Jul 23 2008
The Google Trifecta – Free Webinar
Guest Blogger: Emily Croskey
I recently participated in a free online webinar that Google put on called ‘The Google Trifecta’, which included the three topics of Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer. The overall presentation ran smoothly, with a different presenter for each topic.
The topic of interest that I found most fascinating was the overview of the Google Website Optimizer. The purpose of this program is to actually improve your website once it has been established. The Website Optimizer is built into the Google AdWords interface and it helps you find out which content will convert best on your landing pages. Newsletter sign-ups, contact forms and purchases are all examples of conversions that can be tracked. The key aspect of this is to do A/B testing. This type of testing allows you to compare and contrast ‘page A’ and ‘page B’. This program allows you to set up an A/B test on your site and it randomly assigns users to a test. For example, it will assign users to different versions of your homepage, and from the data that is collected, decide which version is more advantageous to your users. You may also want to set up an A/B test on a site if it has a large cart abandonment rate, or long cart process in order to see which cart process works best for the users to your site.
To me, this would be an extremely important tool to use if any of our clients are experiencing some difficulty in their cart process. The best part of the Google Website Optimizer is that it is free!
