If you read the Sherpa article and our blog you will see that the entire case study is about challenging best practices. There is no best practice as these tests showed since blue beat red on another page!

btw, I believe it was Jeff that stated color is not significant on your post from Feb.

Thanks for blogging about a great topic!

Cheers,

Jonathan

I never said, or even suggested, that color isn’t significant. It’s often VERY significant. But it’s contextual.

Why would a multivariate test that was done on a single website make a compelling case for any would-be “best practices”? The color red isn’t the problem; it’s the notion that one way is best for everybody.

In the example you just showed, red is by far the most prominent color, and it’s set within a color scheme that’s already blue. The red stands out here, especially when you consider the use of white space and the other blue. AND red seems to have only been tested against dark blue and light blue.

Did you try a light green? Maybe a light green with a slight gradient, or something to make it look more tactile? I’d be curious to see if that boosts conversion.

Future Now has been testing calls to action on myriad sites for nearly a decade and we’ve rarely found it to convert better. With some sites — and at certain points of the buying process — it does, but that doesn’t change the broader point.

Thanks again for writing in about this! (By the way, if you’d like to show us some tests of, say, red buttons working well on landing pages, I encourage you to enter SEOmoz’s Landing Page competition. You can win $1,000 and a guest-list four the Call to Action seminar.)

There was no shaky evidence here. These test were MVT and color was one of a number of elements that were tested. Confidence levels were always over 90%. One test matrix from the Sherpa case study in question is on our blog along with some more details. http://www.ottodigital.com/feature/otto_digital_prints_success_fo.php

Where I have an issue is that in this post and the one you reference from Feb. you state that button color is not a highly signifacant variable. I strongly disagree.

I’ve done as many button multivariate tests as anyone and by an overwhelming margin color usually is the largest factor of influence for whatever performance metric we are optimizing for. And while red does not always win, more times than not it does.

So it’s not me that is a red button booster. The people have spoken.

Cheers,

Jonathan

Yup, exactly like that.

One size does not fit all is the point. In the case of that particular red button, the idea is to slow the eye to the Google Website Optimizer logo next to it. You may also notice that our “click to subscribe” call to action is blue.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with red; we’re just saying it’s not the optimal color for conversion in all — or even most — situations. There are no strict rules other than:

“Testing, testing, 1-2-3…”

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