Website Redesigns: Why they Fail and How to Ensure

SuccessDec 10, 2015

Head of CRO StrategyRedEye

Rich Page

• Head of CRO Strategy, RedEye

• 10 years of experience analysing, testing & optimising

• Be consistent in casing, punctuation, and sentence vs. non-sentence structure

• Authored ‘Website Optimization: An Hour a Day’ & co-authored ‘Landing Page Optimization’ 2nd edition

@richpage

Rich.page@redeye.com

Your Presenter for today

Website  Redesigns:  Why  they  Often  Fail  and  How  to  Ensure  SuccessRich  Page,  Head  of  CRO  Strategy

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AgendaRIGHT  MESSAGE,  RIGHT  CUSTOMER,    RIGHT  TIME,  RIGHT  DEVICE,   RIGHT  CHANNEL

• Common  Reasons  for  Redesigns

• What  Can  Go  Wrong,  and  How  Often?

• Why  Redesigns  Fail  So  Often

• A  Better  Approach

• RedEye  and  CRO

RedEye  and  CRO:  What  we  do

A/B  Testing

Web  Usability  (UX)

Personalisation

Web  Analytics CRO

1:  A/B  TestingTesting  strategyTesting  best  practices

2:  Web  Usability  (UX)Usability  testing/surveysUX  best  practices

3:  Web  AnalyticsKey  reports/segments  analysisClick  maps  and  visitor  journey

4:  PersonalisationMulti-­‐channel  Automation

Most  Common  Reasons  for  Redesigns

Poor  website  traffic  or  sales  performance

New  design  director  demanding  redesign

To  update  the  site  look  and  feel  

HiPPOs want  change  based  on  personal  opinion

Competitors  have  changed/improved  

their  website

A  new  design  agency  is  chosen

What  Can  Go  Wrong  with  Redesigns?

• Visuals: May  not  really  be  liked  by  visitors  and  customers.

• Usability: Usage  of  site  changes  too  much  and  confuses  visitors.

• Resetting: Well  converting  pages  can  get  ‘reset’  and  convert  lower.  

• SEO:  Websites  can  loose  rankings  and  cause  major  drop  in  traffic.

• Tech  issues: Pages  can  break/look  broken  on  some  browsers/devices.

How  Often  Do  Website  Redesigns  Fail?

A  HubSpot  study  found  68%  of  marketers  did  a  site  redesign  in  last  12  months,  and…  

1/3  were  unhappy  withthe  redesign  results

And  Often  an  Expensive  Mistake

The  same  HubSpot  research  also  found  that…

The  average  websiteredesign  costs  €50K

Biggest  Recent  Redesign  Failures

MarksandSpencers.com  

£150  million  for  2014  redesign

Caused  8%  drop  in  sales(and  countless  frustrated  customers)  

Biggest  Recent  Redesign  Failures

The  biggest  complaints:

-­‐ Navigation  was  hard  to  use  and  very  different  to  old  site

-­‐ Confusion  and  issues  with  registering  and  password  reset  

-­‐ Browsing/searching  for  items  of  interest  was  challenging

Biggest  Recent  Redesign  Failures

CNN.com  in  2014 Waitrose.com  in  2011  

Redesigns  Are  Hard  to  Rollback

Risky  not  just  for  lost  revenue:Poor  perception  from  bad  press

High  cost  of  fixing  quickly

Risk  of  losing  job  and  key  team  members

Why  Do  Redesigns  Often  Fail  to  Increase  Sales?  

#1: Too  many  changes  at  once  -­‐ often  negatives  outweigh  improvements.  And  too  hard  to  isolate  what  biggest  conversion  influencers  were.    

Why  Do  Redesigns  Often  Fail  to  Increase  Sales?  

#2:  Too  little  feedback  gathered  from  visitors  – the  most  influential  audience.

Why  Do  Redesigns  Often  Fail  to  Increase  Sales?  

#3:  Poor  use  of  web  analytics  to  gain  insights – reliant  on  best  guess/HiPPOs.  Also  often  too  many  chefs  in  redesign  kitchen  who  think  they  know  best.

Why  Do  Redesigns  Often  Fail  to  Increase  Sales?  

#4:  Website  designers  usually  aren’t  experts  in  conversion  optimisation.  Often  too  brand  and  design  orientated,  wanting  refreshes  just  to  modernize.  

Why  Do  Redesigns  Often  Fail  to  Increase  Sales?  

#5:  Redesigns  often  take  too  long  to  launch  – if  ever.  Many  never  even  get  finished,  get  side-­‐tracked,  get  deprioritized,  or  run  out  of  budget.

A  Better  Approach  to  Redesigns

To  ensure  greater  chance  of  redesign  success  use…

Incremental  smaller  CRO-­‐based  improvements  

RedEye  Client  Case  study

Radley.co.uk  

CRO-­‐based  redesign

3  iterative  A/B  tests  ran

Almost  20%  lift  in  conversion  rate

A  Better  Approach  to  Redesigns

Traditional  redesign  impact:   Unpredictable  lift  variance,  from  -­‐10%  to  +20%Incremental  CRO-­‐based  impact:   Small  constant  lifts  result  in  bigger  lifts  (e.g.  +48%)  

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

TraditionalRedesign

Planning Prototypes BetaLaunch:-­‐10% to  +20% lift

Incremental CRO  Improvements

Launch 1stchange:+5%  lift

Launch 2ndchange:+5%  lift

Launch  3rdchange:+5%  lift

Launch  4thchange:+5% lift

Launch  5thchange:+5%  lift

Launch  6thchange:+3% lift

Launch  7thchange:+3%  lift

Launch  8thchange:+2%  lift

Key  CRO  Elements  for  Redesign  Success

2:  Visitor  Feedback

4:  Competitor  Analysis

1:  Web  Analytics

5:  A/B  and  MVT

3:  Expert  reviews

6:  Evolve  &  Iterate

Incremental  Redesign:  Web  Analytics

• First  benchmark  all  major  KPIs. Crucial  for  analysing  overall  impact.

