Seven Steps to Successful Split Testing Sorta Science-y Stuff
For testing purposes and the examples we give, were going to be using Googles site Analyzer which is a part of Google Analytics. Why? Well, for one, because its free and therefore accessible to everyone ; and secondly, because its a darn good testing platform free or not.
Googles Website Optimizer is free, forceful, fast and easy. What more could you want? It allows you to perform A / B and multivariate testing.
Why is it free?
Because Google knows that if you improve your conversion rates, youare more likely to invest in more advertising campaigns, users are chuffed because theyre happier with the sites that they find through searches. Basically, everyone is happy and Google makes more money.
Makes sense when you put it that way, doesnt it?
There are more, paid services that you may 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 almost no money spent, by concentrating on the buyer and conducting your communications strategy in a totally different way. Because of this, with reference to practical applications for testing that’ll be covered in this part of the series, well be focussing on how best to utilize the free Google tools.
The most important thing to bear in mind about the Google website Optimizer is that it is a tool. It only provides the metrics, it cant tell you what changes to make. You’ve got to infer that for yourself. If you would like the tests you run to be suggestive and give you the feedback you need to boost your site, then you want to be sure you are going about it the best way, and making the most of the free tools that Google gives you.
Later on in the series, well be going through exactly what you should be doing to get you going with testing. Where you take it from thereis up to you.
Before we dig into the nuts and bolts of essentially running a test, there are a few things you want to recollect for any test you run, whether its 1 or 1001 :
- Always start the test with a goal in mind. Know what you are expecting the result to be ( though you could be wrong very wrong ; thats what youare testing. ) In scientific tests, this is named 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 sufficiently good to be considered a success? 5%? Ten percent 50%? Only you can decide that.
- Remember not to muddy the waters. If you are 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 youare dong multivariate testing, you continue to need to use the first version of the page to act as a control, something to compare the test results to.
- Use detailed names for your tests. You could be able to keep control of the incontrovertible fact that Tests 1-10 were about buttons and Tests 11-15 were about news, but what about when you are at Test 345? If you give your tests clear, detailed names, itll be easier for you to find the information and results when you want 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 youve researched the results and applied the learnings to your site. You then use that information youve gained as the basis for the following test, because
- And finally, youare never done testing. There won’t ever come a point when you can say Thats it, its perfect, Im done. Even if your website is ideal and performing at its uttermost capacity at that moment, the Net is a fluid, changing thing, and you need to confirm ( through testing ) that you are keeping up with the changes and keeping you and your internet site relevant and maintain your presence online as a Trusted Expert.
( This post is a continuation of the series of becoming 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.
