For anyone who has watched When Harry Met Sally, the title of this post should spark fond memories of the funniest scene in the movie. (If you haven’t seen the movie, you’ll have to watch it because explaining it in this post… umm… may not be appropriate.)
But wait – the title isn’t quite right is it? There was nothing about mayo in the movie and adding that little bit to the title changes everything! And what does this have to do with web design? Ah, I’m glad you asked. “I’ll have what she’s having” is a philosophy for some website owners that look to their competitors to measure their own success, or to establish their website’s look and feel.
While many things can be learned from observing your competition, success is not one of them. Most smart companies hold their actual conversion rates and website metrics close to their chest, only giving away vague numbers. Without actually seeing their analytics, no one knows if their success or failure is real– in other words, like Sally, they may be faking it.
The same things goes for website design. Just because you copy a competitors site design does not mean you’re going to get the same results. Like the title suggests, the moment you change one small (seemingly insignificant) detail, everything changes. Your products will be different, your profit margin and pricing will be different, and if you can get those things exactly the same as your competitor, you’re still going to have a different business name, domain name, and logo. Just those three things are going to skew your audience because they will interpret your business differently.
“Every Web site is different, and nobody is selling exactly the same thing in the same way to the same audience. We’ve found over 1,100 variables that affect conversion rates on a Web site, and those variables can be broken down into even more detail.” (Bryan Eisenberg in Converting Search Engine Traffic)
So, how do you get results and compete in the same market as your competitors?
By now you might be thinking, “Fine, I’ll just scrape the mayonnaise off myself.” But then you’d really be missing the point. You should only compare your conversion rate to itself in an effort to increase it.
“Smart business managers will focus on making use of the continuous improvement process to design, implement and measure changes with the goal of increasing key conversion rates without regard to published averages and competitive information. (Eric T. Peterson in Web Analytics Demystified)
Continuous Improvement – Regardless of Mayonaise
The process of designing and implementing tests is a topic that is much too deep and broad to cover in this post. However, we do offer conversion consulting services that range from detailed test development to a simple site critique. If you’d like more information or to find out how your site can improve, contact us today.
About the author: Jeune Ortiz is VP of Marketing and Creative Director at future-ink. With more than 20 years of experience in graphic design and marketing, Jeune brings extensive knowledge and creativity to each website and internet marketing solution to grow your business.
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3 Comments
MattB | June 4, 2010
Are there any standards for how many leads from a website should convert? I’m trying to get a general idea of how my site is performing and decide if I should rebuild it. Any advice is appreciated.
Jeune Ortiz | June 10, 2010
The only standard you can really count on are your own results. Before you redesign your site, you need to look at a variety of factors that will tell you how your site is performing including how many visitors you have, what keywords they are using to find you, your sales cycle length, etc. These things will tell you if your site is doing anything for you. If it isn’t, then a redesign might be in order.
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