ol><ul><li>Geography: chose country USA and refined it to include only West Coast states. That's the main target for this show since eMetrics also hosts a <a href="http://www.emetrics.org/washingtondc/">Washington DC conference</a></li><li>Demographics: included both males and females, between 25 and 44 years old, with at least a bachelor degree, with a household income above $75K. I <i>think</i> this segment is very close to the audience of the conference (but I have no inside information)</li><li>Online Activity: chose a large website that the audience is likely to visit: <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics">Google Analytics</a></li><li>Interests: chose everything under 'Business' and 'Computers &amp; Electronics'</li><li>Ranking Method: chose the ranking method to be 'Best Match' since we are not doing this analysis in order to find a place to advertise (in which case we might sort the websites by reach), but to find a place that our target likes to visit</li></ul>Below is a screenshot from DoubleClick Ad Planner showing all the segmenting options and the audience created above. We can call the list created below "Website Testing Inspiration"<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TFcntcaDMAI/AAAAAAAAA7c/85fWlMtxshQ/s1600/Ad+Planner+Audience.png"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TFcntcaDMAI/AAAAAAAAA7c/85fWlMtxshQ/s400/Ad+Planner+Audience.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500909131529400322" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 157px; " /></a><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><u><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Click for full-size image</span></i></u></span></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TFcntcaDMAI/AAAAAAAAA7c/85fWlMtxshQ/s1600/Ad+Planner+Audience.png"></a><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><u><br /></u></span></div><b>Getting Ideas for Your Test</b><br /><br />Once we find the "Website Testing Inspiration" table, which shows the websites where our targeted audience is surfing around, we have the raw material necessary to get ideas for our testing efforts. Continuing our example above, we can visit the websites in the Top 10 websites that match our audience and start analyzing them.<br /><br />So, here are a few insights from the analysis above for the eMetrics San Francisco home:<br /><ul><li>First of all, looks like <a href="http://www.jimsterne.com/">Jim Sterne</a> chose the right color, blue is very prominent in all the websites;</li><li>Idea #1: it could be worth a try to add some geeky machines to the page, such as in the Pitney Bowes, Kaiser Permanente and Frys websites;</li><li>Idea #2: call these companies and have someone present at eMetrics and feature it at the conference homepage;</li><li>Idea #3: submit a post to both TechCrunch and Gizmodo, which would certainly be happy to feature interesting content about social media metrics. The posts would be useful in order to promote the conference and, in terms of testing, the eMetrics homepage could try featuring in a prominent place that the conference is being quoted in these websites (something like "In the news");</li><li>Idea #4: interesting to see that Stack Overflow is number 5 on the list, a website for "professional and enthusiast programmers". It looks like many technical people are inside this audience. Maybe it could be worthwhile to try showing a classification on the site targeting different types of people: "Programmers only talks", "Business Minded talks", "Marketers, Statisticians and liars"...</li></ul></div><div>These are initial ideas that should be discussed and improved based on the website and the target being studied. As the analysis gets deeper, the insights will become more valuable.<br /><br /><b>Bonus</b>: Instead of looking for your audience and which sites they visit, you can also look into your competitors' sites and understand which segments they are attracting that you are not. Read more about it on Avinash's post: <a href="http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2008/08/competitive-intelligence-analysis-google-ad-planner.html">Competitive Intelligence Analysis: Google / DoubleClick Ad Planner</a>.</div></div></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/6958420735674919080/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/08/creating-targeted-tests-using.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="1 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/6958420735674919080" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/6958420735674919080" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/08/creating-targeted-tests-using.html" rel="alternate" title="Creating Targeted Tests using DoubleClick Ad Planner and Website Optimizer" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/TFcntcaDMAI/AAAAAAAAA7c/85fWlMtxshQ/s72-c/Ad+Planner+Audience.png" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-2380757051150113694</id><published>2010-04-28T14:27:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:48.285-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Events"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Website Optimizer at eMetrics San Jose and Conversion Conference West next week</title><content type="html"><div><span class="byline-author"><div>Two great industry conferences are happening next week in San Jose: <a href="http://www.emetrics.org/sanjose">eMetrics</a> and the <a href="http://www.conversionconference.com">Conversion Conference</a>. Veterans of the industry will be familiar with eMetrics, but you may not know about the Conversion Conference.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Conversion Conference is a brand new event being chaired by Tim Ash. Tim is the president of <a href="http://www.sitetuners.com">Site Tuners</a> (a Website Optimizer Certified Partner), and if you’ve been to any online marketing conference in the last few years, you’ve probably heard him speak about the importance of conversion. He’s helped assemble some of the best minds in conversion (like Bryan Eisenberg and Jakob Nielsen) for a really amazing event.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you haven’t registered yet, Conversion Conference is offering a $250 late-bird discount. Just enter CCW646 when registering at the <a href="http://www.conversionconference.com">Conversion Conference site</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here’s some of the happenings at the two conferences:</div><div><br /></div><div>Tuesday, May 4th</div><div><ul><li>11am - Introduction to Website Optimizer session (I’m giving this session)</li><li>1:50pm - What’s New with Google Analytics with Brett Crosby</li><li>2pm - Web Analytics &amp; Uncovering Problems with Eric Peterson &amp; Brett Crosby</li></ul></div><div>We’ll be hosting a book signing of the brand new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Marketing-Google-Analytics-Strategies/dp/0470578319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1272418624&amp;sr=1-1"><i>Performance Marketing with Google Analytics</i></a>. All three authors, two Google Analytics Certified Partners, Justin Cutroni and Caleb Whitmore and a former member of the Google Analytics team, Sebastian Tonkin, will be on hand giving away and signing the new book on May 4th, starting at 3pm in the Cupertino room.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wednesday, May 5th</div><div><ul><li>9am - Keynote: Leveraging Bleeding Edge Analytics Goodies with Avinash Kaushik</li><li>12:15pm - Brown Bag Deep Dive with Google Analytics product manager, Jayanth Mysore</li></ul></div><div>Also, don’t miss your chance to come face to face with the HiPPO at the Google booth. Hope to see you next week in San Jose.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/S9inv7DVEOI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/dGOEW0RcMtA/s288/three-angry-hippos.jpg" /></div><div><br /></div></span></div><div><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></div></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/2380757051150113694/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/04/website-optimizer-at-emetrics-san-jose.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="3 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2380757051150113694" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2380757051150113694" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/04/website-optimizer-at-emetrics-san-jose.html" rel="alternate" title="Website Optimizer at eMetrics San Jose and Conversion Conference West next week" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/S9inv7DVEOI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/dGOEW0RcMtA/s72-c/three-angry-hippos.jpg" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-7100508921070072179</id><published>2010-02-24T15:13:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:52.269-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Announcements"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Website Optimizer system upgrade coming soon</title><content type="html"><div>Within the next two weeks, Google Website Optimizer will undergo a system upgrade. During this upgrade, Website Optimizer will be in <a href="http://www.google.com/support/websiteoptimizer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=173813">maintenance mode</a>. Your experiments will continue to run and collect data, and you’ll be able to view your reports. However, you will not be able to create or modify experiments. This includes launching, pausing, or stopping an experiment.