Eye tracking studies can be a very valuable tool that can help identify significant problems with your website or landing page. Unfortunately, eye tracking requires expensive and specialized hardware and software to be used, and live test subjects to observe and measure.

In-page Web analytics can also provide detailed heatmaps of people’s clicking and scrolling behavior. But these also require the landing page to be properly tagged and measure the behavior of real site visitors. This data takes time to collect and can only be gathered from “live” pages.

Recent advances in the study of computational attention and human visual processing now offer a new and exciting alternative. AttentionWizard computer algorithms can be used to simulate where people will look during the first few seconds of interacting with your site and create a detailed attention heatmap of your landing page.

This approach has several advantages:

• Instant results – upload an image of the landing page and get your answer
• High degree of accuracy – 75%+ correlation with eye tracking and mouse tracking
• Works with page mock-ups – can be used with in-progress mock-ups before the page goes live

SiteTuners has recently announced the launch of a FREE private beta program (limited to the first 5000 sign-ups) for its new AttentionWizard.com visual attention simulation tool. Free daily heatmaps will be available for all participants for the length of the beta program. A paid version with per-image based pricing is expected by Q1 2010 for individuals, companies, and interactive agencies.

Our client Mr. Skin is a comprehensive online resource that reviews and catalogs all sexy and nude scenes by actresses in mainstream movies.

Mr. Skin was interested in improving the propensity of visitors to start the checkout process after visiting at least one actress page on the website.

The original page body  is shown below:

The final landing page body is shown below:

The results of the test were stunning.

At the end of our multivariate test the new page performed 96% better than the original.

Why the radical difference?

SiteTuners used a number of conversion improvement best-practices to create the winning page:

• Clear page headline – The original purple title was squeezed into the right corner above the main box of the page and read “INSTANT ACCESS! Secure & Discreet Billing”. The new page title was centered in the body of the page and provided a clear purpose for the page “Instant Access to Jessica Simpson’s Sexy Movie Pics & Videos!” Note that the actress’ name was dynamically inserted into the page based on the last actress page visited by the visitor.

• Well-defined “action block” – The original page had a white background throughout and was divided into two equal-width columns that made it difficult to identify which part of the page was the important one. The new design widens the left column and clearly creates a light-blue action block.

• Sub-headline in your action block – The original design did not have a clear sub-headline in the area of the form. The “Choose offer:” text is really part of the original form. The new action block has a clear “Secure Checkout” sub-headline to clearly spell out its purpose.

• Clear call-to-action – The original page used an almost-invisible button that was difficult to see against the light gray color of the page. The “Join Now” text was from the perspective of the company and did not focus on any kind of benefit to the visitor. The new page has a bright green button that is distinct and stands out as the only button on the page. The “Get Access” text emphasizes the immediate gratification that the visitor will experience after they join.

• Well-designed forms – The original form had a confusing “Choose offer” top section with detailed and cluttered explanations for each sign-up plan option. The new form offers a more accessible “Select Plan” section with short labels for each choice and a single “Help me choose” link for more detailed explanations of each plan.

• Page purpose tied to user intent – The original form was a generic and static page that did not recognize the context from which the visitor just arrived. The new page is clearly focused on the visitor’s intent. Since they just arrived from a specific actress page, the registration page is personalized for that actress in both the title and the block of images near the top of the page. This creates a strong tie to the visitor’s desire to see more content about that specific person.

• Proper use of credibility and trust symbols – The original page used media mentions on the page to create trust. However, they were prominently displayed in a prominent place on the page in all of their full-color glory. The new version re-sizes all of the media mentions for comparable impact, partially de-saturates their colors, and moves them to the supporting column on the right in order to focus more on the call-to-action.

The huge increase in conversion can also be explained by an awareness level with SiteTuners’ advanced AttentionWizard attention-simulation software (currently in a FREE Beta period).

By understanding the way the visual perception system and brain works, it is possible to accurately simulate how a web page will be viewed during the first few seconds of eye movement, and where the brain’s attention will be focused. The results are instantaneous and do not require expensive eye-tracking studies, or page-tagging and time-consuming data gathering to create mouse-tracking heatmaps.

