Website optimization has long been a bit of tricky topic. Just about everyone has opinions on how a site should look and work, and in the past, optimizing the landing page had been more art than science: mock up some pages, put them in front of a focus group, and listen to what everyone has to say.

The result? Sites that were based on opinions and gut feelings, rather than testing and data. Fortunately, new technology and tools have shifted that balance.

Since its introduction a couple years back, Google Website Optimizer has done an admirable job of allowing site teams to test landing pages to see which delivered the best response. By creating two or more versions of a page, changing which is displayed to each unique visitor and measuring which delivers the most positive result - sales, signups, clickthroughs, etc. - the tool can help take the guesswork out of homepage design and replace it with hard numbers. Of course, the challenging part of any tool like this is making sure the test pages and measurements systems are configured correctly.

The good news is that the process of setting up Google's system in a number of popular content management systems (CMS) has gotten a lot simpler. It was recently announced that a half dozen CMS vendors have worked to fully integrate their systems with Website Optimizer, resulting in a more efficient way to set up pages to test and measure success. These vendors - Clickability, Emovendo, Ingeniux, Internetrix, Marqui and Valtira - are a mix of both well-known and niche companies.

Website Optimizer is a natural fit with a number of other Google tools intended for site tuning and analysis In order to explore the integration between the tools, Google is hosting a free webinar on Website Optimizer, Google Analytics, and Google Webmaster Tools on July 8, but you'll need to register to view it. In addition, Google's put together a good 5 minute overview presentation that runs though how Website Optimizer works.

Virtually every site could benefit from a tweak here and there to improve its success, and CMS vendors partnering with Google's free optimization tools are clearly clamoring to help.