Jay Thompson delivered one of my favorite presentations at Agent Reboot Phoenix on Wednesday. It was one of my favorites because it was real practical in terms of things you can turn around and implement and test to see if your site is performing well and how you might improve the layout and design of your site for maximum impact (a.k.a. better lead conversion). We’ve talked about how to make your site design more focused and intentional in a previous post.

Anyway, I recorded the segment for you to watch: (7 min, 14 sec)

[youtube width=600 height=480]GvcW7p-fh3A[/youtube]

The list of apps (and what they do) Jay recommended are:

• ClueApp: This site helps conduct memory tests for your site. The way it works is you input your site URL, it generates a screenshot of your site, then it creates a unique URL for you to share with site visitors. It gives them a handful of seconds to digest your entire website then it takes them to a page where they report back what the most remembered words and phrases were for your webpage. (I just ran mine, so far users have reported back with: 1.) Nice layout, 2.) Photo with too much Blank Space, 3.) Crisp headlines. So, I know my layout is clean but perhaps my headers needs some work). That’s how this service is useful, you can get some real solid advice on what people think of your website so you know what to work on and improve.
• CrazyEgg: This service helps you visualize your site’s analytics. What it does is it captures and provides a heatmap of every click a visitor makes on your website. So if you’re using a variety of widgets, have a variety of Call To Actions on your sidebar, etc. Crazy Egg will render a heatmap showing you where people tend to click the most on your site! So remember when we talked about the 5 most essential elements of a blogs sidebar, Crazy Egg is a perfect compliment to that. It will show you what’s working and what’s not so you know what you can remove.
• LabsMedia: Like Crazy Egg, Labs Media has a heatmap feature called ClickHeat. This is an open source software and is free of charge.

Lastly, Jay suggests you put some thought and consideration into the verbiage you use in the various Calls To Action on your website. For example: “Advanced Home Search” vs “Detailed Home Search”. If I asked you which one you think performed better, which would you choose?

If you said (B) – Detailed Home Search – you chose right. Changing the verbiage from “Advanced” to “Detailed” led to a 19% increase in click-thru rate for Jay. Take things like this into consideration on your own website! What can you change to improve you navigation, your Calls To Action and drive visitors where you want them to go? If you want some inspiration, visit: whichtestwon.com and browse through their A/B tests for some inspiration.

Now, what can you change around your site to make things better/easier to navigate? Are there any other tools you recommend? What things have worked for you so far?