Benefits & Risks of Usability Optimization
Usability Optimization offers your firm a number of unique benefits. They are:
- Higher ROI on all channels. Since the fundamental effect of successful Usability Optimization is to increase on-site conversion rates—regardless of the traffic source—this technique can enhance the return on every one of your firm's online marketing investments.
- Capitalizes on tightly-coupled feedback loops. Tight couplings, such as exist in Sponsored Search Marketing, mean that the increased margin generated by successful Usability Optimization enable a higher per-lead investment—i.e., higher Sponsored Search bids—in turn driving more traffic at the higher margin!
- Persistent effect. Successful Usability Optimization continues to provide returns for the life of the website.
There are also a few risks and limitations associated with Usability Optimization. They are:
- Potential for negative ROI. Usability Optimization is an application of the scientific method. Traffic analysis produces hypotheses that cost money to implement and test, and some of these may prove false.
- Unknown iteration count. Usability is an inherently iterative process: one must generally open a door in order to see the next one behind. There is intrinsically no way to know ahead of time how many cycles will be required to produce optimal results.
- Diminishing returns. Generally speaking, each iteration of the Usability Optimization process has a smaller effect then the one before.
- Local maxima. One risk inherent to all optimization processes is that one might arrive at a state which—while not globally optimal—is the best one can do without taking drastic measures. Within the context of Usability Optimization, one occasionally is forced to conclude—quite legitimately—that farther improvement would require a complete site redesign.
- Volume-dependent. Since Usability Optimization makes conclusions based on site traffic observations, it is critically important that there be some traffic present to observe. Small traffic volumes lengthen each iteration of the optimization cycle and increase the uncertainty of the result.