Pixel Liberation Front

(Cross-posted from savethepixel.org)

I'm on a mission to prove that saving pixels can make web sites more successful.

I noticed on my stats that, since cutting out the heavy header on "Web Design from Scratch", and deleting some of the lines around the content area:

• The average number of pages each visitor views has gone up from 2.17 (3 weeks ago) to 2.39 (sustained for the last 3 weeks) - a 10% improvement
• and the average time spent on the site has gone up from 2m 8s (3 weeks ago) to 2m 29s (last week) - up 16%

Now, these numbers may not mean much to you, and may not have a real and noticeable impact on our business, but the important thing is the numbers have gone up. If your business depends on getting as many visitors through your site as possible, either to buy or to request information, or set up a call with a rep, even a 1% difference could be worth real money, and these changes took minutes, not hours, and cost me nothing.

But here's the best one - a real conversion rate.

• The proportion of visitors to Web Design from Scratch who went through to the Scratchmedia web site went up from 4.35 to 5.14 per thousand visitors. That's an increase of 18%!

Companies spend a lot of money on new cold leads, or on SEO campaigns to drive more visitors to their sites. I reckon some of that money could be much better spent stripping a few unnecessary pixels from the web site.

Is your web site a leaky bucket?

When you find yourself putting a lot more energy in, to get a few more sales or results, it's a bit like using a leaky bucket to carry water from one place to another.

If your bucket leaks, your time would be much better spent fixing the holes than running backwards & forwards with more energy.

Where are the holes in your web site, where you're leaking visitors? Want to find out?

Here's what you can do to be part of the solution

Just follow these simple steps to be part of my simple pixel-saving experiment:

1. Get the person who designs your web site to take a copy of your main stylesheet.
2. Look at your web site for anywhere pixels are being wasted (where they're not helping your visitors find what they want).
   • Look for any lines, boxes, gradients, backgrounds, icons, that draw the eye (even a tiny bit) away from content or navigation. Cut them out.
   • You might also want to increase the prominence of the things that do direct visitors to what they want (headings, links, navigation). Use increased size, contrast, white space, or colour to draw the eye.
   • Note: Don't change your content, copy, metatags etc. We want to keep it scientific, by changing design only.
3. Put the stylesheet live.
4. Walk away for a week.
5. Then come back and look at your stats, comparing the last week (with the lighter-weight styles) to the previous week (with the default styles). Look specifically for:
   • How many pages people are looking at
   • How many people come through to goal pages (either contacting you, viewing products etc.)
   • How long they stay on the site
   • How often they come back
6. Then please let me know! Either way, I want to see your results.
   • Please send key stats, and if possible a before & after screenshot.

Thanks!

And hey! You may find you want to keep the test stylesheet!