</div><div><br /></div><div>We’ll notify you of the exact timing of this upgrade both here on the blog and with a message inside your Website Optimizer account. Thanks for bearing with us as we continue to make Website Optimizer better.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you also use Google Analytics you should know that they’ll be undergoing a similar upgrade, which you can read about on the <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/02/upcoming-system-upgrade-for-greater.html">Google Analytics blog</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Update:</b> 3/2/2010 at 8:55 AM</div><div>We've begun the upgrade and Website Optimizer is currently in maintenance mode. A reminder that you'll be unable to create or modify experiments during this time.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Update:</b> 3/3/2010 at 8:10 AM</div><div>As of about 2AM PST this morning, Website Optimizer is out of maintenance mode and working normally. Thanks for bearing with us during the maintenance period.</div><div><br /></div><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/7100508921070072179/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/02/website-optimizer-system-upgrade-coming.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="14 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/7100508921070072179" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/7100508921070072179" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/02/website-optimizer-system-upgrade-coming.html" rel="alternate" title="Website Optimizer system upgrade coming soon" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>14</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-4867919744875504733</id><published>2010-02-23T14:28:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:50.331-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Guest author"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Learning Resources"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">25 Google Website Optimizer Tips for Better Product Pages</title><content type="html"><div><i>Late last year, a fantastic post went around the Internet with <a href="http://www.conversionrate.net/55-google-website-optimizer-tips">55 Google Website Optimzer Tips and Tricks</a>. Today, we have a sequel for you. This is a guest post from Khalid Saleh, who is the president and cofounder of <a href="http://www.invesp.com/">Invesp</a>, an ecommerce conversion rate optimization company. </i></div><span class="byline-author"><div></div><div>Increasing e-commerce conversion rates is challenging. With thousands of possible pages, where should you start optimizing? Even if you can answer that question by picking a small set of pages to start with, what changes should you make? </div><div><br /></div><div>The following tips will be focused on product page testing, but we will first set the stage with few setup items: </div></span><div></div><div><span class="byline-author"><div>1. <b>Segmenting your visitors.</b> Nothing is more powerful than segmenting your visitors and examining the different trends these visitors follow on your site. At a minimum, you should segment visitors by source of traffic, keyword, type of visit (new vs. returning) and country. </div><div><br /></div><div>2. <b>Segmentation with Google Website Optimizer = Testing on Steroids!</b> Not all customers are created equal, nor should you deal with all customers equally. Testing different versions of your page or funnel is powerful. Testing different versions based on the type of visitors is even more powerful. There are different ways of doing this, but we recommend starting with <a href="http://community.btbuckets.com/profiles/blogs/google-website-optimizer-with">BTBuckets</a> or <a href="http://searchengineland.com/how-to-segment-google-website-optimizer-tests-33341">with these instructions</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>3. <b>Setup your funnels.</b> Funnels tell you what pages are causing visitors to exit the site. At a minimum, we recommend you setup the following funnels:</div><div><ul><li>Home page to cart page funnel</li><li>General checkout process funnel including the cart page</li><li>General checkout process funnel excluding the cart page</li><li>Checkout process funnel for different payment types including the cart page</li><li>Checkout process funnel for different payment types excluding the cart page</li></ul>4. <b>Funnels &amp; visitors.</b> Beyond setting up funnels is segmenting your traffic and examining how it moves in funnels. But how do you do that in Google Analytics? We will let you in on a small secret:</div><div><ul><li>Setup the different funnels in Google Analytics</li><li>Setup different profiles to represent the different segments</li><li>Now, you can examine each of the funnels for the different profiles</li></ul></div><div>5. <b>Returning visitors vs. new visitors.</b> Comparing different segments of visitors can be confusing. You should expect visitors from organic search to interact differently with your site compared to visitors from paid search. We find that segmenting new visitors versus returning visitors can reveal major design problems in the site. Generally returning visitors will take longer on a site, view more pages, and have lower exit and bounce rates. If that is not the case, then you might have major design issues to deal with.</div><div><br /></div><div>6. <b>Product pages: A micro conversion.</b> We like to run the product pages tests twice with different conversion goals:</div><div><ul><li>Micro conversion goal: When a visitor adds an item to the cart, we count that as a micro conversion.</li><li>Macro conversion: When the visitor completes an order, we count a macro conversion.</li></ul></div><div>7. <b>Product pages: the image.</b> Yes, you heard it before. An image is worth a thousand words. However, product images do require an investment, so test the correct solution for your website. Each of the options below will require considerable time, software, and resource commitment. So, test with 5 to 10 products before choosing the right solution for your website. </div><div><br /></div><div>8. <b>Product pages: Image of product in use.</b> Test with showing the product in use vs. images with solid backgrounds. While in many cases showing the product in use helps the visitors see themselves use the particular product, this is not the case for all products. Apparel websites seem to benefit from this feature. Electronics or book websites, not so much!</div><div><br /></div><div>9. <b>Product pages: Location of the image.</b> Where should you place the product image? Common wisdom is to place product images on right side of product pages. But common wisdom fails to predict how visitors will act on your website. So test placing the image on left versus the right and see which converts better. </div><div><br /></div><div>10. <b>Product pages: Product zooming.</b> If you have the software installed on your website, then allowing visitors to zoom in and examine the product closely is an excellent feature to add.</div><div><br /></div><div>11. <b>Product pages: Multiple product images.</b> Finally, consider having multiple images of the product. We usually recommend having 3-4 images per product to start with. But a word of caution here: hire a professional photographer for these images. Having several low quality images versus a single high quality image is something worth thinking about.</div><div><br /></div><div>12. <b>Product pages: your product descriptions.</b> Most e-commerce stores take the product description from the manufacturer and place it on the site. So, you will find the same description on competing e-commerce stores. Pick your top 10 best selling products and:</div><div><ul><li>Test the impact of having the standard manufacturer's description versus custom copy your team creates. What impact does this have on the micro conversion (visitors adding items to their cart)?</li><li>Test different versions of the custom copy you create: Not all copy created equal. You might want to test technical copy versus non-technical. Consider the different market segments and what words will have the most impact on them. </li></ul></div><div>13. <b>Product pages: Reviews.