Epiphany’s knowledge of website optimisation was approved by Google when they awarded us the Website Optimisation Authorised Consultant (WOAC) qualification.  At the same time, our analytical & technical ability was acknowledged when we became Google Analytics Authorised Consultants (GAAC).

The final acceptance to the highest tier, Google Conversion Professionals, is testament to the experience we have in the field of website optimisation as a whole.  Google are more than willing to pass their clients to us for consultancy, with the confidence that we will deliver a world-class service.

For our existing clients, the GCP accolade will provide peace of mind that Epiphany offer the highest quality of service available.  New clients will be excited about the extra level of service they can expect when working with Epiphany.

The GCP programme not only proves our company, but will help us move even further ahead of the curve with exclusive access to some of the latest tools and some deeper insight in Google Analytics available to us.  By invitation only, we have several employees involved in focus groups set up by Google, where the brightest and most experienced website optimisation analysts share thoughts and new ideas.

Not only are Epiphany leading the way in conversion rate optimisation, but will get even further ahead in the future!

The Leeds-based business has been certified a Google Conversion Professional (GCP) and is now in an elite band of companies in the UK – including global management consulting company, Accenture – endorsed by Google as being an expert in website optimisation.

In order to receive GCP status, companies must first apply for and achieve two separate Google accreditations – Google Analytics Authorized Consultant and Google Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant.

The final stage involves months of detailed analysis and interviews to ensure rigorous qualification standards are met.

Rob Shaw, managing Director of Epiphany, said: “This is a fantastic endorsement of the expertise which resides within the agency and cements our position as one of the UK’s leading digital agencies.

“Google doesn’t give this accreditation lightly, they have created a robust qualification process and we appreciate that. To be part of an exclusive club including the likes of Accenture is a tremendous achievement for us.“It demonstrates the maturing of our business into a commercially aware agency with a results-orientated approach. We have always said that we wanted to build a world class digital marketing agency and this latest accolade is a further step to achieving that objective.”

Next week, Epiphany will be attending a four-day conference at Google’s headquarters at Mountain View, California.

There are simply too many advertisers, bidding too much for PPC to be highly profitable for every advertiser – in short, it’s becoming a dog-eat-dog world. Every sale that you make is one that your competitors don’t get, and vice-versa.

Once you’ve got your account in order, optimised your keyword list, grouped it into nice, neat Adgroups, tested many adverts on each, found your sweet-spot for each Adgroup (the most profitable bid) and tested the Content Network and all the various options that Adwords et al offer, eventually, your account’s performance is likely to plateau.

So how do you take your PPC to the next level? It can be particularly frustrating if you’ve got a well-optimised campaign, but are still only appearing 6^th or 7^th – somehow, your competitors are getting most of the sales, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

The answer is to improve your conversion rate. If visitors to your website are more likely to buy something, then you can afford to pay more for them. And the amount that you can afford to pay for a click is the basis of the whole PPC auction.

Unless the people advertising above you are complete numpties, the only way that they can stay ahead of a well run PPC campaign (and still make money) is to make more money out of visitors to their website than you do.

Website Optimisation is currently Google’s big pet project at the moment – they understand that higher conversion rates are a win-win-win situation.

· If clicks from Google are worth more, people will pay more for them, and Google make more money.

· Better-designed websites can only be a good thing for people that use Google – the fewer websites somebody has to visit in order to find what they are looking for, the happier they are.

· If an advertiser’s website converts better, it gives them an advantage over their competitors, allowing them to spend more on advertising, and make more money. Not just from PPC, but from all advertising media.

Whilst better-converting websites are important for all advertising, it’s particularly important for PPC. And generally speaking, it’s easiest for PPC as well.

After all, if you’ve got the right list of keywords, and a well-written advert (filtering out irrelevant traffic), almost all of the PPC visitors to your website will be looking for your product or service. All you have to do is to convince them to buy.

There is a whole world of literature out there about how to optimise a website, and there are few genuinely hard-and-fast rules (or Website Optimisation would simply consist of website design, rather than a process of testing). But some things are clearly important.

· The user needs to be able to find all of the appropriate products quickly and easily. Navigation should be easy to find, intuitive, and shouldn’t force the user to discard products that may be relevant.

· The user needs to be able to choose the product for them easily. They shouldn’t have to click on every single product page to see which product is right for them. Key differentiating facts should be visible on the category (thumbnail) page, such as price and critical features. If there are a lot of products, filtering and sorting are also important.

· Trust is critical. There are still a lot of people out there, sceptical about buying products online. Websites should look professional, and your contact details should be easy to find. Testimonials are good as well, as are product reviews.

· The average user has the attention span of a goldfish. Long, complicated processes for ordering can really put them off. Keep the ordering process as simple as possible.

In reality, it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. If it was, there’d be no need to test changes to the site, and all websites would end up looking virtually the same.

So, does your website offer users a good experience? Pretend to be your target customer, click on a couple of your adverts, and find out. Get your family and friends to try it as well.

If your business is large enough, it’s worth hiring an Agency to optimise your website. There is nothing more valuable in website optimisation than experience, and a good Agency can do more to improve your conversion rate in 6 months than you’ll be able to do in years, in all probability.

Google are releasing a new qualification, the Google Conversion Professional qualification: http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/conversion/#. Unlike previous qualifications from Google, this one carries a bit more weight, as Google recommend agencies that pass this qualification.

At the moment, finding a reliable Agency to perform your optimisation is a hugely difficult task – they all claim to be experts. Separating the wheat from the chaff based solely on their websites is almost impossible, and many sound good even when you speak to them in person.

The new Google qualification should help hugely – they won’t recommend anyone that doesn’t know what they are doing, and any agencies failing to deliver on their promises will lose their qualification in no time.