Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions

I write a lot of landing pages for my clients, so I was excited to see this book. However, much of it is standard marketing advice you could find in many sources. The author loosely defines "landing page" as the page where the visitor enters your site (as opposed to a page that's specifically designed to transition from a promotional offer to the main site) so it really is a book about web marketing in general.

A lot of space is devoted to short summaries of related subjects (the Meyer-Briggs personality types, various statistical analysis techniques etc) which the reader is either going to be familiar with or, if not, would do well to learn about in more complete discussions elsewhere. An important subject to me (actually, the reason I bought the book) is personalization on landing pages but that gets just ½ a page. There are good case histories but the book needs far, far more of them.

If you're just starting out in web marketing this book might be a good primer (hence the 3 stars). Otherwise you'd be better off to read the MarketingSherpa case studies along with Jakob Nielsen's writings on web usability.

As a project lead for a Microsoft team that works with adCenter clients, I read a lot of technical books about online advertising. A lot. I've never referred to any of those books as a page turner. Never. "Landing Page Optimization" is a book with weight and substance without being dead weight. When I finished the book I had a working knowledge of the rationale and testing methodology for landing pages including a better understanding of the math than I had expected. I have a background in search engine advertising and web analytics but lacked a clear understanding of multivariate testing. With this book I could step into a search engine advertising production environment and feel comfortable with the learning curve.

I just finished reading Tim's book and want to let you all know that this is by far the best book I have ever read on landing page optimization. I now have 18 pages of notes and ideas to apply to my work as a result. No combination of blog posts, speakers or articles can provide this kind of comprehensive, actionable knowledge.

I work in the search marketing / analytics field in a digital-centric agency setting and will be recommending this book to everyone I work with. This is a must read for any person or company involved in digital media, analytics, usability, web design or any other online field.

Landing page optimization (LPO) is NOT as simple as changing a web page's images, text, or font color and font size to create what you THINK others will like. There are many more pieces to the puzzle, which Tim Ash covers very well.

I firmly believe that this book is a great read for anybody who plays a part in the design and layout of any web page that asks a visitor to do something (i.e. buy, sign up, download, etc.). You'll definitely learn how you can make your mission critical landing pages convert better.

Even the old salty pros out there can learn a thing or two from LPO Jedi, Tim Ash.

Eric Itzkowitz
[...] Phone Cards

p.s. We've already put into place some of the learnings derived from this book. We can't wait to see the results!

I often find that mastering the art and science of conversion optimization is one of the key areas that separates outstanding marketers from the also-rans. Tim's book is an essential resource to help people start to develop that mastery.

I particularly enjoyed Chapter 10 since it helps you think about the entire testing process from end to end. There tend to be three kinds of testers. (1) Those who don't know about testing yet. (2) Those who get good but not extraordinary benefits from testing since they don't think through their tests. (3) Those who do think through their testing and UX strategy and get such great results that it becomes huge competitive advantage.

Folks who can take the insights from this book and get a few big tests under their belt will not only deliver big gains to their employer but will also be the cream of the crop in the digital marketing professionals marketplace.