Removing header and footer links from demo page: +7% sign-ups
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsRemoving the header and footer menu links from the Contact Us page lifted demo sign-ups by 7%.
The marketing team at POSist (now Restroworks), a restaurant POS software company, ran this follow-up test, and it was published as a VWO case study.
The team built the new version after heatmaps and session recordings showed visitors leaving through the menus.
- Demo sign-ups: up 7% compared with the page that kept the menus.
- The idea came from heatmaps and recordings that showed many exits through the header and footer.
- Sample size, duration and confidence level were not shared.
The change
Variant strips header and footer menu links from the demo page
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The winning Contact Us page from the previous test, with the full header and footer menus in place.
Variant
A focused version of the same page with the header and footer exit links removed, so the demo form was the main thing to do.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- With fewer links, visitors who had reached the contact page had fewer ways to wander off.
- People who were already close to booking a demo did not need site navigation to finish.
- A cleaner page puts more attention on the form and its trust signals.
Caveats: Sample size, duration and significance were not shared, and the data dates from around 2018.
Who ran it
POSist ran this test and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on POSist →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we remove header and footer navigation from the demo request page, then more visitors will submit the form because there will be fewer exits from the page.
- Primary metric
- Demo request conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Sales-qualified lead rate
- Bounce rate on the demo page
- Support or contact emails from confused visitors
- Who should test it
- SaaS and lead-gen sites where the demo or quote page is reached late in the journey. It may hurt if many visitors land there cold and need navigation to learn more first.
Questions
Should you remove navigation from a demo request page?
It often helps when visitors arrive ready to book, since fewer links means fewer exits.
Test it, because some visitors still need to look around first.
How do you find exit points on a page?
Heatmaps and session recordings show where people click before leaving.
That is how POSist spotted the menu links.
Is removing navigation the same as a landing page?
Close to it. A focused page keeps one goal and removes links that compete with it.
Apexure