Advance Praise for Website Optimization: An Hour a Day
Attempting to achieve digital success without a robust experimentation and web analytics strategy is like trying to go to the moon on a bike. It will take a long time, might even be impossible. In nine exciting chapters Rich shows you, soup to nuts, exactly how to leverage usability, testing, and web analytics to transform your organization and achieve magnificent success!
—Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 and Digital Marketing Evangelist, Google
Rich Page has done the impossible with this book. Before reading it I'd have sworn no single book could explain conversion optimization and provide a road map for how to do it properly. I stand corrected. If you want to learn how to supercharge your website business performance, this is the book you've been waiting for. It’s practical, actionable advice from a master practitioner. You could pay an optimization consultant $100K, or you could buy this book.
—Lance Loveday, CEO of Closed Loop Marketing and author of Web Design for ROI
These days, there are thousands of guys who say they are “website optimization experts.” Ninety-nine percent of them couldn’t improve a web page—much less a site—if their lives depended on it. Rich Page is different. He’s among the one percent, and this “optimization bible” proves it. Jam-packed with proven tips and tricks on how you can improve your website without breaking the bank, you'll find everything you need to know about how to set benchmarks, develop meaningful tests, design shopping carts and lead forms for maximum conversion, enhance your performance, and much more. This isn’t a book from someone who did a bunch of research on Google; it’s written by someone who has done the work and knows the answers.
—Amy Africa, CEO, EighyByEight
The value of site optimization is clear. It is an absolute must for all companies serious about the digital channel, but most companies struggle with how to make it core to their digital strategy. Rich does a great job of identifying the needed steps to build a successful optimization strategy. This book is a must-read for companies serious about site optimization whether you are new to the game or have tried it with limited success in the past. Follow his steps and avoid the common mistakes that will derail your efforts!
—Jason Burby, Chief Performance Marketing Officer, ZAAZ/Possible Worldwide
Website Optimization: An Hour a Day should become a bible for any individual or business wanting to get maximum value from their own or their clients’ web properties. A focus on optimization is a no-brainer for companies at a time when competition for customers has never been greater. The an-hour-a-day approach is perfect for those who want to take a systematic and step-by-step approach to understanding how they can optimize their websites. The book is full of useful tips and insights, which will help you turn a sea of data into meaningful insights which will improve your business performance and bottom-line. The book will inform both the more experienced digital practitioner, as well as those who are new to the arts and science of conversion rate optimization.
—Linus Gregoriadis, Research Director, Econsultancy
Optimization is a hot topic in our industry today, and many people don't know where to begin. Choosing the right tool for the job is tough enough, let alone having to come up with the appropriate tests and strategies for your business. Fortunately, Rich has provided a fantastic resource in Website Optimization: An Hour a Day. This book has something for everyone, regardless of your level of familiarity with optimization. The amount of tips, action items for you to implement right away, and example tests will not only help you move forward but it will also help you build the business case internally for a successful testing program. If optimization is on your wish list this year in your organization, this is the book for you.
—Bill Bruno, CEO, Stratigent
Rich Page provides a detailed road map for creating a powerful conversion improvement practice at your company. Get this book before your competition does!
—Tim Ash, Chair of Conversion Conference, CEO of SiteTuners, and author of Landing Page Optimization
Page has done an outstanding job of thoroughly covering the landscape of the many aspects of measuring and improving the performance of your website. This is a must-read both for novices who need to understand the process and experts who want to ensure they aren’t missing anything. Solid and comprehensive!
—William Sears, Senior Manager, Search Engine Marketing, Walt Disney Interactive Media Group
Website Optimization: An Hour a Day is great for any online business that wants to learn how to better test and improve their website, and lays out some great foundations that optimization novices and even experts will find useful. It’s definitely worth a read if you are in online marketing—you'll find it hard to put down!
