We need a new word for "optimization"
Many would agree: SEO's are the rockstars of the web marketing world. [Post editing note: This applies to good, real SEO's. Not the snake-oil salesmen who try to pass themselves off as SEO's.] Not that they shouldn't be. Ethical SEO's provide a critical service to website owners and web surfers alike, when they help websites find targeted visitors and make it easier for visitors to find exactly what they're looking for. But over and over you hear, "Internet marketing is a 'numbers game'." What does that mean? To a certain extent, all marketing is a numbers game. But a weak way to play the game is to get as many people as possible to your site in the hopes that you will get lucky and somebody will convert. That's just not very smart, because it can be extremely costly, thereby driving down your ROI and wasting the time of those who don't find your website of interest.
Enter "the other kind of optimization": website optimization. If you are looking for more information on website optimization, good luck. You will be swamped with information about how to improve traffic to your website with search engine optimization. Is website optimization the redheaded stepchild of the web world?
It's a mathematical fact that it is cheaper to have a higher conversion rate than it is to get more traffic. SEO's are important here, too. They are the ones who get you the targeted traffic that has a higher interest level in your product or service. From there, the types of things you can practically test are somewhat dependent on your audience size. If you are Amazon, you may test every dot and tiddle; You have the numbers to deliver a statistically valid result from which to make a decision. If you're a little smaller than than that (most websites are) then you have to be a bit more judicious about what you are testing. Since you may not have the opportunity to dynamically generate an experience based on a visitor's past history, you will probably be focused on figuring out what motivates your various target segments to take a desired action. Both disciplines require the cooperation of your creative team, copywriters, web analysts, IT, etc. Both disciplines require careful planning and consideration of the overall marketing strategy. But they NEED each other, otherwise the SEO's beautiful traffic gets wasted as it heads out the back door and the website optimizer's tests never get enough numbers to be conclusive.
Everyone involved in marketing on the web has heard of SEO by now, or, the less frequently used "search engine marketing." I think we should find another term for website optimization, because it's confusing to many people. Any suggestions?