• Focus  on  lowest  performers  first.  Determine  worst  performing  pages.  

• Most  potential: Find  highest  trafficked  yet  lowest  converting  pages.

• Use  visual  analytics.  Determine  page  elements  need  optimizing  first.  

• Find  highest  converting  pages  too.  Don’t  tweak  those  too  much  or  you  risk  lower  conversion  rates.  Branding  changes  are  okay.

Incremental  Redesign:  Visitor  Feedback

• Involve  visitors  early  as  possible.  Feedback  essential  for  best  success.

• Run  web  usability  sessions.  Find  pain  points  and  to  gather  ideas.  

• Combo  of  lab  &  remote  sessions  are  best  e.g.  RapidUserTests.com.

• Onsite  surveys  very  helpful  too  – particularly  single  Qs  (e.g.  HotJar)

• Show  mock-­‐ups  of  proposed  designs.  Images  best  – not  full  pages.

Incremental  Redesign:  Expert  Reviews

• Visitor’s  often  don’t  know  best. Don’t  just  get  feedback  from  them.

• CRO  experts  are  essential.  Ensure  you  gain  ideas  from  them  too.  

• Solves  ‘forest  for  trees’ and  helps  complement  your  redesign  ideas.

• CRO  reviews  & heuristic  analysis  are  high-­‐impact  types  of  this  help.

• Agencies  like  RedEye  can  help with  your  expert  CRO  needs.  

Incremental  Redesign:  Competitive  Analysis

• Regularly  review  your  competitors.  Quarterly  -­‐ great  source  for  ideas.

• Comparing  UVP  is  essential.  Improve  your  unique  value  proposition.

• Look  at  industry  leading  websites  too.  Think  outside  the  box.

• Don’t  just  copy  though.  Remember  every  website  is  unique.  

Incremental  Redesign:  A/B  Testing

• A/B  testing  is  essential.  Reveals  which  versions  of  your  key  pages/elements  will  convert  more  visitors  into  sales  or  leads.  

• Use  conversion  influence  MVTs  to  help  focus  your  A/B  tests  on  page  elements  which  have  highest  impact  on  conversion.  

• Create  extensive  list  of  test  ideas  from  all  other  methods  discussed.

• Prioritize  to  find  highest  potential  ideas  using  likely  impact  on  revenue/KPI,  traffic  levels  and  ease  of  implementing.  

• Hard  code  and  push  live once  winning  version  found  for  each  test.  

Incremental  Redesign:  Evolve  &  Iterate

• Continue  incremental  process  to  achieve  full  ‘redesign’.      

• But  never  stop  – your  website  is  never  truly  finished  and  optimized.

• Measure  post-­‐launch  performance  for  whole  site  – not  just  per  test.  

• Learn  from  each  incremental  launch.  Some  won’t  go  to  plan.

• Keep  evolving  and  iterating  to  get  best  CRO  improvements.

Recapping  the  Key  Elements

2:  Visitor  FeedbackUsability  sessionsSurveys,  single  questionInvolve  as  early  as  possible

4:  Competitor  AnalysisLook  for  learnings  and  ideasMake  UVP  better  than  mostDon’t   just  copy  though

1:  Web  AnalyticsBenchmark  current  performanceIdentify  worst  performers  to  focusIdentify  top  performers  to  keep

5:  A/B  and  MVTCreate  list  of  test  ideasFind  winning  variationsUse  MVT  to  help  focus

3:  Expert  reviewsExpert  CRO  reviewsHeuristic  analysis

6:  Evolve  &  IterateKeep  on  learning  and  testingYour  website  is  never  finishedLook  at  metrics  as  you  improve

But  What  About  Low  Traffic  Pages?

• Low  traffic  for  some  pages  problematic  -­‐ makes  A/B  testing  hard/slow.

• Just  launch  these  based  on  CRO/UX  best  practices  – without  testing.

• Outside  expertise  very  useful for  these  – CRO  reviews  etc.

• Monitor  overall  web  site  impact using  analytics  instead.  

• Avoid  test  pollution.  Launch  these  separately  than  other  tests.  

Wrapping  Up  

Avoid  full  website  redesigns  -­‐ too  much  can  go  wrong

Use  CRO  key  elements  for  incremental  changes

Analytics  key  for  benchmarking  and  improvement  ideas

Much  higher  conversion  rate  lifts  are  often  gained

Greatly  reduces  risk  and  improves  chance  of  higher  ROI

Don’t  treat  redesigns  as  projects  – keep  on  optimizing!  

Q&A

Doing a website redesign soon? Contact us for a free consultation from RedEye to help you succeed.

The first 10 responders also get a free copy of my CRO book: ‘Website Optimization: An Hour A Day’.

Rich.page@redeye.com

Thank you!