How to Test for the Consideration Stage of the Customer Journey

Imagine you notice this pattern on your mobile website: visitors use the search bar to find an item, they click on a product detail page from the search results, and then they abandon the site. You have a pretty good indication that customer didn’t find the information they needed. What if you see consistent engagement on your desktop website, but your mobile traffic is declining? You may need to look into you mobile functionality. These are just some examples of KPIs you might look into when focusing on consideration. Read on for more.

1. The Search Bar

If you’re looking to improve use of your search bar, it’s crucial that you don’t stop at design and placement. Compare search technologies through vendor A/B testing and determine the best function as well. Search bar use is an appealing KPI, but remember that use itself doesn’t tell you much about how it helps customers along the funnel. Increased search often actually harms conversions, so it’s crucial to look at other performance indicators. Other KPIs that make sense are clicks on product detail pages from search results, number of items purchased from search results, and scroll depth in search results pages.

2. Device Specific Function and Design

Consider looking into page depth and scrolling depth on your mobile sites to help customers along in their consideration of your brand. If you find that users remain in much shallower site territory on mobile, that can be reversed by A/B testing changes such as moving buttons to thumb level, prioritizing relevant content, or improving page responsiveness to size variation.

3. Filter, Categories, and Navigation, Oh My

How many filter options do you provide through your search? Most brands I’ve worked with have found that more filters correlate with more conversions, but the only way to get the right balance is by A/B testing. For example, if you’re a retailer with a wide and diverse inventory filters might be really crucial to your customers. If you’re a smaller organization maybe you want to remove distractions and display more search results per query. Same goes with the layout of your navigation and the way your pages are categorized. If you have pages that stay hidden, maybe rethink their placement in your menu.

Kate Orchard works directly with SiteSpect users as a CRO to help them get the most out of the platform and their brand. She also happens to be a real life Commodore, and we think that gives her an extra heir of mystery and authority.

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