Summary: In the new world of online economics, sometimes the free tools can be the best. Google offers an abundance of free analytical tools that can be used for optimization that break down traffic information into easily understood reports designed to allow the Webmaster to take action.

Optimization on a Budget

Landing page optimization can be a complex and time-consuming proposition, and there are a great many tools that one can spend money on in pursuit of this goal. However, for the beginning Webmaster on a budget, it may be more advantageous to look for simpler tools that are more freely available.

Overview of Google Analytics
One of the easiest and most readily available tools for landing page optimization is Google Analytics, which is available for free to anyone with a Google AdWords account. The purpose of Google Analytics is to obtain detailed information about traffic to your web site, which can then be used to further refine the site design. There are other more sophisticated analytics software packages that may offer more granular detail, but the price (free) of Google Analytics can't be beat.

The display is broken down into four categories: Visitor Overview, Map Overlay, Traffic Sources Overview, and Content Overview. The visitor overview category shows details about how many visitors came to the site over time, including amount of time spent, and how many page views each visitor experienced. The map overlay shows a global map to illustrate the visitors' origin; and the traffic sources charts show where traffic originated, including top traffic sources, and keywords visitors used to arrive at the destination. Lastly, the content overview breaks down statistics on each page of the web site.

Google Website Optimizer
Optimization of landing pages is part science and part trial and error. The Website Optimizer also available within Google Analytics facilitates this process by building on the analytics provided. With the Optimizer, it becomes very simple to test out different types of content—which is really the basis of optimization when it comes right down to it. After creating a series of test landing pages, you can use Google's Website Optimizer to track data for each test page, to see which one delivered the best results.

Optimization Made Easy
After your Web site has reached your desired penetration and has started delivering the results you are looking for, you may wish to spend some money and graduate to one of the more full-featured landing page optimization packages on the market. However, for the new Webmaster, or a Webmaster of just a small site, the free Google tools may be all you need, and may present an excellent way to "get your feet wet" in the area of landing page optimization

Keep in mind that landing page optimization is not a piece of software, it is a process. The software only takes a supporting role.