Sebastopol, CA—Years ago, an "optimized" website was one that loaded quickly and worked on most browsers. Today a website needs to do much more if a business is to thrive: it needs to attract, interact with, and persuade customers. "Website optimization is about persuasion," says Andrew King, author of Website Optimization (O'Reilly, US $39.99). "Well optimized sites persuade people to email, call, and ultimately to buy. Optimized sites are fast, engage users, and are easy to find and navigate. Using proven methods of design, copywriting, and visibility, website optimization transforms prospects into customers.
According to King, website optimization (WSO) is ultimately about maximizing the (usually financial) return on a website investment. "Research shows that attaining that ultimate goal is dependent upon fulfilling a set of known benchmarks, including making the site easier to find, easier to use, faster, more aesthetically pleasing, cheaper to run, and more compelling," he explains.
Site stakeholders need accurate resources for strategies and methods to reach those benchmarks. "I wrote this book to fill this need," says King. "By reading it, you'll learn a comprehensive set of optimization techniques for transforming your site into a more successful profit-generation machine. You'll save money by shifting your marketing budget from hit-or-miss mass marketing to highly targeted, online marketing with measurable results."
Website Optimization offers the advice of leading experts in both online marketing and site performance techniques to help readers maximize targeted traffic, improve responsiveness, and increase sales.
Readers will learn how to improve online marketing with effective paid and natural search engine visibility strategies, strengthened lead creation and conversion to sales methods, and gold-standard ad copywriting guidelines. Plus, increased site speed, reduced download footprint, improved reliability, and improved navigability will combine with those marketing methods to optimize your site's total effectiveness. The book shows how to:
- Enhance search engine visibility by implementing best practices to improve search engine rankings, including step-by-step keyword optimization and guerilla PR techniques
- Optimize pay-per-click campaigns by creating winning ad copy, profit-driven goals, and optimized bids to boost ROI
- Maximize conversion rates by using landing page guidelines to increase leads and sales with persuasive copy and effective design
- Tune website performance by using XHTML, CSS, and Ajax techniques to improve response times and engage users
- Employ advanced web metrics by gathering details about visitors to measure and optimize web conversion and success rates
"WSO is critically important," says King. "Many companies base their entire business on their website, so findability, usability, and how well your site converts are fundamental to website success. If you can't be found on the Web, or if once visitors get to your site they bail out, then you're wasting your advertising budget."
"Website Optimization brings together the science, the art, and the business of Internet marketing in a complete way—if you'll excuse the expression, in a textbook way," writes Jim Sterne, author of several books and founding president and chairperson of the Web Analytics Association. He adds, "How do you make your website better? Start on page 1."
For a review copy or more information please email kathrynb@oreilly.com. Please include your delivery address and contact information.
Andrew B. King is the President of Website Optimization, LLC, a Web Performance and Search Engine Marketing firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since 2002, team WSO has helped firms optimize the effectiveness of their websites to improve their ROI. Their clients include Bank of America, AOL, Time Warner, Net Zero, WhitePages.com, and Caravan Tours. For more information on website optimization and a book companion site go to: http://www.websiteoptimization.com.
Additional Resources:
For more information about this book, including table of contents, index, author bios, and cover graphic, see the catalog page for Website Optimization
Website Optimization
Andrew B. King
ISBN: 9780596515089, 394 pages, $39.99 USD, £24.99 GBP
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
About O’Reilly
O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.