Best for: Those looking for a comprehensive deep dive into CRO
If you’re looking to go long on conversion rate optimisation and want to understand the macro and micro elements of the art then this book is 100% for you.
We absolutely loved this one. The authors Tim Ash, Maura Ginty and Rich Page offer an incredibly in depth breakdown of pretty much all the basics of CRO.
The great news is that this is a book you can read early on in your conversion rate optimisation journey as the principles are incredibly clearly laid out and the structure easy to follow.
As with many books it may have been a tad longer than it needed to be, with certain points expounded upon one too many times in a way that became repetitive without necessarily helping comprehension.
Very much written in textbook form, if you’re looking for an effective and detailed education on conversion rate optimisation then this one is for you.
Landing Page Optimization by Tim Ash is great on Kindle
Main Takeaways
1 | Be clear about who you’re targeting with your conversion rate efforts
Many of us start out in conversion rate optimisation believing that we are trying to get all users to convert. The truth is that you will never get all of your users to convert.
Your website traffic is made up of three main categories of users. as per this excerpt from the book:
“1. Noes—Those who won’t ever take the desired action
2. Yesses—Those who will always take the desired action
3. Maybes—Those who may take the desired action You should completely ignore the first two and concentrate on the last group.”
Ash, Tim. Landing Page Optimization (Kindle Locations 800-806). Wiley. Kindle Edition.
2 | Optimise critical pages, not the fluff.
Mission critical pages are those that, were they to be removed, would grind your business to a halt.
Product pages are likely a part of this but vision and mission pages usually not. We must optimise critical pages not the fluff.
3 | The seven deadly sins of landing page design
3.1. No clear call to action
3.2. Too many choices
3.3. Visual distractions
3.4. Not keeping your promises
3.5. Too much text
3.6. Asking for too much information
3.7. Lack of trust
4 | Web design and the brain
The authors explain how we have 3 main brain systems:
– Reptilian (fight or flight)
– Limbic (decision making)
– Neocortex (creativity and rational thought)
When designing websites we often try and design for the neocortex but a lot of our ‘muddling’ type behaviour online is driven much more strongly by our reptilian and limbic brain systems. This is why it’s so important for us to avoid the seven deadly sins of landing page design.
5 | Website persuasiveness scales
Your site needs to move the needle right on these three main scales:
Anxiety >>> Trust
Confusion >>> Clarity
Alienation >>> Affinity
6 | Robert Cialdini’s persuasion principles to use for your website
6.1. Reciprocation (gift your users)
6.2. Commitment & consistency (get your users to make public commitments)
6.3. Social proof (we want to behave like “others like us”)
6.4. Liking (we are influenced by those we identify with)
6.5. Authority (we will follow authorities on subjects)
6.6. Scarcity (supply and demand)
6.7. Disobey conventions at your peril
This is critical. People expect certain things from a website like the logo to be in the top left hand corner, the navigation to be at the top of the page, the contact link to be in the footer. These are shortcuts based on web conventions that people are used to. It’s therefore important to stick to certain conventions or you will confuse your users. For example, can you imagine wanting to get to the homepage of a website and the logo is sitting in the bottom right instead of the top left of the website.