The “before” page shows that most of the brightest attention hotspots are on the most prominent visual elements (the combination lock and logos). Unfortunately, most of these are on the right hand side of the page.  In the midst of all of the visual “noise” the gray call-to-action button is lost and ignored.

By contrast, the “after” page shows controlled gazing focused on the headline, actress images, and the green call-to-action button. The trust and credibility symbols are partially desaturated and non-intrusive and are lightly scanned. This is their proper relationship as supportive rather than attention-grabbing elements on the page.

The morals of the story are clear:

• Huge conversion gains can be achieved by expert best-practices reviews and testing
• Graphic artists need to follow a minimalist aesthetic that focuses on conversion and not simply  “window dressing”

The new page may not be that exciting visually, but that is okay. In fact it is desirable. On a toned-down page the call-to-action emerges from the relative stillness of the page.

“Boring” works. And it makes you a lot more money – that should make it a lot more “exciting”.

Contact us if you are interested in your own SiteTuners Express Review including an AttentionWizard “attention heatmap” analysis of your current landing page.

SiteTuners has a simple piece of advice – get a second (expert) opinion!

Our flagship Express Review service accomplishes just that. During the 45 minute interactive session our conversion experts will take you through an intense critique of your landing page or website.  We will also provide an  AttentionWizard attention heatmap and analysis of your landing page.

Hundreds of large and small companies including Facebook, Fat Wallet, Credo Mobile, LowFares.com, and Liberty Tax Services have been very happy with their Express Reviews.

The Express Review process quickly identifies issues that may be impairing your site’s ability to influence visitors into taking the desired conversion actions.

Specifically we focus on:

• Information architecture
• Usability & task analysis
• Branding & visual theme consistency
• Page layout & design
• Credibility and trust symbols
• Text copy and messaging
• Calls to action

The service is delivered live using “GoToMeeting” enabling us to record the session and provide a copy in Windows Media Format for later review.

Addressing the issues surfaced will have an immediate positive impact on your conversion rates.

Utilize the Google Checkout process on our website to get started. Visit our Express Review page and then click “Buy now”.  The fee is just $599.

If you would like more info, please email us at Sales@SiteTuners.com.

SiteTuners CEO Tim Ash will be at PubCon Las Vegas as part of an all-star lineup for the first pre-conference full-day training workshop on Monday, November 9th. Attendance is strictly limited and the event is almost sold out.

On Tuesday November 10th Tim will be a panelist at Interactive Site Reviews at Salon F from 10:00 am – 11:15 pm and a panelist for The Best Tactics in Landing Page Optimization at Salon B from 4:15 pm – 5:30 pm.

Tim will be signing free copies of his bestselling book, Landing Page Optimization, and will also have an exciting announcement from SiteTuners!

View the entire PubCon agenda here.

Can people spot “cheesy” and unprofessional sites consistently?

They absolutely can – very quickly!

2005 research led by Dr. Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada suggests that people make up their minds in 1/20th of a second (the judgments were being formed almost as quickly as the eye can take in information).

And this first impression of the aesthetic quality persists and colors all subsequent judgments about visitors’ experience with your site.

Read the full article on BBC News.

You can’t “fake out” this automatic ability of the brain to form accurate visual impressions.

So make your site or landing page better or suffer the low-conversion consequences…

The new AttentionWizard simulated visual attention tool helps to instantly predict where people’s attention will be focused during the critical first few seconds on your page.

This knowledge can help you to design better landing pages that will pass the smell test.

As the saying goes, “the shoe-maker’s children always go barefoot”. So it is with websites. We have been so busy growing our business, that we have not had time to substantially update our own site in a very long time.

In an attempt to bring it kicking and screaming into the 21st century we have redesigned the page shell and paid much more attention to the visual subtleties of the page. Our goal was to create a clean and professional look that would reflect well on us, as well as to subtly control the focus of each page so that the visitor’s attention is drawn to the right parts of it.

We think we have succeeded on both fronts.