</b> Reviews are great for increasing conversions. There are many studies that show product reviews are responsible for up to 30% uplift in conversions. However, if you are just starting out, allow customers to add reviews but do not display them right away. Wait for a product to collect enough reviews before sharing them with your visitors. Consider using services such <a href="http://www.productwiki.com/">ProductWiki</a> to add images on your site. </div><div><br /></div><div>14. <b>Product pages: add to cart buttons.</b> Yes, they do impact conversion. And there are many things you can test with these:</div><div><ul><li>Test the location of the add to cart button</li><li>Test different designs of the add to cart button</li><li>Test the wording on the add to cart buttons </li></ul></div><div>15. <b>Product pages: don’t overdo it!</b> What do you think of this?</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/S38UeyA6k-I/AAAAAAAAAw8/JGpFdW5jzNo/s400/too-many-ctas.png" /></div><div>Too many CTAs (call to actions) can stop a visitor in their tracks.</div><div><br /></div><div>16. <b>Product pages: cross-sells and upsells.</b> We know that you want to sell more of your products. Cross-sells and upsells can help you do that, but they also can distract the visitors. So, test the placement of cross-sells and upsells on your product pages. Should they go in the left navigation or somewhere in the middle section of the product pages? </div><div><br /></div><div>17. <b>Product pages: pricing.</b> Most of your visitors will do some sort of comparison shopping. So, test different prices and see what impact that will have on your conversion rates. We had a client who reported a 135% increase in conversion rate by lowering product prices by 10%. We do not like to focus on pricing as a mechanism to increase conversion rates but sometimes it works really well. </div><div><br /></div><div>18. <b>Poor man testing: pricing &amp; Google Website Optimizer.</b> It is usually difficult to switch back and forth between different pricing for items, but here is a general framework to help you:</div><div><ul><li>Most ecommerce packages provide a way to maintain a single price for a product. Plan on a strategy for testing multiple prices:</li><ul><li>Price A is the original price</li><li>Price B is the original price x 1.10 (10% increase)</li><li>Price C is the original price x 0.90 (10% decrease)</li></ul><li>Price A (original is already saved in your database). You can either maintain Price B, C in the database or have application logic to switch between the different prices for a single item. </li><li>One option to implement this is to have all prices available on the page and use GWO to display one price and hide the other two prices. Another option will be to use GWO to pass a variable value to be used in a formula to change the price. </li><li>Implementing this should take less than a day and will provide a mechanism to test prices in Google Website Optimizer. </li></ul></div><div>19. <b>Product pages: stock availability.</b> This is a no brainer. No customer likes to add an item to their cart only to discover later that the item is out of stock. So, tie your front end e-commerce store to your inventory system. If that is too much, then consider a daily update.</div><div><ul><li>Bad: No product availability on your site</li><li>Good: Always display product availability</li><li>Excellent: Display messages to encourage customers to buy a product if you have limited stock available (Only 5 left in stock -- order soon.)</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/S4Rcl0ZlCHI/AAAAAAAAAxE/fYm7dTzMn8c/s400/5instock.png" /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>20. <b>When can I have it?</b> Tell visitors when the product will be in their hands. Do not tell visitors the items will arrive 3 to 10 days. That will simply kill your conversion and if it does not, it will irritate visitors.</div><div><br /></div><div>21. <b>Product pages: Feature list. </b></div><div>The first level of attracting customers is features. Features are the facts about a given product. Features of an outdoor grill might include:</div><div><ul><li>Electric</li><li>Grease tray</li><li>Non-stick cooking surface</li><li>Temperature control</li><li>300 square inches of cooking space</li><li>Attached working surface</li></ul></div><div>22. <b>Product pages: The benefit list.</b> Benefits start you on the road to closing a sale. The benefits of the above outdoor grill include:</div><div><ul><li>Convenience</li><ul><li>Electric</li><li>Non-stick cooking surface</li><li>Attached working surface</li></ul><li>Easy to Use:<ul><li>Electric</li><li>Non-stick cooking surface</li><li>Temperature control</li><li>Attached working surface</li></ul></li><li>Saves Money</li><ul><li>Electric</li><li>Temperature control </li></ul></ul></div><div>23. <b>Product pages - People buy benefits, they do not buy features.</b> What results do your customers want from your barbeque? They want a grill that offers:</div><div><ul><li>Tasty, Healthy Food Every time</li><ul><li>Temperature control</li><li>Grease tray</li></ul><li>Perfect for Easy Entertaining</li><ul><li>300 square inches of cooking space</li><li>Attached working area</li><li>Easy to clean</li></ul><li>A Double Bonus: Environmentally Friendly While Saving You Money!</li><ul><li>Electric versus charcoal emissions</li><li>Do not have to buy charcoal for the life of the grill</li></ul></ul></div><div>24. <b>Bundled pricing.</b> Consider bundling shipping costs with product items so visitors will not have to worry about paying for shipping costs. If the shipping costs are too complicated to understand or might be on the high side, we recommend testing bundling them with the product price. </div><div><br /></div><div>25. <b>Free shipping is a great way to increase sales.</b> We have many clients who offer free shipping on orders above a certain size and usually see a nice uplift in both conversions and average order value by doing so.</div><div><br /></div><div>26. <b>Bonus tips: </b>If you are about to start conversion rate optimization, then these resources are a must:<br /><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.invesp.com/blog/sales-marketing/website-conversion-rate-101.html">Conversion rate 101</a>: a series of articles on conversion rate optimization. </div><div><a href="http://www.invesp.com/blog/conversion-optimization/personas-101-the-complete-guide-to-increasing-conversion-rates-through-persona-creation.html">Personas 101</a>: a complete guide to creating personas for your website</div><div><a href="http://www.landingpageoptimization.org/30-principles-to-a-better-landing-page-design">30+ principles to a better landing page design</a>: a must read for anyone interested in landing page design. </div><div><a href="http://www.invesp.com/blog/free-landing-page-templates">Landing page templates</a>: we optimized these templates using GWO to increase their conversion rates to the double digits. They are a good starting point.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Thanks to Khalid for putting together this great list. Share your own favorite GWO tips in the comments.</i></div></span></div><div><span class="byline-author"><br /></span></div><div><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></div></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/4867919744875504733/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/02/25-google-website-optimizer-tips-for.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="11 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/4867919744875504733" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/4867919744875504733" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/02/25-google-website-optimizer-tips-for.html" rel="alternate" title="25 Google Website Optimizer Tips for Better Product Pages" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/S38UeyA6k-I/AAAAAAAAAw8/JGpFdW5jzNo/s72-c/too-many-ctas.png" width="72"/><thr:total>11</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-3921242702152111551</id><published>2010-02-01T11:06:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:49.279-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Case Studies"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Experiments"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">How to quadruple a conversion rate</title><content type="html"><div>We’re big fans of increasing conversion rates. The bigger the increase, the happier we are. So we were delighted when <a href="http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com">Conversion Rate Experts</a>, one of our <a href="http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/woac.html">Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants</a>, told us how they recently quadrupled <a href="http://www.voices.com">Voices.com’s</a> conversion rate from under 5% to 22%.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can <a href="http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/voices-case-study">read all about how they did it on their website</a>, which I strongly encourage you to do. Come back after you’ve finished reading. We’ll wait.