—Kimen Field, Senior Product Manager, Adobe
Ecommerce is changing the global economy and it’s amazing how few companies have deep insight into their web business. You can quickly identify the winners and losers based upon the emphasis they place on analytics. Rich carefully builds on this and creates a testing and optimization plan to help you take your business to the next level. With a combination of practical suggestions and current optimization theory, this book defines the basics that will help eliminate the guess work. The most important aspect that Rich clearly illustrates is that optimization is not a one-time activity, it’s a change in your website culture and process. Success can be hard to achieve, but Rich will give you the confidence to define a strategy that keeps your web business achieving goals.
—Brian Rogers, Director of Global eCommerce, 5.11 Tactical
You’ve got a website and you haven’t optimized yet? What are you waiting for?! Block off an hour a day and, for the next 27 weeks, follow Rich Page's detailed, step-by-step guide for getting started with website optimization. It could be the most profitable hour of your day.
—Chris Goward, President of WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization and author of You Should Test That!
About time! Optimization has been shrouded in a mist of ineffective tips and advice from people who think it's easy for way too long. Rich's book stands out by honestly stating that optimization is actually hard and that intent doesn't equate to success. He then breaks down the multiple required disciplines in a way that makes it accessible for any web/marketing practitioner to increase the ROI of their online business.
—Oli Gardner, Co-founder of Unbounce.com
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Acknowledgments
First of all, huge thanks go to my mentors and inspirations in the world of website optimization and web analytics. Without their words of wisdom and help, I would not be where I am now. First, a special “bow down” and big thanks to Tim Ash, who has been a great mentor to me and who also gave me the great privilege and honor of helping him write the 2nd Edition of Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions (Sybex, 2012). Without first doing that, I don’t think I could have written this book!
Huge thanks and respect then go to the authors who kickstarted my passion for website optimization and web analytics: Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg (their Call to Action [Thomas Nelson, 2006] was a real optimization eye opener to me), Avinash Kaushik (who “converted” me into a web analyst with his fantastic Web Analytics: An Hour a Day [Sybex, 2007] and his blog), Steve Krug (for his pioneering Don’t Make Me Think [New Riders, 2005], and Jakob Nielsen (for his great books that began my love affair with website usability many years ago).
Thanks also to some of the genius website optimizers and bloggers whom I have learned a lot from: Linda Bustos (for her outstanding GetElastic blog and her fantastic tech editing on this book), Chris Goward at WiderFunnel, and Amy Africa at EightbyEight.
A big “cheers” also goes out to all the consultants, account managers, product specialists, and clients whom I have had the privilege of working with and learning from in my website optimization role at Adobe. Also a mention and thanks to my great boss at Disney Online, Erik Tarui, for the support and helpful knowledge of testing he gave me during my time there.
And last, I would like to express my great appreciation for the wonderful team at Sybex who helped me put this book together, including Willem Knibbe, Pete Gaughan, and Kathi Duggan. Without them, the words in this book would still only be in my head, itching to get out.
Oh, and I guess I should also give thanks to Starbucks for their free wireless Internet and also their good coffee keeping me awake during the countless hours I spent working there on this book!
About the Author
Rich Page has been analyzing and improving websites for over 10 years, and is currently a Conversion Solution Specialist at Adobe, where he helps major Fortune 500 clients improve their testing and optimization strategies. Before this, he worked for Disney Online in their web analytics and optimization team.
Rich comes from a background in online marketing, website usability, and web analytics, and has previously worked in roles like these for Z57 Internet Solutions, Gartner, and several startup web companies. He has considerable expertise with Adobe SiteCatalyst and Test&Target, in addition to Google Website Optimizer and Google Analytics.
Rich graduated with a master’s degree in Information Technology from the University of San Diego, where he did a thesis on website usability. Rich also holds a bachelor’s degree in Management from Royal Holloway University of London, where he did a pioneering thesis on e-commerce. For the last five years, he has been the author of a popular blog about web analytics and optimization topics at his website (www.rich-page.com) and is a regular speaker at the Conversion Conference and other industry conferences.
He has spent much of the last 10 years living and working in sunny Southern California and is currently living back in London, England, for a while. In his spare time, he is a passionate classic rock fan, loves to play tennis, and is a karaoke aficionado.