Here is our original homepage…

Its purpose is to get the visitor to click on one of the four distinct choices represented by the large blue medallions, or as a back-up to click the long light-blue button below them.

Unfortunately, the visual focus of the page is thrown off by the orange landing page optimization book cover near the upper right, as well as the strong full-color client logos near the bottom of the page (see the AttentionWizard heatmap below).

The new page shell follows more modern design conventions. It is fixed width (which allows for better control of the exact spacial relationship among page elements), and is centered against a more muted background color.

The content and organization of the page is essentially unchanged. The same four choices and back-up button are the intended conversion actions. But in the newly redesigned page shell the more subtle presentation of client logos and the removal of the book cover help keep the focus on exactly the right page elements.

Your feedback (good, bad, or indifferent) is welcome.

Rich media including video can often have a dramatic effect on conversions.

But as they say, “the devil is in the details”. Our video content partner Innovate Media has recently completed a test of a sophisticated “1-2 Punch” approach to increasing conversion.

They combined a short walk-on video spokesperson who instructed visitors to also view a more-detailed embedded video on the page.

The combination produced a double digit increase in conversion for RVSearch.com.

See the landing page here.

Video spokesperson testing is available from SiteTuners for a low fixed fee, and is also available at no additional charge as part of our premier tests.

SiteTuners CEO Tim Ash will lead a solo session on “The Seven Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design” at Affiliate Summit East today (Twitter hash-tag #ase09). Stop by the Gramercy Room at 11:30-12:30 for  the chance to win some signed copies of Tim’s bestselling Landing Page Optimization book and an exciting announcement from SiteTuners!

Full Affiliate Summit agenda: http://www.affiliatesummit.com/09e-agenda/

Our Premier Test has been the mainstay of our testing program for years.

We are the only ones in the industry to offer a performance guarantee and actually pro-rate our fees if we can not demonstrate an improvement in conversion rate.

However, the price of the Premier Test put it out of economic reach for some clients. They simply did not have the scale to get quick payback from a test.

Our recent partnership announcement with OnDialog has changed the testing landscape significantly (see my earlier blog post Landing Page Testing Nirvana – OnDialog/SiteTuners).

Because of the ease of implementing landing page tests on top of the OnDialog system, we are able to dramatically lower the labor costs and time involved in preparing a page for testing.

This has allowed us to slash the price and create a new Express Test for single stand-alone landing pages (or ones that are part of a microsite).

The express test is still powered by our class-leading TuningEngine and produces terrific results for midsize and smaller businesses.

In a recent blog post I announced our partnership with Innovative Media for the testing of video spokespeople.

The video spokesperson testing was free as part of a performance-guaranteed Premier Test.

There was such intense interest in the offering that we have expanded it across our whole testing line:

• Video Spokesperson Test – Dedicated test to maximize video spokesperson effectiveness $4995 (order it online)
• Express Test – Video spokesperson testing available as a discounted $1995 add-on
• Premier Test -  Video spokesperson testing is included for FREE

All of the tests include:

• A professional actor
• Writing of the script
• Shoot with pro video equipment against a green screen background
• Production of the video
• Preparation of the video  for web display with a “player” wrapper
• Video hosting and serving costs for the duration of the test

Order your test or contact us today to get started.

The inaugural Affiliate Convention event will be held in Denver on June 18-19th.

The event will feature FREE admission for all affiliates.

The program will feature education, networking and parties.

Catch me from 3:30-4:20PM on June 18th during my breakout session Landing Page Optimization, Creating Higher Conversion Rates.

See you in the mile-high city!

The Online Marketing Summit is in full swing – this summer’s expanded tour will host hard-hitting one-day events in 16 cities nationwide.

The events are purely educational and have no vendor or exhibitor component. They cover all important topics in online marketing.

I will be joining an illustrious lineup of speakers and presenting at two of the West Coast stops:

• Long Beach, CA – June 16th – Long Beach Hilton
• San Francisco, CA – June 25th – Hotel Nikko

Hope to see you at these fun and informative events!

SiteTuners is a charter Google Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant.

We are very proud of our partnership with Google and the Website Optimizer team.

