So you're website has great presence on the search engine and is getting lots of hits. You're conversion ratios are pretty good and your tracking everything using a web analytics program. How do you improve on something that's already pretty darn good?

Establish a Continuous Improvement Process (CIP). It's very easy to complete a search engine optimization program, or establish web analytics tracking for your site. If you don't do anything with the information though, you've just wasted a lot of time and effort.

While it is the tendency for major websites to undergo massive full site redesigns, oftentimes these redesigns are based on instincts rather than facts. In addition to the risk that the instincts might be wrong, there is also no way to identify what particular aspects of the redesign were positive and which were negative.

Changes should be made in small stages and KPI's that could be affected should be watched closely. This evolution will allow you and your web analyst to determine which changes are effective, and which are not. By following this process repeatedly, your websites performance will improve over time with little or no risk.

By following a CIP, every change or new feature can be analyzed and compared to it's previous state to determine it's impact. Did a new feature add value? Did a change to your order page make it better or worse? Did the change contribute positively towards the business goals of your website?

It is only through establishing this type of process that web analytics can measure success or failure as your website changes. By improving successes and eliminating failures, your website will constantly improve and contribute more strongly to your companies bottom line.