Making websites win is a fantastic read, full of both elegant concepts and in-the-trenches actionable tactics that have produced 2x to 5x for CRE’s clients. The authors are CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) practitioners and it shows. Here are a few of the things I like about the book:
1. Simple, clear and concise writing.
2. Lots of examples and case studies drawn from their real-world consulting practice.
3. An exhaustive list of books and resources to learn more. Books on writing, Tools for user testing, tools for A/B testing, mobile friendly CRO tools, numerous useful links and websites (like 'This is a Website')
4. Discussion of broader business topics that go beyond simple page optimization e.g. niching for success, fulfilling more of your customers’ needs (to increase lifetime value and amortize acquisition costs), and holistically building the kind of company that is deserving of success (versus treating CRO as a bolt-on afterthought)
5. Karl and Ben's quintessentially British wit and humor!
In the last 8 years I’ve read roughly a new book every week. Only rarely do I come across books that need to be re-read many times to fully internalize the lessons. Eugene Schwartz's Breatkthrough Advertising and John Caples Tested Advertising Methods are such books. To this short list, I now add Karl and Ben’s Making Websites Win. How can I not, with gems like these?
“How can you overcome the curse of knowledge? Design your processes for what you perceive to be a busy, lazy, drunk, amnesiac idiot—what lawyers call a “moron in a hurry” (really). Even geniuses with time on their hands will be grateful that you did.”
“conversion is not an afterthought. Conversion is identifying what type of company your visitors would ideally love to do business with…and then becoming that company.”
“A guarantee can be powerful, like a chainsaw. Used right, it can cut through customer objections. Used wrong, it can cut through profits. In this chapter, we’ll describe how to know if a guarantee would work for your business—and how to design and implement a guarantee that works.”
“Many people agree that they need to focus more. But they think that focus means concentrate. It doesn’t. Focus means neglect. As Steve Jobs said, “Focus means saying no to the hundred other good ideas.” Focusing doesn’t feel empowering; it feels embarrassing, upsetting, and scary. A sign that you are focusing is that you frequently cringe at the things you aren’t doing.”
“The best way to ‘beat your competitors’ is often to redefine yourself so that you have fewer of them.”
The one piece of constructive criticism I could offer is perhaps to introduce the case studies earlier and weave them more thoroughly into all the chapters. E.g. start with the GoHenry case study and then introduce concepts by referring to examples already shown.
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How to “create pages that visitors love and that convert like crazy.”
The first thing you notice about the book is the care with which it was created. I bought the hardcover and it is packaged in a slipcase with a fixed ribbon marker (you will need more of these). The professionally designed interior, with loads of website design illustrations, photos, and other helpful visuals, matches the superb packaging.You quickly learn that there is a reason for this. It’s a reference book you’ll want to keep handy and continue to dip into as you work on your website, or those for clients.I wasn’t sure if the book would be relevant to my needs. My past experience is with large corporate websites but these days I’m more focused on my own small business websites in the book publishing space. But as the authors point out, their advice is as applicable to SquareSpace and Wix users as it is to Google and Apple (clients).It is not a book about SEO, how to code a website, or online advertising. It is about CRO—conversion rate optimization. The content is divided into 3 sections followed by a detailed case study.I thought I’d skip the first section, the introductory setup of why web design is done wrong and how to do it right. Instead, my attempt to skim it kept getting bogged down because this section forms the foundation for the author’s framework and methodologies to follow in sections 2 and 3. It is entertaining, useful and necessary.The rest of the book is even more difficult to skim. You’ll find yourself dipping in and out of the 22 different approaches to diagnostics and the 14 problem solutions, i.e. what to do if your users aren’t persuaded by your benefits, and, as Avinash Kaushik, Google’s digital marketing evangelist points out in his foreword, step 7: what winning websites do to manage complexity.This is a reference book you’ll find yourself turning to time and again. Why? Because of “Principal 3: For reasons that are subtle, the top companies make frequent, incremental changes, and rarely (if ever) have huge site redesigns.”
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- JoaquínReviewed in Mexico on August 9, 2018
The book is really useful as an inspiration