</div><div><br /></div><div>OK, done reading? You probably got some great ideas on what you can do to improve your site. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here’s CRE’s summation of key lessons:</div><div><ul><li>Find out why customers aren’t converting; don’t just guess. If you don’t know what their objections are, your chances of overcoming them are very slim.<br /><br /></li><li>Don’t “hide your light under a bushel.” If your company is the best at something—and if you have proof—make certain the proof is prominently placed on your website.<br /><br /></li><li>Consider segmenting your visitors. How do you know whether to segment visitors? If your most common “visitor intentions” can’t be addressed with the same message, you should segment them. Similarly, if you have more than one type of visitor, and they can’t all be served by the same message, you’ll probably have to segment them. Beware that segmentation can create a lot of extra work, so only do it if you absolutely have to.<br /><br /></li><li>People don’t buy what they don’t understand. Clearly explain your service, so the prospect is more likely to feel in control and take action.<br /><br /></li><li>Sometimes video is the best medium for explaining things—and for providing proof. Web video needn’t cost a lot, as we’ll reveal soon (subscribe to our newsletter to receive details). Screen capture videos can easily be carried out using Camtasia (for PC) or Screenflow (which is our preferred option for Mac).<br /></li></ul></div><div><b>The Big Lesson</b></div><div>For me, the biggest lesson from this story is that quadrupling a conversion rate is <i>hard work</i>. Let’s break this up a bit:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Know your (client’s) customer</i></div><div>CRE has a lot of experience in improving websites, but the first thing they did was work to understand the customer. They ran surveys, they spoke with the Voices.com CEO, they dug deep into the web analytics, all to find out what customers were thinking when they visited the website.</div><div><br /></div><div>Time and again, the greatest conversion rate increases I’ve seen have come from a better understanding of the customer. So, take the time to really get inside your customers’ heads.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Avoid the Spaghetti Strategy</i></div><div>If you want to radically increase your conversion rate, you can’t just throw up a test with two new images and three new headlines like pieces of spaghetti and hope that they stick. You need to put thought into how you can improve conversion rate, and you need to know your customer.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Don’t stop at the first test</i></div><div>Conversion Rate Experts didn’t go from 5% to 22% with one test. It wasn’t two, three, or even five tests. The 400% increase is the result of 11 tests. Maybe more importantly, these tests spanned the entire conversion funnel and didn’t just focus on the landing pages. By continuing to learn more about the customer and methodical testing, CRE achieved great results. Testing isn't a one time thing, and it takes a few iterations to get the biggest wins.</div><div><br /></div><div>It may be hard work, but as Voices.com's results show, it’s worth the effort.</div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/3921242702152111551/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-quadruple-conversion-rate.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="8 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/3921242702152111551" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/3921242702152111551" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-quadruple-conversion-rate.html" rel="alternate" title="How to quadruple a conversion rate" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>8</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-8703755517461804499</id><published>2010-01-19T15:29:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:53.029-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Guest author"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Change the way you see your site with Browser Size</title><content type="html"><div><i>This is a guest post from Jesse Nichols. Jesse is part of the Google Analytics team and is one of our Analytics gurus. Here, he shares a new tool in Google Labs that can help you see how visitors see your site.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>The easiest websites to optimize are the horrible ones. In fact, the hardest part about optimizing a site that has a million and one problems is deciding which ones to go after first. However, where do you begin if you have a beautiful, clean, profitable website? If there are no clear issues - if the calls to action are visible and the page uncluttered and the buttons big and shiny - then what can be done short of remaking the entire site (an idea as scary as it is unnecessary)?</div><div><br /></div><div>Sometimes, all you need is a change in perspective. We, the web savvy, see the Internet through big, clear monitors and 11 point font. We look at our site and we can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t be able to perform whatever task the site is designed to do. Well, to that end, Google Labs has created <a href="http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/">Browser Size</a>. This nifty little tool allows you to see how much of your webpage is immediately visible to your visitor depending on the size of their monitor and resolution settings.</div><br /><div>The concept of “the fold” of a webpage (as in “above the fold”, i.e., what can be seen upon landing on a webpage without any scrolling) is not a solid line that snips the bottom off every page, but rather a subjective experience. The notion of having important links, buttons and messages above the fold is taken for granted as a good policy, so what if you found out that 20% of your visitors couldn’t immediately see what you thought they could?</div><div><br /></div><div>Plug your site into Browser Size and you’ll get that perspective. Each band of color represents approximately how many visitors will see that section immediately upon landing (the seemingly shaky lines are actually a true representation of the visible area excluding the title bar, toolbars, etc). If you have important information or buttons in the 70% range, that means 30% of your visitors are forced to scroll to see that information and convert.</div><div><br /></div><div>Take a look at this example from the Website Optimizer homepage:</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/S1ZA1LExIDI/AAAAAAAAAtw/_L4uNAzaIys/s800/browser-size.png"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/S1ZA1LExIDI/AAAAAAAAAtw/_L4uNAzaIys/s400/browser-size.png" /></a><br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Click to see full-size</span></i></div><div><br /></div><div>As you can see, most people can see our primary call to action, the “Start testing now” button. However, some of our educational content like Benefits and Testing 101 sections is below the fold for 50% of viewers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Think the numbers are different for your site? Browser Size bases its data on a sample of visitors to Google.com, but you can check out your screen resolutions report in your web analytics tool to see the most common visitor screen resolutions for your own site. For most sites the list of dimensions is quite long, and the ones we in the industry tend to use – 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024 - typically only represent about 50% of the visitors at best.</div><div><br /></div><div>So get back to the optimization grindstone, squeeze another percentage point or two into your conversion rate, and give all of your visitors the experience they deserve. You can start using Browser Size at <a href="http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/">http://browsersize.googlelabs.com</a></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Thanks again to Jesse for sharing this post with us.</i></div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/8703755517461804499/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/01/change-way-you-see-your-site-with.