Continual Ongoing Improvement

One of the unique advantages of an automatic measurement system is that you can test and measure absolutely everything.  Nothing needs to be left to chance or guess-work.

I run across people all the time that seem to think the key to a successful website is this:  you set up a website and then one day you discover a miraculous ‘secret’ and from that day forward your website performs like a superstar.

This has not been my experience.  Every successful website that I have witnessed is the result of lots of small consistent ongoing improvements.

If you want to develop an extremely powerful website within your business, then you absolutely must commit yourself to a system of consistent ongoing improvement.  You need to be following a continual process of improvement that I call the ‘Test, Measure and Tune’ (TMT) process. 

The TMT process is very simple:  first come up with initiative to improve one small part of your website (e.g. The headline on one page) then:

1. Test this initiative (perhaps by changing the headline for a week).
2. Measure the results of the initiative.  (Did the new headline increase the effectiveness of that page?)
3. Tune your initiative.  If it was a success then look to do more of the same.  If it was failure then go back to the old way and change something else.
4. Then test again (repeat from step 1).

TMT simply means this: you should be continually testing new initiatives, carefully measuring the results, and then tuning those initiatives to maximise their impact..  Then repeat the whole process again and again.

TMT is an extremely powerful process that I cannot emphasis enough.  Every single successful website that I have seen always has an owner that is conscientious about continually going through this cycle.  It does not always take a huge amount of time – it just requires discipline.