2008 may not have been the year for improving the value of your home.  But it was the year for improving your website, as website optimization became an integral part of online marketing for many leading online destinations.  The website optimization momentum will continue with full force in 2009.

Here are the top trends for optimizing your website for 2009.

1) Adaptive Targeting

People visit websites for all sorts of reasons and enter through many different paths. It is about getting the right message to the right person at the right time. This is what targeting is all about. The idea has been around for some time now, but the problem with most website targeting solutions is their inflexible approach. The set of creative alternatives has always been limited, as has been the data collected about the customer.  That limit has finally been lifted. Website targeting has evolved to what is now known as Adaptive Targeting.  Adaptive Targeting uses multivariate testing in conjunction with a range of new, more enhanced targeting techniques and data types, to discover new segments fast and test unlimited combinations of content. It mines all major categories of visitor attributes: context, geography, time, demographic, behavioral, visitor entry, and profile. For example, a New York handbag store with a special weekend promotion could deliver targeted headline messages specifically to females aged 30-35 years, with an income level of  $150k+,  living in Manhattan, who typed in “Gucci” on google.com and clicked on an organic link on Friday evening. Wow!

2) Mobile Device Targeted Content Delivery

Partly due to the release of Apple Inc’s iphone, the smartphone market is skyrocketing. It is only a matter of time before every cell phone will be a smartphone, having PC-like functionality. While people use their smartphones for a wide variety of purposes, from banking to watching videos, the most frequently used function is browsing the internet. This opens up the door for mobile device targeting. 2009 will be the year in which mobile device content delivery gets an extra close look.  Making sure your company’s website is available and optimized on all formats is a key component to success. Remember that a person using their phone to go to an airline site is looking for quick flight information, not looking to book a vacation three months from now. It is important to deliver the appropriate content to them.

3) Sales Funnel Optimization

Fundamental to the success of all e-commerce sites is perfecting the sales funnel process. Beginning by capturing the attention of prospects and then effectively converting as many as possible into buyers has always been a huge challenge. But how many steps should this funnel be? Is it better to have 3 shorter form pages or 1 longer form? Advanced testing technology in 2009 brings us a simple, easy way to test this and find the optimal funnel that will convert as many visitors as possible.

4) AJAX Applications and Widgets Optimization

In 2009, wise marketers will capitalize on the continual rise of AJAX applications and embedded flash objects (known as ‘widgets’). Both of these increase responsiveness and interactivity of Web pages, while also providing unprecedented access to unique target audiences. When top social networking site Facebook.com opened the gates to third-party widget developers last year, it started a widget avalanche.  Making sure your AJAX application or widget is optimized for speed, functionality, and usability will be huge factors in your success and making your application stand out from the crowd.

5) Optimizing Customer Engagement

Nearly 123 million people in the US viewed 7.2 billion videos online in one month as reported by ComScore. With broadband penetrating the world and more people than ever watching videos online, it is essential to optimize on customer engagement.  Doing so means making more money through ads. New 2009 testing techniques allow us to easily optimize on key performance indicators that measure customer engagement such as time spent watching a video, time spent on a webpage, or page views. More customer engagement means more ad visibility, and this will result in more money in your pocket.

So there you have it-the top trends for optimization of 2009.  It’s imperative to keep up with the optimization momentum and constantly improve your website. If not, your home might not be the only thing losing value!