After reading this title, you are probably triggered to quickly and easily boost your conversion rate. However, I have to disappoint you... In this blog post, I explain through 3 tips why you should never just copy ‘best practices’.

Still I often hear, “we must scarcity apply to our products, because Booking does this too” or “Coolblue added a new feature, we should implement it too!”. Be careful what you copy. Your visitors may react completely differently. Therefore, my first tip is:

Tip #1: Stop copying!

Chances are you are going to copy something that is not going to work at all on your site or even have negative consequences. Even your competitors often have no idea what effect the changes will have on the behavior of their visitors. Even if the change has been tested via an A/B test, this does not mean that it will also have a positive effect for your visitors. For example, a small difference in the context of the visitor can cause the change to have a negative effect instead of a positive one.

See the example below of ‘Caffeine Informer’ and ‘Booking’ in which they show they tested the same button in the menu. In one site a positive result, and in the other no result. Now no result is not so bad, perhaps a waste of time and effort. But a negative result affects conversion!

Tip #2: Then, should you want to copy something (e.g., because the HiPPO - highest paid person's opinion - says so), always test it.

You'll be amazed at the results if you test the changes yourself first. By no means all best practices have the expected and desired effect on every site. Craig Sullivan often emphasizes in his presentations that every site is different so the results can also be totally different. Because:

• The customer group being addressed is not the same.
• The website consists of other code.
• The platform and structure are different.
• The competitor may spend more or less on advertising displays.
• This also the traffic procurement otherwise.
• The user experience is totally different.

Besides the fact that copying is often pointless, there are two other negative consequences.

• You learn nothing about visitor behavior and desires.
• You cannot prove the cause of a conversion drop or increase.

USP bar implemented because it was among the best practices.

A/B test where USP bar was removed (Very positive result)

Tip 3: Want to really get to know your website visitor well? Then make sure you optimize the entire online dialogue.

Build your hypotheses using quantitative and qualitative data insights, usability testing and/or behavioral science. With this information, you're going to see that you too will find and implement the winning A/B tests. With this information, you will get a better and better picture of customer behavior and how to best address the customer for optimal service.

Want to learn more about the value of evidence-driven optimization and how experimentation can lead to innovation? Read here How the partnership with Online Dialogue took Hostelworld's customer knowledge to a new level.