May 26, 2010
Evil Conversion: When Optimization Goes Too Far
As online marketers and conversion experts, we want our sites to be effective. No, it has to be said: we want more than that—we want to turn our sites into kick-butt conversion machines, leaving competitors in the dust with our screamin’ throughput and sales. But when does conversion optimization go too far? When does it stop being useful and become, well, evil?
Most of you know what I mean, because you’ve experienced the evil firsthand. Maybe you’ve even designed it. Experiences like these litter the internet, raising blood pressure around the globe:
[Read the full article on SearchEngineLand > ]
Sandra,
I agree with you, but apparently Brendan over at Future Now doesn’t (Completely). In his last post “Secondary Calls to Action: Unsung Heroes of Persuasion” he shows the un-scented “No Thanks” beside the up-sell “Add to Cart” as a best practice. My take on this is, it depends. It also needs to be tested with the highest LONG TERM benefit on conversion, brand, business development etc measured. Still, I lean towards “evil” on this point.
Hey Keith,
Great comment. Brendan and I agree for the most part. I’ve often argued for - and designed - de-emphasized secondary calls to action. But there’s a fine line, and the balance can easily get out of whack. When an important secondary choice goes from “de-emphasized” to “invisible” from the user’s perspective, it’s evil.
As a fairly internet savvy person I find that I can usually navigate my way around these evil conversion methods, however I would have been fooled by the Real Player stint. But my concern is for people (and I can think of plenty) who aren’t so internet savvy and are liable to be conned. I’ve also noticed that when you go to download free software there is often adverts purporting to be the real download button but mislead and direct you to download something you don’t want, sometimes at a cost. I think there does need to be some sort of regulation as these methods are sneaky and are putting good honest folk out of pocket.