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="12 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/8703755517461804499" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/8703755517461804499" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2010/01/change-way-you-see-your-site-with.html" rel="alternate" title="Change the way you see your site with Browser Size" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06256946680237773114</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Zj7Xn8xapy0/S1ZA1LExIDI/AAAAAAAAAtw/_L4uNAzaIys/s72-c/browser-size.png" width="72"/><thr:total>12</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-8925365533863541285</id><published>2009-11-19T16:25:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:53.088-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="API"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Learning Resources"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Videos"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Webinars"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Two webinars now up on the Website Optimizer YouTube channel</title><content type="html"><div>It's a great week for the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/websiteoptimizer">Website Optimizer YouTube channel</a>. On the heels of Dan Siroker's talk, <i><a href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-video-how-we-used-data-to-win.html">How we used data to win the election</a></i>, we just posted two recorded webinars. The first webinar is <i>Planning and Running your First Experiment with Website Optimizer</i>. <a href="http://www.websharedesign.com/">David Booth</a>, one of our authorized consultants, gives an outstanding presentation that guides you through setting up your first test. Along the way, he shares lots of great insights, case studies, and tips for increasing your conversion rate.</div><div><br /></div><div><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uPtsrCqUKL8&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;hd=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uPtsrCqUKL8&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The second webinar is about the <a href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-website-optimizer.html">Website Optimizer Experiment Management API</a> and is aimed at a more technical audience. In this webinar, Website Optimizer engineers Erika Rice-Scherpelz and Gary Kacmarcik explain how to use the API. We also have a demonstration from <a href="http://www.blastam.com/">Ken Colborn</a>, also a GWO authorized consultant, on how he's integrated Website Optimizer with their <a href="http://www.motivitycms.com/">Motivity CMS</a> platform.</div><div><br /></div><div><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DjF2xIy2by4&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;hd=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DjF2xIy2by4&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Grab some popcorn and enjoy.</div><div><br /></div><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/8925365533863541285/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/11/two-webinars-now-up-on-website.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="5 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/8925365533863541285" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/8925365533863541285" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/11/two-webinars-now-up-on-website.html" rel="alternate" title="Two webinars now up on the Website Optimizer YouTube channel" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>5</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-7114060099557428996</id><published>2009-11-16T14:58:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:52.328-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Case Studies"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Videos"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">New video: How We Used Data to Win the Election</title><content type="html"><div>We just posted a new video on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/websiteoptimizer">Website Optimizer YouTube channel</a> that shows the power of website testing. Last month, we held our annual Google Partner Summit where we hosted all of the Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, and Urchin Software Authorized Consultants. One of the keynote speakers was Dan Siroker, Director of Analytics for the Obama Presidential campaign.</div><div><br /></div><div>In his 50 minute talk, Dan explained how they used data to win the election. He shows how they used tools like Google Analytics and Website Optimizer to get more engagement and more donations. He also describes the lessons that they learned throughout the campaign. With the successful election behind him, Dan is now focused on his startup, <a href="http://www.carrotsticks.com/">CarrotSticks</a>, and he explains how he's using the same principles within his own company.</div><div><br /><object width="500" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xIpLwIRytMw&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xIpLwIRytMw&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Special thanks to Kobi Reiter, Website Optimizer engineer, for his steady hand in recording this video.</div><div><br /></div><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/7114060099557428996/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-video-how-we-used-data-to-win.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="9 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/7114060099557428996" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/7114060099557428996" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-video-how-we-used-data-to-win.html" rel="alternate" title="New video: How We Used Data to Win the Election" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>9</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-2632539486756389300</id><published>2009-10-27T09:54:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:48.401-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Case Studies"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Google Analytics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Guest author"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Using Website Optimizer with Google Analytics - Case Study with Catalogs.com</title><content type="html"><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The following is a guest post from Julie Ferrara-Brown, Director of Quantitative Analysis for WebShare. WebShare is one of our <a href="http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/partners.html">Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants</a>. The case focuses on exploring more than just a single conversion.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div> </div><div>Often, optimizing a site means more than optimizing for a single conversion. Understanding how your test pages and sections affect bounce rate, ecommerce revenue, time on site, and all the other metrics provided by Google Analytics can be even more useful than a single conversion rate in painting a picture of how your site is used.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Good news! You can use Google Website Optimizer and Google Analytics together to open up a whole new world of optimization and testing for your site.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><b>A Single Conversion is Not Enough</b></div><div><a href="http://www.catalogs.com/">Catalogs.com</a> worked with <a href="http://www.websharedesign.com/">WebShare</a>, a Google Analytics &amp; Website Optimizer Authorized Consultancy, to plan and run a test that integrated both tools to collect and analyze a wealth of data. With a number of different monetization paths, the Catalogs.com website wanted to know not only whether alternative versions increase overall conversions, but also what impact would these versions have on specific types of conversions and the revenue associated with them.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>During this test, while Website Optimizer as a standalone tool was able to show that overall conversions had increased by 6.8%, the integration with Google Analytics showed much more granular and relevant improvements:</div><div><ul><li>Specifically, catalog orders rose by almost 11%</li><li>Total revenue from all conversion types was up 7.4%</li></ul></div><div> “It’s great to know that the changes we tested gave us an increase in our overall conversions, but all of our different conversion actions are not equal in terms of the revenue they bring in,” explains Matt Craine of Catalogs.com. “It’s possible that the increase in overall conversion rate could actually lose us money because it was due to a design enticing visitors toward a low value conversion at the expense of our higher value actions.”</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><b>Setting up the Test</b></div><div>The aim of this experiment was to test different layouts across all of the sites’ merchant pages. The experiment was set up as a single variable, four-state MVT, encompassing every one of these merchant pages.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Three variations were created, and each merchant page was available in one of its three formats by using different file extensions (.alpha, .beta, and .gamma). The test variable was actually just a piece of script that controlled which version of merchant pages a visitor would see.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><b>Running the Analysis – Website Optimizer</b></div><div>Over the course of a few weeks, almost 70,000 unique visitors participated in the experiment and performed almost 30,000 overall conversion actions. We could see in the Website Optimizer experiment reports that we had found a winner in the Beta version:</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiamirC5ret0SF5blQf1NdAw38nVQKZsHI6LKX6JJKMCkIBsmTY_Sdx0lX3M8S7UKuclVNXN3liM_l2JD4rK1DV-s9ENjH20jg3FmqzFtsVDi5btVB4LaGhiT_bWli4YI2hy01t/s1600-h/gwo-blog-pic1.