7 Steps for Successful Split Testing Kinda Science-y Stuff
For testing purposes and the examples we give, were going to be using Googles website Analyzer which is a component of Google Analytics. Why? Well, for one, because its free and thus accessible to everyone ; and secondly, because its a darn good testing platform free or not.
Googles Website Optimizer is free, strong, fast and easy. What more could you want? It permits you to perform A / B and multivariate testing.
Why is it free?
Because Google knows that if you improve your conversion rates, youre more likely to invest in more advertising campaigns, users are chuffed because theyre happier with the sites that they find through searches. Fundamentally, most are happy and Google makes more money.
Appears sensible when you put it that way, doesnt it?
There are more, paid services that you can use to further your testing, measuring, and optimizing practices. But this series is all about making the most out of what you can get for very little money spent, by concentrating on the buyer and conducting your communications strategy in a totally different way. For that reason, in regards to practical applications for testing that’ll be covered in this part of the series, well be concentrating on how best to utilize the free Google tools.
The important thing to remember about the Google Website Optimizer is that it is a tool. It only provides the metrics, it cant tell you what changes to make. Youhave got to infer that for yourself. If you’d like the tests you run to be meaningful and give you the feedback you want to improve your site, then you need to be certain youre going about it the correct way, and making the most of the free tools that Google gives you.
Later in the series, well be going through exactly what you should be doing to get you moving with testing. Where you take it from there’s up to you.
Before we dig into the nuts and bolts of essentially running a test, there are a few things you need to recollect for any test you run, whether its 1 or 1001 :
- Always start the test with a goal in mind. Know what you expect the result to be ( though you could be wrong extremely wrong ; thats what youre testing. ) In scientific tests, this is known as the conjecture. Your goal is the basis and the reason for the whole test.
- Determine what you metric of success will be before you start the test. How much better is good enough to be considered a success? 5%? 10% 50%? Only you can decide that.
- Remember not to muddy the waters. If youre testing the colour of the checkout button, dont also change the shape or the font or where it would appear on the site. You might get an amazing result, but you wont know what variable was responsible for the change. Be especially mindful of this when testing copy ; any other changes you make, even accidentally, to the layout or the font or any other aspect of the display will totally cancel the legality of the test on the content.
- Remember that you always need a control. Even if youre dong multivariate testing, youstill need to use the original version of the page to act as a control, something to compare the test results to.
- Use descriptive names for your tests. You could be able to maintain a tally of the incontrovertible fact that Tests 1-10 were about buttons and Tests 11-15 were about headlines, but what about when youre at Test 345? If you give your tests clear, detailed names, itll be less complicated for you to find the data and results when you need to refer back to them to plan more tests.
- The tests mean nothing if you dont learn anything from them. Your test isnt really done ( or of any use to you ) unless youhave researched the results and applied the learnings to your site. You then use that data youhave gained as the base for the subsequent test, because
- And finally, youre never done testing. There will never come a point when you are able to say Thats it, its perfect, Im done. Even if your website is ideal and performing at its maximum capacity at that moment, the internet is a fluid, changing thing, and you want to ensure ( thru testing ) that youre keeping up with the changes and keeping you and your internet site relevant and maintain your presence onthe internet as a Trusted Expert.
( This post is a continuation of the series of changing into a Trusted Expert. You can read the prior posts at Become a Trusted Expert Online )
Visit Johncow.com today to learn more about ways to Make Money Online or check out out Make Money Online Podcasts.
Popularity: 1% [?]
