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Interview mit Tim Ash

First of all: How are you?

I am doing very well. My company, SiteTuners is growing quickly, and I am speaking and presenting at many events.

You started a new conference called "Conversion Conference". How did the debut in San Jose go?

The first Conversion Conference went very well! We had about 225 attendees from all over the world (including Germany). There were 26 educational sessions as well as three keynotes by Bryan Eisenberg, Jakob Nielsen, and me. Everyone was very enthusiastic and we will carry that momentum to future events.

The conference also takes place in Hamburg in October. What do you expect from such an event in Germany? And what can the audience expect from Tim Ash?

Germans seem to have a keen interest in conversion improvement - perhaps more than in any country outside of the United States. I think that this may be because of your culture of world-class engineering. Conversion rate optimization is about measurable improvements in efficiency. I expect the event to be well attended and to meet as many people as I can. My keynote will be in English, and the rest of the conference in German. My keynote will hopefully set the stage for the event and motivate everyone to view their landing pages. Although I have not met the other speakers, I know that there is deep talent in Germany and expect high-quality presentations.

What do you think is the hot topic within the next 12 months in "Conversion Optimization"?

We are going to start seeing new positions created within companies of people who are dedicated to improving conversion rates. I would not be surprised to see a "Director of Landing Page Optimization", "Chief Conversion Officer", or similar roles emerge within companies or interactive agencies.

Do you think that conversion optimization is still being undervalued?

Yes. Most of the focus is still on various methods for driving traffic. Since that is where the money is being spent, that is where all of the attention and time goes. Ironically, improving conversion rates is the quickest way to improve the profitability of all online marketing programs. But the roles of driving traffic and converting it have traditionally been separate. As I mentioned earlier, I think this will start to change soon.

Do you agree that Landing Page Optimization is just the short tail of the optimization part on a website - because it refers to just a few pages? Doesn't it make more sense to optimize every single page of a website?

I think that many people misunderstand the definition of Landing Page Optimization. A landing page is simply the first place that traffic lands on your website. Often the desired conversion action is deeper in the site. Of course the whole path from the entry point to the conversion point should be optimized, and this process is called Landing Page Optimization. Pages that are not in this critical conversion flow can be ignored.

If you just had one single piece of advice to improve a landing page: what would it be?

Simplify.

And what is - in your opinion - the biggest sin you can commit to a landing page? What has to be strictly avoided?

As it happens, I have compiled a list of the "Seven Deadly Sins" of landing page design. These are very common and avoidable mistakes that many of us make - we are all sinners ...

1. Unclear call to action
2. Too many choices
3. Asking for too much information
4. Too much text
5. Not keeping your promises
6. Visual distractions
7. Lack of trust

Which three tools can you recommend to people who want to optimize their website?

There are several great tools that are available to help diagnose problems with your landing page. These include CrazyEgg.com, ClickTale.com, UserTesting.com, CrossBrowserTesting.com, and our own AttentionWizard.com tool.

Is there in your opinion a difference in quality between commercial and free tools?

I think that this is an artificial distinction. Many companies have adopted a "freemium" business model - where their basic tools are free, but you have to pay for some upgraded features. Others simply give their tools away to get some other business benefit, such as making money off of services or building their email list and selling advertising. That does not make their tools in any way inferior.

I guess everybody who is engaged in the topic knows your book ("Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide To Testing and Tuning for Conversions"). Are there any plans for a sequel or maybe other books?

As you probably know, the German edition has been out for over a year.

I am currently working on the 2nd edition of the English-language book with co-authors Rich Page and Maura Ginty. It will be significantly re-organized, updated, and will include over 150 pages of new content. The book should be out early next year.
We are also working on an e-book with specific step-by-step best practices for designing landing pages.

Your company SiteTuners offers a tool called AttentionWizard. What kind of tool is that, what are the central features and who may need it?

We call it "Eye Tracking Without the Eyes". AttentionWizard uses advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to simulate human visual processing and attention. Our software instantly creates an "attention heatmap" of your Web page that predicts where someone would look during the first few seconds of their visit. It allows you to increase your conversion rates by identifying visual distractions and removing them. The tool is available in a free Lite version and also in pay-per-use Pro versions.

What are the differences between AttentionWizard and other tools on the market?

AttentionWizard is unique - we are predicting where someone would look on your page. The other available approaches are expensive eye-tracking studies, or mouse-movement recording. Both of those require real people to interact with a live page, and take a lot of time to set up and collect the data. Our tool produces instant results because we use software to predict behavior - it does not involve actual people. AttentionWizard can also be used with design mock-ups to refine the exact layout and emphasis of the visual elements of the page. This allows you to eliminate many problems before you spend any money sending traffic to it.

Will these tools ever be able to replace eye tracking?

AttentionWizard is not meant to be a replacement for eye tracking. They are very different. What you get with eye tracking are the exact behaviours of the specific people that you decide to record. We know that people's attention is drawn to very different things depending on their personality type. So there is nothing definitive about eye tracking - it is just the behaviour of the people that you sampled. Algorithmic approaches like AttentionWizard can get about a 75% correlation with the averaged results of eye tracking studies. So they are a quick and easy way to get feedback and eliminate the obvious visual problems. We are seeing many landing page designers using AttentionWizard several times to refine their designs before they even go live with the page.

You seem to be very active lately: books, conferences, agency, tools ... What's coming up next from Tim Ash?

This summer I will plan to be in New York for LeadsCon and Affiliate Summit East. After that I keynote the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Francisco. The first week of October I will be chairing the Conversion Conference East event in Washington DC. After that, it is off to Conversion Conference in Hamburg. My first trip to Germany - I am very much looking forward to it and meeting some of your readers!

Tim, thank you very much for the interview.

My pleasure.

Über Tim Ash Tim Ash is the CEO of SiteTuners.com, a landing page optimization firm that offers conversion consulting, full-service guaranteed-improvement tests, and software tools to improve conversion. He is the highly-regarded chairperson of ConversionConference.com and a speaker at top Internet marketing conferences. Tim is a contributing columnist to several industry publications and is the author of the bestselling book Landing Page Optimization.