I have led internal in-person trainings for Google staff  in their Mountain View, Ann Arbor, San Francisco, and Boston offices.

The trainings were very well received, and Google has decided to produce a public version for their advertisers.

The FREE webinar on the 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design will be held on

Wednesday June 24th from 10:00-11:30am PST (GMT-7).

Plenty of time will be included for audience questions.

For more information and to register please visit the webinar page.

Hope to see you all there!

Our client CREDO Mobile is a socially-conscious cell phone company based in San Francisco. They donate a portion of all revenues to progressive causes—groups that CREDO members help select.

CREDO was interested in improving the performance of a landing page for a new email campaign.

The original page is shown below:

CREDO had SiteTuners conduct an Express Review of their landing page in order to identify major conversion issues.

After the review they created a series of  increasingly-refined redesigns that incorporated our best-practices recommendations and additional ongoing consulting feedback.

The final landing page is shown below:

The results were stunning.

In a head-to-head test the new page performed 84% better than the original.

Why the radical difference?

It can be argued that the landing pages are similar. Both show a single image of a phone and a distinct call-to-action button.

In order to answer this question SiteTuners employed advanced AttentionWizard attention-simulation capabilities.

By understanding the way the visual perception system and brain works, it is possible to accurately simulate how a web page will be viewed during the first few seconds of eye movement, and where attention will be focused. The results are instant and do not require expensive eye-tracking studies, or page-tagging and time-consuming data gathering to create mouse-tracking heatmaps.

The “before” page shows scattered eye movements (yellow lines) that bounce all over the page. Drawn by bright blocks of color and sharp areas of contrast, the eyes do not find a place to “settle”. The colored “attention heatmap” likewise shows attention spread into many areas on the page. In the midst of all of the visual “noise” the green call-to-action button is lost and ignored.

By contrast, the final page shows controlled gazing focused on the cell phone, and the call-to-action button. After briefly scanning the logos of the progressive causes that CREDO supports (“social proof” that provides a “halo effect” by association), the eye returned to the round offer call-out and the phone. The call-to-action button is one of three red attention  “hot spots” on the page.

The morals of the story are clear:

• Huge conversion gains can be achieved by expert best-practices reviews 
• Graphic artists need to follow a minimalist aesthetic that focuses on conversion and not “window dressing”

The new landing page may not be that exciting visually, but that is okay. In fact it is desirable. On a toned-down page the call-to-action emerges from the relative stillness of the page.

“Boring” works. And it makes you a lot more money – that should make it a lot more exciting.

Contact us if you are interested in your own SiteTuners Express Review including an AttentionWizard “attention heatmap” simulation of your current landing page.

On May 19th I headlined a webinar with our partner OnDialog: Why Conversion Optimization is Now a Must-Have!

OnDialog has a unique landing page and microsite creation suite that incorporates our state-of-the-art TuningEngine for running fully automated tests. It also includes features for personalization of content (vial PURLs – personalized URLs). The system lets you visually design your landing pages and is fully integrated with SalesForce, NetSuite, and SugarCRM.

The hour-long Webinar covered the following:

• Landing page optimization basics and case studies
• Keys to landing page optimization success
• Picking the right testing approach and technology
• 2nd generation landing page testing tools

You can watch the replay here.

There is also a 2nd upcoming webinar on the power of personalization on June 16th.

I am thrilled to announce my new  weekly Internet radio show “Landing Page Optimization (LPO)” on WebmasterRadio.FM

Tune in every Monday at 11am PST 2pm EST for the latest episodes.

I promise to make it an entertaining and educational half hour.

In addition to addressing key topics critical to LPO success, I will be interviewing knowledgeable experts  in the field.

The first 4 shows are “in the can”.

• The Importance of Landing Page Optimization
• Writing for Conversions
• Interview with David Szetela from Clix Marketing
• Interview with Jim Sterne of eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit

Stay tuned for the following upcoming inteviews:

• Sandra Niehaus  – author and VP of User Experience at Closed Loop Marketing
• Eric Hansen – CEO of SiteSpect
• Trevor Claiborne – product marketing manager for Google Website Optimizer

Bryan Eisenberg from FutureNow and Avinash Kaushik from Google have also promised to stop by for an interview in the near future.

