Learn how to avoid website redesigns that don’t deliver results. Website redesigns are a tremendous effort: they take a lot of planning, involve many team members and are very costly. The worst about them is that they often fail, meaning that the “new” website will perform worse than the old. - How common redesign fails really are, and how costly they can be - The key reasons most redesigns fail to increase sales/conversions - A better approach to increase chances of redesign success To learn more about Optimizely, find more info here: https://www.optimizely.com/ To get more inspiration for better website redesigns, visit our blog: https://blog.optimizely.com/2014/08/14/2-alexa-500-site-redesigns-that-should-inspire-you-to-ab-test/

1. Website Redesigns: Why they
Fail and How to Ensure
Success
Dec 10, 2015
Head of CRO Strategy
RedEye
Rich Page

2. • 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

3. Website
Redesigns:
Why
they
Often
Fail
and
How
to
Ensure
Success
Rich
Page,
Head
of
CRO
Strategy

4. “
Agenda
RIGHT
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

5. RedEye
and
CRO:
What
we
do
A/B
Testing
Web
Usability
(UX)
Personalisation
Web
Analytics CRO
1:
A/B
Testing
Testing
strategy
Testing
best
practices
2:
Web
Usability
(UX)
Usability
testing/surveys
UX
best
practices
3:
Web
Analytics
Key
reports/segments
analysis
Click
maps
and
visitor
journey
4:
Personalisation
Multi-­‐channel
Automation

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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
with
the
redesign
results

9. And
Often
an
Expensive
Mistake
The
same
HubSpot
research
also
found
that…
The
average
website
redesign
costs
€50K

10. Biggest
Recent
Redesign
Failures
MarksandSpencers.com
£150
million
for
2014
redesign
Caused
8%
drop
in
sales
(and
countless
frustrated
customers)

11. 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

12. Biggest
Recent
Redesign
Failures
CNN.com
in
2014 Waitrose.com
in
2011

13. 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

14. 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.

15. Why
Do
Redesigns
Often
Fail
to
Increase
Sales?
#2:
Too
little
feedback
gathered
from
visitors
– the
most
influential
audience.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. A
Better
Approach
to
Redesigns
To
ensure
greater
chance
of
redesign
success
use…
Incremental
smaller
CRO-­‐based
improvements

20. RedEye
Client
Case
study
Radley.co.uk
CRO-­‐based
redesign
3
iterative
A/B
tests
ran
Almost
20%
lift
in
conversion
rate

21. 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
Traditional
Redesign
Planning Prototypes Beta
Launch:
-­‐10% to
+20% lift
Incremental CRO
Improvements
Launch 1st
change:
+5%
lift
Launch 2nd
change:
+5%
lift
Launch
3rd
change:
+5%
lift
Launch
4th
change:
+5% lift
Launch
5th
change:
+5%
lift
Launch
6th
change:
+3% lift
Launch
7th
change:
+3%
lift
Launch
8th
change:
+2%
lift

22. 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

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. Recapping
the
Key
Elements
2:
Visitor
Feedback
Usability
sessions
Surveys,
single
question
Involve
as
early
as
possible
4:
Competitor
Analysis
Look
for
learnings
and
ideas
Make
UVP
better
than
most
Don’t
just
copy
though
1:
Web
Analytics
Benchmark
current
performance
Identify
worst
performers
to
focus
Identify
top
performers
to
keep
5:
A/B
and
MVT
Create
list
of
test
ideas
Find
winning
variations
Use
MVT
to
help
focus
3:
Expert
reviews
Expert
CRO
reviews
Heuristic
analysis
6:
Evolve
&
Iterate
Keep
on
learning
and
testing
Your
website
is
never
finished
Look
at
metrics
as
you
improve

30. 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
usefulfor
these
– CRO
reviews
etc.
• Monitor
overall
web
site
impact using
analytics
instead.
• Avoid
test
pollution.
Launch
these
separately
than
other
tests.

31. 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!

32. Q&A

33. 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!