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiamirC5ret0SF5blQf1NdAw38nVQKZsHI6LKX6JJKMCkIBsmTY_Sdx0lX3M8S7UKuclVNXN3liM_l2JD4rK1DV-s9ENjH20jg3FmqzFtsVDi5btVB4LaGhiT_bWli4YI2hy01t/s400/gwo-blog-pic1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397326519001291330" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 123px; " /></a></div><div>This, however, simply told us that Beta was more likely to result in a conversion, regardless of type or associated revenue. Enter Google Analytics.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><b>Getting Additional Data From Google Analytics</b></div><div>In this case, the easiest way to see the Google Analytics data for each variation is by using Advanced Segments. Since each template had its own extension, we can create an advanced segment that matches the “Page” dimension with a specific extension. The result is that the segment will only include data for sessions that included a pageview on one or more pages that matched that condition. Below is an example for the Alpha variation:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHWWABKVUXUP22mXbMU1ypCofHBQTHqkUVNQREkL4N8IC28QsOvO-P_KLHMiVyHQy5OesP-mXOAfkgpW9GRZUXcxiKC__Z9XswUreCKsDWl8CgRFI89wiHYvW4470ZokUplupV/s400/gwo-blog-pic2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397326512979765394" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 139px; " /></span></div><div>After creating a segment for each of the variations, it’s simply a matter of applying those segments to any report in Google Analytics and setting the appropriate date range. Now we can see, side-by-side, data for all the variations in any of Google Analytics’ reports.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><b>Running the Numbers</b></div><div>As an analytics platform (and not a testing platform), Google Analytics was not designed to perform the necessary statistical analysis to evaluate this data, but with the numbers it provides, you can perform an enormous amount of offline analysis. Let’s take the case of the bottom line, be-all, end-all metric: Total Revenue.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>For all the statisticians out there, in this particular case an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_test">F test</a> blocked by day was performed to compare means. The results can be seen in the following analysis.</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirUZ4uNBQNjdWf8DVOtQDS3ixNziIuORMvRd33rRKz_an_biRQRscOBTHe_keJFXX_yte1qPkAgj34Ba8RwBjXVyCbgG_rnKkotmh3biFoJJUpSkxdhj_Ft3PRn24CBt5AgmXC/s1600-h/gwo-blog-pic3.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirUZ4uNBQNjdWf8DVOtQDS3ixNziIuORMvRd33rRKz_an_biRQRscOBTHe_keJFXX_yte1qPkAgj34Ba8RwBjXVyCbgG_rnKkotmh3biFoJJUpSkxdhj_Ft3PRn24CBt5AgmXC/s400/gwo-blog-pic3.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397326505333742786" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 385px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>What this boils down to is that circles that do not overlap or barely overlap represent a significant difference, and in this case the Beta variation is statistically our best variation in terms of generating revenue.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><b>Why Look at Lots of Metrics?</b></div><div>Although we’ve only shown revenue analysis here, it’s important to note that performing this kind of analysis on a number of different metrics can really help you understand your visitors and their experience.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>For example, during this test we also found that the Beta version (the version that provided more conversions, more high value conversions, and more revenue) also had the worst bounce rate!</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Just because a visitor doesn't leave a site from the first page they land on does not mean they are going to convert.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><b>Get Integrated!</b></div><div>Depending upon your test type and implementation, there are a number of different ways to integrate Website Optimizer experiments with Google Analytics, and hopefully this post has helped to demonstrate the power of having all that wonderful data available in your testing.</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div>“Looking at a puzzle piece by itself is a good way to start toward a solution, but it doesn’t tell you the full story,” says Catalogs.com owner Leslie Linevsky. “Putting all those pieces together shows me how small changes are impacting my business as a whole.”</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Thanks to WebShare and Catalogs.com for sharing this case study.</i></div><div> </div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/2632539486756389300/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/using-website-optimizer-with-google.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="5 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2632539486756389300" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2632539486756389300" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/using-website-optimizer-with-google.html" rel="alternate" title="Using Website Optimizer with Google Analytics - Case Study with Catalogs.com" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiamirC5ret0SF5blQf1NdAw38nVQKZsHI6LKX6JJKMCkIBsmTY_Sdx0lX3M8S7UKuclVNXN3liM_l2JD4rK1DV-s9ENjH20jg3FmqzFtsVDi5btVB4LaGhiT_bWli4YI2hy01t/s72-c/gwo-blog-pic1.jpg" width="72"/><thr:total>5</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-9223036546113874480</id><published>2009-10-20T11:55:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:53.323-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Announcements"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="API"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Webinars"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Introducing the Website Optimizer Experiment Management API</title><content type="html"><div>Today at the <a href="http://emetrics.org/washingtondc">eMetrics conference</a> in Washington DC we announced the new Website Optimizer Experiment Management API. The API allows for the creation and management of experiments outside of the Website Optimizer interface. I'd like to share a bit about why we are so excited about the API.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today, creating and launching a Website Optimizer experiment is a series of steps. Depending on the design of your website, the content you want to test, and how savvy you are, these steps can be easy and quick or potentially difficult.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the most important steps in creating an experiment is adding the Website Optimizer tags to the test pages. This step can be problematic if your website uses a content management system or a third party shopping cart since it can be difficult to directly access the code for these pages.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the Website Optimizer Experiment Management API, these platforms can integrate Website Optimizer directly into their services. Today we have two platforms that are launching their integrations: <a href="http://www.crownpeak.com/">CrownPeak</a> and Blast Advanced Media's <a href="http://www.motivitycms.com/">Motivity CMS</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Both integrations allow you to create and launch Website Optimizer experiments without touching your website's code. Many other platforms are working on integrating with Website Optimizer, and we're excited about helping more businesses increase their conversion rates through website testing.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Getting Started with the API</b></div><div>If you'd like to learn more about using the Website Optimizer API, we've got a number of resources for you. First and foremost is the Website Optimizer API site on Google Code. There you'll find <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gwo/commonTasks.html">complete documentation on the API</a> and our <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gwo/">Getting Started guide</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>We also have set up a special Google Group for the Website Optimizer Experiment Management API. It's a place where you can discuss implementations and get questions answered. Visit the group here: <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/gwo-api/">http://groups.google.com/group/gwo-api/</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Upcoming Webinar</b></div><div>Lastly, we'd like to invite you to join us for a special webinar on the Website Optimizer Experiment Management API. The webinar will be held on October 28th at 10AM PDT. During the webinar, Website Optimizer engineers will walk you through how the API works. Also Blast Advanced Media and CrownPeak will demonstrate how they've integrated Website Optimizer into their platforms.