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If there was one thing that defeats your efforts to market with data, it would be lack of resources. Marketing departments are notoriously under-staffed for the workload delegated by executives. It can become overwhelming to imagine doing tests when you're just trying to get communications out the door.

In the interest of helping you find more time and happiness in your work, I offer this excellent list of 26 "time hacks."

Please. Do some split testing with the extra time you find. Your visitors will thank you.

26 Time Management Hacks I Wish I'd Known at 20 from Etienne Garbugli @egarbugli

While good UX (User eXperience) does not always translate into higher conversion rates or revenue per visit (RPV), these trends point to excellent hypotheses for what MIGHT increase the performance of your site.

Single Page Sites: Simplicity is often a great way to increase conversion rates Infinite scrolling: Consider this for category pages. I haven't tested this yet. Persistent top nav: I am very curious to see if this increases CR and RPV. Let me know if you've tested it. Web 2.0 Aesthetics: I hope this includes the rotating banners at the top of so many sites. Typography Returns: Your message is the most important part of your conversion optimization plan. Typography can help... or hurt

Keep these things in mind I'd your doing AB tests on SEO traffic. And you should be.

@_EricElliott makes a strong case for choosing Web apps for your mobile users over deploying native apps through the app stores. We can add to this that AB testing Web apps (Elliott calls them progressive web apps) is easier with the tools we have. Many advanced tools don't yet support native applications.

However, responsive web designs aren't enough. You should still put the effort in to craft a mobile-centric web app, as if you were developing a native app.

I love it when designers talk about hypotheses and tests. "I use this process to help teams frame their work as a business problem to solve (rather than a solution to implement) and then dissect that business problem into its core assumptions. We then weave those assumptions into hypotheses. Finally, we design experiments to test our riskiest hypotheses."

#120. Conversion Sciences

From writing up test hypotheses to running meaningful A/B tests, Brian Massey delivers a valuable resource for anyone looking to increase their conversion rates.

Why is conversion testing important? Well, get 12 experts in a room and you'll not find a great deal of agreement on what is right and wrong with a web page.

I will add that, had we all been given access to analytics, we would have come to some more common conclusions. Measure and test.

We've had the privilege of working with several colleges to optimize their websites. The lessons laid out in this article cannot be overstated. According to SpyFu.com, of 5,050 websites in the "University" and "College" industries who spend more than $5000 per month on search ads, only 275 have split testing software installed. However, 4,208 have some form of web analytics software installed.

The bottom line is that those universities who are involved in testing their sites are going to win more top students to graduate and undergraduate programs.

"Many private universities spend upward of $2,000 to recruit each student who enrolls." A little optimization will go a long way.

We almost always test headlines on the landing pages we optimize. It's how we get some of our best wins to increase conversion rates. This orthography is a great primer for writing headlines that you can test on your pages.

Rotating headers, called "sliders" are losing their favor on landing pages. Ultimately, this is a good thing. But these hedges don't have to be conversion killers.

In the article's summary of our tests on sliders, we've been able to make rotating hero images work by first testing the order. A large part of the increase in revenue per visit was from putting the most important panels first.

Notice that the two panels that delivered the best result were offer oriented (Same Day Shipping and Super Saver Shipping). It's possible that we could remove the conceptual panels ("Make a bold outdoor impression" and "Leader in digital mesh banner printing") without impacting the revenue per visit. This would save some load time.

Great case studies from AB tests

In my new book -- see preview on Facebook -- I isolate five conversion signatures, one of which is right for your website. One is the Site as a Service signature, and the first conversion strategy is "Turn Visitors into Tryers."

This case study bears out the importance of that strategy. SaaS sites have an advantage over ecommerce sites in that their visitors can try the product right there on site. Why not offer a trial? Find out the other strategies in a free video introducing the book's core concepts.

@widerfunnel "We have tested rotating offers many times and have found it to be a poor way of presenting home page content." Enough said.

Businesses love rotating banners because they are cowards. They are afraid of picking something and running with it. They don't want to lose a chance to get everyone. Well, when you try to sell to everyone, you sell to no one. If you won't listen to me, please, read Chris Goward's article. When it comes to testing, the Wider Funnel people konw what they're doing.  

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In appreciation of your help, we'll also send an advance copy of the results once they're available.

This is a great summary of the many biases that can harm our interpretation of date, turning information into superstition and mythology. Understand these things about yourself and you'll question your conclusions before they affect your test results.

Loved the concept of type 1 and type 2 decisions.

Good sense advice if you want your pages to reel in more leads and sales. I especially appreciate being reminded that "clarity trumps persuasion" a wisdom of Dr. Flint McGlaughlin of MEC Labs.

So, should you use a carousel, those rotating hero images now found at the top of most B2B and B2C websites?

The answer is "carefully."

This clever little site illustrates the reasons rotating banners are so frustrating. The timing, the amount of text and the order all come into play.

We have been able to tune a rotating hero on an ecommerce site so that it outperformed a static image. But it took several test cycles and didn't work in every case.

Have a little chuckle at yourself and enjoy the content on this site -- if you can read fast.

If I was to rename this article, it would be, "20 Kinds of Best Practices and Why They Won't Work".

It is bad news to rely on best practices that are unsupported by data or testing. This article gives you 20 reasons why.

Evaluation of button testing