If you miss any episodes, you can download them as a podcast later.

Check out the LPO show page on WebmasterRadio.FM

Catch you on the Internet airwaves!

As many of you know, I wrote a Landing Page Optimization book and it was published early last year by Wiley Press.

I am gratified to report that it has been received very well. The book has already sold over 15,000 copies (making it a bona-fide bestseller in the technical book arena).

It has gone to a second printing with a better cover photo of me (as well as a $25 coupon for Google AdWords inside which means you actually make money if you buy it on Amazon).

It was also kind of a kick to find out that the book had also been optioned in five other languages:

• Chinese
• Korean
• Polish
• German
• Brazilian Portuguese

But I must admit that it is very bizarre to have the German-language translation of the book land on my desk courtesy of the publisher.

The cover color is more blood orange than the original and the dollar signs at the bottom of the sales funnel have been replaced by euros.

I can only understand a few words and the rest is gibberish (I guess now I know how some readers of my English language edition must feel )

Check it out on the German site for Amazon.

The eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit is back on the West Coast at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. The focus this year will be on how to increase profits with data that you already have. The conference will feature an all-star cast of really smart online marketers headed by organizer Jim Sterne himself.

I will have a busy presenting schedule (in addition to catching up with all of my friends):

• May 5, 4:25 – 5:15 -Your Baby Is Ugly – Live Landing Page Mini-Critiques – Stop by to have volunteers’ sites dissected live in front of a live audience.
• May 6, 4:15 – 5:00 - Avoiding the 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design – Learn how to avoid common conversion mistakes that are costing you money.
• May 8, 9:00 – 4:00 - Landing Page Testing Crash Course – Join me for this intensive post-conference full-day workshop (additional registration fee required).

Hope to see all of you there!

I recently wrote a blog post on Search Engine Watch about Using Video Spokespeople to Increase Landing Page Conversions.

Innovative Media has shown some very promising examples of how substantial conversion increases have helped their clients (such as Napster, Service Magic, and Rhapsody).

But the question remains – will it work for you?

The answer also remains – test it.

Unfortunately up till now testing has been a complicated and expensive proposition:

• Find an actor
• Write the script
• Shoot with pro video equipment against a green screen background
• Produce the video background
• Prepare it for web display with a “player” wrapper
• Pay for the video hosting and display during the test

What if  testing the video spokespeople was easy and free?

Of course you would test!

Through our partnership with Innovative Media’s InnovateAds division, we have made this a reality.

If you sign up for one of SiteTuner’s improvement-guaranteed full-service tests we will test a video spokesperson for FREE!

Yes that’s right – absolutely no strings attached – it is all included in our test. Innovate Ads will script, create, and host the ad for the duration of the test.

If the the presence of the video spokesperson ends up as part of the winning landing page in our test, we will even run a follow-up head-to-head test to determine exactly how much it contributes to conversion improvement.

After the test is over, it is completely up to you whether you want to have the video spokesperson continue to appear on your site. If you do, you simply pay the low per-view fee that you had previously agreed to.

Want to see if you qualify for this service? Contact us.

Our client Stratfor is a leading provider of independent analysis and forecasting on strategic geopolitical trends and events worldwide including, military, political stability, terrorism, and economic topics.

Their homepage is published in an online-newspaper type of format with the latest developments and stories:

When a non-member clicks on a story summary to get additional details they were taken to a so-called “barrier” page where they were asked for their email address in exchange for access to the article of interest.

The email capture is an important part of Stratfor’s marketing strategy and allows them to start an ongoing communication with the prospective subscriber. So the “barrier” had to stay. Working within this constraint, we developed a test strategy to at least lower the barrier. We changed supporting information, the page title, call-to-action format, and a number of other factors on the page.

By using our advanced TuningEngine we were able to examine over 100,000 alternative page designs and find the one that performed the best. The winning challenger (see below) had an 81% higher conversion rate than the original page, while still accomplishing the marketing objective of retaining the email capture.

Read the detailed case study.