</div><div><br /></div><div>You need to register for the webinar, which you can do here: <a href="https://googleonline.webex.com/googleonline/onstage/g.php?t=a&amp;d=577316679">https://googleonline.webex.com/googleonline/onstage/g.php?t=a&amp;d=577316679</a>. We'll record the webinar as well so you can reference it later.</div><div><br /></div><div>We're very excited about the Website Optimizer API and what it means for website testing. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.</div><div><br /></div><div>Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></div></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/9223036546113874480/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-website-optimizer.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="6 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/9223036546113874480" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/9223036546113874480" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-website-optimizer.html" rel="alternate" title="Introducing the Website Optimizer Experiment Management API" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>6</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-6062950278722091885</id><published>2009-10-20T11:22:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:51.448-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Announcements"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Features"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Follow your conversions with over time charts</title><content type="html"><div style="text-align: left;">If you've recently looked at your Website Optimizer reports you may have noticed something different. Today we launched another new feature designed to help you better understand the performance of your variations: over time charts.</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQvStyWSWuP2vdz_P7ztels4RlTbUyQ7d3nn2Mj8lcTcN23PPDD2l55JWktnsqrLgHuVOG6p0QitFSRr6puE8vw1gcHGTAyeLwWi4F7IE-5BaG4wU95-JdN-dOUIJ9bdvm_Eg0/s1600-h/overtime-charts.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQvStyWSWuP2vdz_P7ztels4RlTbUyQ7d3nn2Mj8lcTcN23PPDD2l55JWktnsqrLgHuVOG6p0QitFSRr6puE8vw1gcHGTAyeLwWi4F7IE-5BaG4wU95-JdN-dOUIJ9bdvm_Eg0/s400/overtime-charts.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394749513409492434" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 261px; " /></a></div><div>With over time charts you can see the cumulative conversion rate of each combination over the life of an experiment. This can give you a better understanding of how your site is performing. The new charts are available for all Website Optimizer experiments, and you'll find them on the reports page.</div><div><br /></div><div>We'd like to give a special thanks to Dennis Huo, who interned with us this past summer and built over time charts as part of his work here. Thanks for the charts, Dennis!</div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/6062950278722091885/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/follow-your-conversions-with-over-time.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="9 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/6062950278722091885" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/6062950278722091885" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/follow-your-conversions-with-over-time.html" rel="alternate" title="Follow your conversions with over time charts" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQvStyWSWuP2vdz_P7ztels4RlTbUyQ7d3nn2Mj8lcTcN23PPDD2l55JWktnsqrLgHuVOG6p0QitFSRr6puE8vw1gcHGTAyeLwWi4F7IE-5BaG4wU95-JdN-dOUIJ9bdvm_Eg0/s72-c/overtime-charts.png" width="72"/><thr:total>9</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-1410283036797915677</id><published>2009-10-19T11:20:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:47.875-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Events"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Learning Resources"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Join the Website Optimizer team at eMetrics in Washington DC</title><content type="html"><div>I'm blogging from 30,000 feet on my way from San Francisco to Washington DC (<a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/flying-in-wifi-wonderland-free-internet.html">thanks Virgin</a>) to let you know that the Website Optimizer team will be at the <a href="http://emetrics.org/washingtondc/">eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Washington DC</a> this week. If you'll be at eMetrics please come by the Google booth or the Google room to say hello.</div><div><br /></div><div>Additionally we're holding two free training sessions during the conference breaks. On Tuesday from 10:30am to 11:00am, I'll be leading a Website Optimizer 101 session. If you're feeling a little more advanced, you should join the Website Optimizer engineers for a special techie session on Wednesday, also at 10:30AM. Both sessions are being held in the Beech conference room, and are open to all attendees of eMetrics.</div><div><br /></div><div>We're looking forward to seeing you there</div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/1410283036797915677/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/join-website-optimzier-team-at-emetrics.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/1410283036797915677" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/1410283036797915677" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/join-website-optimzier-team-at-emetrics.html" rel="alternate" title="Join the Website Optimizer team at eMetrics in Washington DC" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-2753307193726758301</id><published>2009-09-22T13:57:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:48.519-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Learning Resources"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Webinars"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Upcoming webinar: Planning and Running Your First Experiment in Website Optimizer</title><content type="html"><div>A little while back we hosted a webinar with Tim Ash, one of our Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants, on <a href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/07/7-deadly-sins-of-landing-page-design.html">the 7 Sins of Landing Page Design</a>. Thousands of people watched the webinar, and for many it sparked the question, "Now I know why visitors aren't converting, but what do I do about it?"</div><div><br /></div><div>To guide you through the next step we're hosting another free webinar this week. It's being led by David Booth who also runs our <a href="http://www.google.com/awseminars">Website Optimizer Seminars for Success</a>. I've watched David teach Website Optimizer to hundreds of folks and he is an expert trainer. During the 1-hour webinar he's going to share with you how to plan and run your first experiment in Website Optimizer. Afterwards, David will be taking your live questions for a 30 minute Q&amp;A session.</div><div><br /></div><div>The webinar is being held on <a href="https://googleonline.webex.com/googleonline/onstage/g.php?t=a&amp;d=570373844">Thursday, September 24th at 10AM PDT</a>. If you can't make it, don't worry, we'll also post it on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/websiteoptimizer">GWO YouTube channel</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://googleonline.webex.com/googleonline/onstage/g.php?t=a&amp;d=570373844">Register for the webinar</a></div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/2753307193726758301/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/09/upcoming-webinar-planning-and-running.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="6 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2753307193726758301" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2753307193726758301" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/09/upcoming-webinar-planning-and-running.html" rel="alternate" title="Upcoming webinar: Planning and Running Your First Experiment in Website Optimizer" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>6</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-2468846898588154356</id><published>2009-09-09T12:57:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:48.343-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Features"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">New Website Optimizer feature: Experiment Notes</title><content type="html"><div style="text-align: left;">Part of running a good experiment is documenting what you are testing and the results. We released a new feature today called experiment notes, which helps you include documentation as part of your testing. For any of your experiments you can now add your own annotations.