Are you right-brained or left-brained? Does your brain lateralization affect how you interact with websites? These were burning questions for SearchAdNetwork and Westwood College. To find the answers, SearchAdNetwork tested contact form placement—right side of page versus left—on Westwood’s numerous degree program landing pages in an effort to link the type of program and brain hemisphere dominance to contact form location. Discovering a connection between brain lateralization and contact form location could have had a major impact on the search and web design industries, deciding on form placement based on the common characteristics of one’s target audience. SearchAdNetwork did not find a universal correlation between brain lateralization and form locations; however, they did succeed in optimizing Westwood’s program landing pages, lifting conversion rates by 39.87% on averages, with 83.1% being the greatest improvement.

1. Brainy Days: Lateralization &
Website Optimization
Presented by:
Angie Pascale
Copywriter & Marketing/PR Coordinator

2. Background
• Westwood College, along with Redstone College and Westwood
College Online, are a system of higher education institutions powered
by Denver-based Alta College, Inc.
• 19 campuses in six states, six schools, numerous degree programs, 17
online degree programs
• Location3 Media has been managing Westwood’s paid search for over
five years
• During that time, we have created tons of landing pages for the
campuses, schools and degree programs for all three colleges

3. Objective
• After five years, we’d optimized nearly every aspect of PPC
campaigns, all were performing well
• Next logical step was to focus on landing pages
• Due to the many landing pages, creating a GWO test for each was an
extremely daunting task
• Instead, we focused on the degree program
landing pages only
• Increasing conversions is always the ultimate
goal, but we wanted to really learn something
about the users and take a creative,
psychological approach

4. Contact Forms
• Why are contact forms always located on the right
side of the page?
• In English, we read from left to right
• Approximately 90-95% of individuals are
right-handed and prefer performing activities
with or on their right side
• What about the lefties?
• If the right side of the body is controlled by the left
side of the brain, does that mean 90-95% of people
are left-brained?
• What could this mean for landing page design?

5. Hypothesis
• Lateralization of brain function (i.e.,
right-brained or left-brained) dictates
which side of the page a user prefers
to complete a form on
• Brain lateralization of users can be
determined by degree program they
are interested in
• Right-brain degree programs will
perform better with form on left side;
left-brain degree programs will
perform better with form on right side

6. GWO Experiment
• We conducted A/B split tests using original page with contact form on
the right versus new page with contact form on the left
• Created new version for all 56 degree program pages
Original Landing Page New Version of Landing Page

7. Brain Lateralization
Right-brained Traits
Left-brained Traits
Artistic, visually-oriented,
Logical, detail-oriented,
risk-taking
practical
Responds to demonstrated
Responds to verbal
instruction
instructions
Fluid and spontaneous
Planned and structured
Prefers elusive, uncertain
Prefers established, certain
information
information
Sees correspondences and
Sees cause and effect resemblances; analogical
Source: Bastable, S. B. (2002). Nurse as educator: Principles of teaching and learning
nursing practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

8. Brain Lateralization & Career Choice
• These characteristics help define an individual’s career goals:
Left-brained Right-brained
Interested in math and Interested in literature and
science; become Humanities; become
lawyers, accountants, engine entrepreneurs, athletes, sales
ers and scientists. executives, artists, musicians
and craftsmen.

9. Brain Lateralization & Career Choice
• We associated each Westwood degree program with a dominant
hemisphere of the brain
Left-brained Degree Programs Right-brained Degree Programs
Criminal Justice Game Art
MBA Marketing & Sales
Airframe and Powerplant Construction
HVAC Interior Design
Healthcare Management Graphic Design
Paralegal Fashion Merchandising
ISS
Game Software
E-business Management

10. Results
Degree Program Winning Form Side Confirmed Hypothesis?
Criminal Justice Right
MBA Left
Airframe and Powerplant Right
HVAC Left
Game Art Right
Construction Left
Marketing & Sales Right

11. Conclusions
• Although a compelling experiment, we did not find a conclusive link
between contact form location and brain lateralization. Reasons for the
discrepancies:
• Too many outside variables
• Those seriously interested in the program would complete the
form regardless of its location
• Brain lateralization simply has no connection to online conversion
activity
• Experiment was based on a hypothesis created by right-brained
individuals!

12. Conclusions
• We did, however, succeed in optimizing Westwood’s many degree
program landing pages:
• Average 39.7% conversion rate improvement
• 83.1% conversion rate improvement for HVAC page
• Winning form location has been applied to all landing page
designs since

13. If you would like a copy of this presentation, please
provide a business card or contact me:
Angie Pascale
apascale@location3.com
720.881.8528
To view online case study, visit:
www.searchenginemarketingstrategy.com/wwcs