Top Conversion Optimization Resolutions for the New Year: Start Usability Testing

Just like you, we’re looking forward to the beginning of another year. As a tribute to one of the most enduring traditions around this time, we asked online optimization experts this question: “Which website optimization effort/s businesses should focus their skills and resources on next year to improve conversions (and the bottomline)?” We’re publishing their answers the entire month in the countdown to 2013 so stay tuned for more resolution must-haves in our upcoming posts 😉

Today’s CRO resolution must-have is from Darrell Benatar, CEO of Usertesting:

One of the best ways to dramatically improve your site’s conversion rate is to run an A/B test.

You can run it on your homepage, your checkout process, your pricing page, or anything else you can think of! If you’re not testing, then you’re relying on your gut to make critical business decisions. Making decisions with your gut can be exciting (trust me, I love it), but ultimately you want to make decisions based on data, your customers, and your website visitors.

If you’re trying to decide what you should test first, then run a few usability tests on your site and see where visitors get stuck. People new to your site bring a fresh perspective which can help give you a list of the top few things to start off with.

More about Darrell

Darrell Benatar, a serial entrepreneur, founded Surprise.com in 1999. He didn’t believe in usability testing until he saw it in action. Darrell was shocked at the problems people were having with things he’d always assumed worked fine. So he began doing user testing for all redesigns of Surprise.com, which was later selected by Time magazine as one of the “50 best websites.” Pleased with the effectiveness of user testing, Darrell now focuses on helping other website owners do the same.

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We hope you’re having a fantastic time with family and friends this Holiday Season 😉

We’re already looking forward to Conversion Conference West 2013 in San Francisco, April 15-17. Check out what’s in store for you at ConvCon next year.