What a 50 mile bike ride taught me Energy and Efficiency
Jun 19, 2018One summer day in my youth, my fellow scouts and I set off on a 50 mile bike ride. The plan was to ride 25 mile out from home and then turn around and ride back. Shortly after turning around, my back tire developed a slow leak. The tire still held enough air to ride the bike, but it was terribly inefficient. With a normal tire, I could easily keep up with everyone. But with a squishy half full tire, it was like I was riding through sand. I got slower and slower and further and further behind. We stopped and attempted to fill the tire with canned air flat fix. It temporarily filled my tire and would allow me to ride for awhile until it became flat and I fell behind again. Eventually we made it to a bike shop and they replaced the tire and we were able to ride the rest of the way home. I was exhausted and it was miserable.
So what does this have to do with Conversion Optimization? CRO is about making things run efficiently and effectively. Its about making things run at their top performance and not wasting energy. On that day on the bike, I was not at top efficiency. I was pouring lots and lots of energy into pedaling the bike, but it wasn’t yielding the results I wanted. I think I was spending 2 to 3 times the energy as everyone else and was still falling behind. More energy wasn’t the answer, fixing the flat was.
Like a bike with a flat tire
How many of our websites are like a bike with a flat tire? We pour time, energy and a lot of money into getting traffic to our site, but it doesn’t convert and doesn’t perform well. We have to spend 2 to 3 times more money and energy just to get the same results as every one else.
Exhaustible resources
Time, energy and money are all limited resources and are exhaustible. So while you could just pour more money into it to help you keep up, really you should spend your resources on improving performance and efficiency. Conversion Optimization is the process of fixing the things that are wrong with your site. It likes fixing the flat on the bike and tuning it up to run at top performance. A well optimized site makes ever bit of energy and every dollar spent go further and produce greater results.