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGl0mcAhOEKhw4zwFhvbncSS1wXBt-51cTiN7YpU_DncredrSHuWB1YQdmzsSfwwZwoRF6e6ScohwzFNBKWLZ_ShCvEZhU-s-Qec-qGrv3ZY43licgw1w3cpIgGyIjhQi2YpuH/s1600-h/experiment-notes.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGl0mcAhOEKhw4zwFhvbncSS1wXBt-51cTiN7YpU_DncredrSHuWB1YQdmzsSfwwZwoRF6e6ScohwzFNBKWLZ_ShCvEZhU-s-Qec-qGrv3ZY43licgw1w3cpIgGyIjhQi2YpuH/s400/experiment-notes.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379559502528545186" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 193px; " /></a></div><div>What you put in your note depends on what stage your experiment is in. If you're still designing your experiment you might include your testing hypothesis or some variations you're considering. As your experiment is running, you might include any external factors that might have an impact on your conversion rate. And as your experiment concludes you might include some thoughts on why variations performed as they did.</div><div><br /></div><div>Experiment notes are also great if you have several teams coordinating on a Website Optimizer experiment. For example, your IT team might update the note once they've installed the Website Optimizer tags on the test page. Your creative team can then start creating variations in Website Optimizer and update the note.</div><div><br /></div><div>You'll find experiment notes on the Settings page for any experiment. Leave us a "note" in the comments to let us know what you think.</div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/2468846898588154356/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-website-optimizer-feature.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="23 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2468846898588154356" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/2468846898588154356" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-website-optimizer-feature.html" rel="alternate" title="New Website Optimizer feature: Experiment Notes" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGl0mcAhOEKhw4zwFhvbncSS1wXBt-51cTiN7YpU_DncredrSHuWB1YQdmzsSfwwZwoRF6e6ScohwzFNBKWLZ_ShCvEZhU-s-Qec-qGrv3ZY43licgw1w3cpIgGyIjhQi2YpuH/s72-c/experiment-notes.png" width="72"/><thr:total>23</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-4181329765355679260</id><published>2009-08-11T08:47:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:49.457-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Events"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Conversion is the word at SES San Jose this week</title><content type="html"><a href="http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sanjose/">Search Engine Strategies San Jose</a> starts today, and conversions is definitely a hot topic. Members of the Website Optimizer team and our partners are speaking throughout the show, and there's a lot more going on.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tuesday, August 11th, 2009</span><br /><ul><li>Always Be Testing - <a href="www.futurenowinc.com">Bryan Eisenberg</a> - 10:00-11:30</li><li>Creating a Web Analytics Culture - <a href="http://www.e-nor.com">Feras Alhlou</a> - 11:45-12:45</li><li>How to Turn Your Web Analytics into a Money Making Machine - <a href="http://www.kaushik.net/avinash">Avinash Kaushik</a>, <a href="www.futurenowinc.com">Bryan Eisenberg</a>, <a href="http://www.emetrics.org">Jim Sterne</a> - 1:45-2:45</li><li>Extreme Makeover: Conversion Edition - <a href="www.futurenowinc.com">Bryan Eisenberg</a> - 4:30-5:30</li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wednesday, August 12th, 2009</span><br /><ul><li>Convert Your Visitors to Customers (Google Site Search) - Nitin Mangtani - 10:45am - 12:00pm</li><li>Landing Page Testing &amp; Tuning - <a href="Tim%20Ash">Tim Ash</a> - 10:45-12:00</li><li>Google AdWords, Analytics &amp; Website Optimizer Secrets Revealed + Google Science Fair - 2:30pm - 3:45pm</li><li>Real World Multivariate Testing - Trevor Claiborne (that's me), Jim McDonald, Ayat Shukairy, David Sprinkle - 4:00pm - 5:15pm</li><li>Turning Simple Change Into Big Profit - Matthew Bailey, <a href="http://www.blastam.com">Kayden Kelly</a>, and Lance Loveday - 4:00-5:15</li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thursday, August 13</span><br /><ul><li>Extreme Makeover: Live Landing Page Clinic - <a href="http://www.sitetuners.net">Tim Ash</a> - 2:15-3:30</li><li>Extreme Makerover: Why am I not making enough sales - <a href="http://www.futurenowinc.com">Brendan Regan</a> - 3:45-5:00</li></ul>On Wednesday, we're holding a special session: <span style="font-style: italic;">Google AdWords, Analytics &amp; Website Optimizer Secrets Revealed</span>. Sandra Cheng, Product Manager for Website Optimizer, will be unveiling the largest Website Optimizer experiment to date. Also, please join us for the <span style="font-style: italic;">Google Science Fair</span>. Engineers and product managers from AdWords, Analytics, and Website Optimizer will be there to show what they're working on, answer questions, and just chat. This event is on Wednesday starting at 2:30pm in Ballroom A3.<br /><br />And if you're at the show, come find me at the Google Booth, #403. There's a Website Optimizer sticker in it for you.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/4181329765355679260/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/08/conversion-is-word-at-ses-san-jose-this.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="4 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/4181329765355679260" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/4181329765355679260" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/08/conversion-is-word-at-ses-san-jose-this.html" rel="alternate" title="Conversion is the word at SES San Jose this week" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36315330.post-5853399782778883697</id><published>2009-07-29T13:34:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2020-06-15T21:33:51.213-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Announcements"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Features"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Website Optimizer Blog"/><title type="text">Share your results with PDF Reports</title><content type="html">When I talk with users of Website Optimizer, they often tell me how exciting it is watching a test unfold and seeing the final results. That feeling you have after realizing that the new call to action section just <a href="http://www.blastam.com/broadcast/2009/06/google-website-optimizer-increases.html">sextupled your conversion rate</a> is not just exciting, it's contagious, and you want to share it.<br /><br />Previously, sharing your Website Optimizer reports could be a bit burdensome. You might have used a shared account or <a href="http://www.google.com/support/websiteoptimizer/bin/answer.py?answer=70790">shared access through AdWords</a> or exported the data to a spreadsheet, or maybe you even took screenshots of the reports. We released a new feature today that makes it easier to share your experiment results with others: PDF reports.<br /><br />With a PDF report you can generate a full copy of the Website Optimizer reports for any experiment. This makes it easy to share reports within your company (and perhaps with your very own hippo), or with clients (and their hippos).<br /><br />You'll find PDF reports on the Reports page for any Website Optimizer experiment.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxXiYv_bMOJuoSGawwWjnbvDRGGewd3kCIYHn7vmzUxEHCb1QaL-T2UK5_EALbFnPkKXGhb41No5ZaUAqZ9aQxm0F0-W8_VdoDDDS6Yur7idph7TMIM8aC8waV_HHYfTqRisi/s1600-h/pdf-reports.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxXiYv_bMOJuoSGawwWjnbvDRGGewd3kCIYHn7vmzUxEHCb1QaL-T2UK5_EALbFnPkKXGhb41No5ZaUAqZ9aQxm0F0-W8_VdoDDDS6Yur7idph7TMIM8aC8waV_HHYfTqRisi/s400/pdf-reports.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363984076215279394" border="0" /></a>Personally, I'm starting to build a collection of my best experiments. PDF reports look great framed on my wall.<br /><span class="byline-author"><br />Posted by Trevor Claiborne, <i>Website Optimizer team</i></span></content><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/feeds/5853399782778883697/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/07/share-your-results-with-pdf-reports.html#comment-form" rel="replies" title="11 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/5853399782778883697" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/36315330/posts/default/5853399782778883697" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/07/share-your-results-with-pdf-reports.html" rel="alternate" title="Share your results with PDF Reports" type="text/html"/><author><name>Trevor Claiborne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14208249638824633870</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxXiYv_bMOJuoSGawwWjnbvDRGGewd3kCIYHn7vmzUxEHCb1QaL-T2UK5_EALbFnPkKXGhb41No5ZaUAqZ9aQxm0F0-W8_VdoDDDS6Yur7idph7TMIM8aC8waV_HHYfTqRisi/s72-c/pdf-reports.png" width="72"/><thr:total>11</thr:total></entry></feed>