Think of your website as an evolving entity, just like your business.
Whether it’s humanity, a country, an industry, or a product, evolution is key to survival—and your business is no exception. The same applies to your website; it must evolve, improve, and adapt to meet the ever-changing needs of your market. In business, one thing is certain: change. Embrace it, and let your website grow alongside your brand.
First impressions of a business are almost always tied to design. Your website is often the first place people visit to learn about your business, and its look and feel play a major role in shaping their initial impression. That’s why keeping your site fresh and visually appealing is crucial for making a positive impact on visitors.
Poor or outdated design can damage your brand’s perception, leaving visitors with a negative impression. On the other hand, regularly updating your website’s design and content shows that you’re innovative and on top of your game, making it far more likely to convert visitors into leads and sales. The great thing about a website is that it’s digital—it can grow and change as your business evolves. Unlike print, it’s not set in stone. As your business adapts and pivots, your website can do the same, keeping you at the forefront of your industry.
What to test when updating your website
If you’ve recently launched a major redesign and noticed a dip in leads or sales, don’t panic. A temporary drop is common after a website update. This often happens because Google’s search algorithm needs time to crawl and re-index your new pages, which can lead to a temporary decline in traffic—and as a result, fewer leads or sales.
Start by ensuring your webmaster has transferred all the SEO optimizations from your old site to the new one. If your traffic hasn’t decreased but conversions have, the issue could lie in the design, the messaging, or both. Keep in mind, when you introduce a new design and copy, your audience may need time to adjust to how they interact with your site. Understanding how your audience feels about these changes is key to identifying why conversions are down and making any necessary tweaks.
Rather than guessing, start by reviewing the following areas…
- Has your overall traffic volume remained steady, or has it dropped?
- Is the traffic from mobile users still at the same level?
- Is the site slower than before, possibly due to hosting issues?
- Do you have heat maps available to analyze user behavior on key pages?
- Are there visitor session recordings you can review for insights?
- Is the site underperforming across all browsers and devices, or only certain ones?
- Do you have data to compare the performance of the old design with the new one?
We use a tool called HotJar.com to gather valuable user insights. Whether you opt for the free or paid version, just watching a few visitor recordings can reveal how users are interacting with your website. Combine this with analyzing your Google Analytics bounce rate for each page, and you’ll begin to form hypotheses about what might be causing any issues.
You can also try UserTesting.com, a service that lets real people use your website and provide live feedback on their experience. By continually reviewing both quantitative data and qualitative feedback, you can make informed adjustments and see ongoing improvements over time.
Pro tip: HotJar is great for collecting qualitative insights by adding these two polls:
- Place a poll on your success page after a purchase and ask customers:
- How was your experience using our website?
- What almost stopped you from purchasing?
- Add a poll on the checkout page before purchase and ask prospects:
- Is there anything stopping you from completing your purchase?
Everything on your website should be clear and straightforward for your users, including:
- Messaging: Ensure your messaging is easy to understand and highlights the benefits for your target audience.
- Navigation: Keep your top navigation simple and logical—there’s no need to overcomplicate things.
- Forms: Request only the necessary information in your forms—nothing more.
- Landing Pages: Design and write landing pages to effectively address your audience’s needs and demonstrate how you can solve their problems.
- Distractions: Eliminate any elements that create confusion or offer unnecessary choices.
- Consistency: Maintain a consistent look and feel throughout your site, including using a single color for your call-to-action buttons.
Websites should be intuitive; if visitors feel like they’re solving a puzzle, they’re more likely to leave your site.
Consider additional types of testing to ensure your website performs optimally, including:
1. Interface Testing
The design of your site plays a crucial role in a visitor’s decision to stay or leave. Ideally, your website is responsive, but that’s not always guaranteed. During interface testing, address these questions:
- Does the website display well on various mobile devices?
- Does the website adapt properly to different screen sizes?
- Does the website perform consistently across different browsers?
- If your website includes localized versions, are the translations accurate?
2. Speed Performance Testing
Speed Performance Testing ensures that your website maintains fast loading times across various conditions. Consider these factors during performance testing:
- What is the average page load speed across different screen sizes, browsers, and mobile devices?
- How does the website’s performance vary with different connection speeds and peak loads?
- Conduct stress tests to determine the website’s breaking point under extreme conditions and assess how it recovers.
3. Security Testing
Your data and your customers’ data must always be secure. Periodic security testing is essential to protect your website from potential attacks. Consider the following:
- Verify that secure pages are protected from unauthorized access and that sensitive files are not available for download.
- Ensure that user sessions are automatically terminated after a period of inactivity.
- Confirm that your website and payment transactions are secured with HTTPS. SSL encryption helps protect sensitive information, such as card details, and boosts customer confidence in making purchases.
4. A/B Testing
A/B Testing, or split testing, involves comparing two versions of a webpage to determine which one is more effective at achieving your conversion goals. In an A/B test, half of your traffic is shown the original version of the page, while the other half sees the modified version. For the most accurate results, test one change at a time rather than making multiple changes simultaneously. This approach helps identify which specific changes impact performance.
Each time you update your website, it’s crucial to test user behavior and review your analytics. Regularly schedule interface, performance, and security testing to ensure your website remains in top condition.
Here are some useful testing tools to consider:
- GTmetrix: This free tool assesses your page’s speed performance using PageSpeed and YSlow, generating scores and providing recommendations for optimization.
- Dead Link Checker: Use this free online tool to identify and fix broken links on your website, helping maintain its freshness and improve SEO.