What if you Could Increase Your Website Visitor Count Just by Changing a Picture?

What if you could get a few more enrollments each day just by tweaking a word or two on your website? What if just by changing one picture for another, your website visitor count went through the roof?

You might not believe it, but sometimes making what seems like an insignificant change like these can dramatically boost your website’s performance. Problem is, how do you know which parts of your website to change in order to see what works best with your users?

You use Google’s website optimizer, that’s how. This free tool is easy to use and let’s you compare one picture to another, one headline to another, one word to another, or any other variables of your choosing on a single web page.

Then it gives you the results you need to make any necessary changes in order to reach your online goals.

I started using the website optimizer last year for Aloha Beach Camp.com. The first time I tried it, I tested this headline:

“Click here for a $10 discount”

Against this one:

“Wanna discount? Click here!”

My website visitors had no idea I was conducting this test. Google’s Website optimizer handled everything for me. When users viewed my home page, everyone saw the exact same thing from the pictures to the punctuation except Google always showed one group of people the first headline and another group of people the other one.

(In other words, I was using two different headlines for the same web page; everything else stayed the same.)

You don’t need any technological skills to do what I did. Just use the website optimizer tool to get started. Believe me, it’s easy and anyone can do it.

Here’s a little more info about how this works:

1. Choose a web page within your camp’s overall website you want to test
2. Decide whatever variation(s) of that page you want to test
3. Set a goal for whatever action you’d like users to take upon viewing the page (Maybe you want them to fill out a form or click through to another page, it’s up to you.)

Now you don’t need to test just two pages against one other. Your testing can be as basic or complex as you want. There’s really no limit to what you can test. But the important thing is that you do test, otherwise you won’t know which elements of your website could be improved just by making a simple change.

(When I tested the two headlines above, I discovered that people clicked the “Wanna discount?” link four times more often than “$10 off camp tuition.” But I’d have never known this without Google’s website optimizer. Wouldn’t you want to know if you’re missing out on getting four times as many clicks to a page on your site just by changing a few words?)

Look, you might think you’re the most creative person in the world, or you might think you have the most beautiful website in the world, or you might think you have the best website content of every summer camp in the world. And maybe you’re right!

But it really doesn’t matter what you think. It only matters what your customers think.

And using Google’s website optimizer tool is the best way to find out.