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We hear the same advice about website optimization over and over again: A/B-test your main call-to-action buttons, optimize your forms, and test different landing pages.

Here I'll explain 10 lesser-known optimization methods that can make a huge impact on your website.

Over the past year, my team at Oribi examined more than 150 B2B sites, tracked their key metrics, and analyzed which changes affected their conversion rates. These are our findings—a list of proven optimization methods and ways to test each one.

1. Remove your website's main menu from some pages

When building a website, the top priorities are usually highlighting the brand, creating the right flow, and maintaining consistent visual language. However, in over 70% of the cases we analyzed, using a lighter version of the main navigation bar—or completely removing it on strategic pages (such as features, pricing, or whitepapers)—helped increase the number of signups and other main objectives.

The psychology behind this change is that focusing visitors on what you want them to do helps prevent distraction and unwanted flows. For example, you don't want a user who just completed the product tour to enter the blog instead of signing up for a trial.

Measure it: To track the results of this change, follow the conversions on the pages you've changed as well as the overall number of conversions.

2. No one uses the "Contact Us" page

A common belief across most industries is that the "Contact Us" page is one of the most important pages of a website. It often gets a very attractive spot on the site at the expense of other pages. But the reality is that very few visitors actually use the "Contact Us" page, making it a wasted use of space for most sites. It's much more beneficial to display another page and offer an email address as a contact option instead.

Measure it: If you have a "Contact Us" page, look at the page visits—and the quality of those visits—compared with your overall page visits to see whether you really need it.

3. A/B-test your pricing page

More than half (56%!) of site visitors who sign up for B2B services visit the pricing page before converting. Most A/B tests focus on the homepage and landing pages, but the pricing page remains relatively static. However, we found that changing the pricing page had the highest impact.

Consider the following parameters, which are likely to move the needle:

  • Focus on the main benefits per plan. Listing as many features as possible can lead to messy pricing pages.
  • Try changing the default plan. UX recommends highlighting a default plan, which is usually the midrange price. But changing the default plan teaches you a lot about your users and may lead to surprising results.
  • Rename your plans. Plan names are usually drafted once and never revisited again. Naming them differently may influence your visitors' decisions.

Measure it: Compare a few days' results of an updated pricing page with your standard numbers. If you keep your changes, think about adding a cohort and tracking the churn as well. Don't compare only the end-of-funnel results (paying users); also track how the initial plan visitors interact with the modified pricing page. Measuring more stats will help you understand the impact faster.

4. Use two main calls to action, side by side

The rule of thumb is to always use one main call to action. But deciding which objective will be the main call to action can be challenging. You may want your users to sign up, but having them take a tour might be just as important.

We analyzed a few dozen sites offering two main call to actions, such as these:

In 57% of the cases, we found an increase in conversions for both buttons. In 20% there was hardly any change, and in 23% the number of conversions decreased.

In most scenarios, different types of visitors responded positively. The first call to action addressed more decisive visitors, encouraging them to sign up. The second call to action addressed "newbie" visitors, offering more information by taking a tour or watching a video. Although those options were available before as well, placing them as calls to action made the difference, illustrating that including a "learn more" call to action along with the main objective is a great way to convert different types of visitors.

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10 Overlooked B2B Optimization Opportunities to Boost Your Website

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Iris Shoor

Iris Shoor is the CEO and founder of Oribi, a tool that makes website analytics easy for everybody, without the help of developers or analysts. Find her on her personal blog, Unicorns Don't Wear Uniforms.

LinkedIn: Iris Shoor

Twitter: @IrisShoor