7 Things to Know for Successful Split Testing Kinda Technical Stuff

For testing purposes and the examples we give, were going to be using Googles Website Analyzer which is part of Google Analytics. Why? Well, for one, because its free and so accessible to everyone ; and secondly, because its a darn good testing platform free or not.

Googles Website Optimizer is free, powerful, fast and easy. What else could you want? It allows you to perform A / B and multivariate testing.

Why is it free?

Because Google knows that if you enhance your conversion rates, youre more likely to take a position in more advertising campaigns, users are cheerful because theyre happier with the sites that they find through searches. Fundamentally, everyone seems to be happy and Google makes more cash.

Makes sense when you put it that way, doesnt it?

There are more, paid services that you can use to further your testing, measuring, and optimising practices. But this series is all about making the most out of what you can get for little or no money spent, by concentrating on the buyer and conducting your communications strategy in a completely different way. For that reason, with reference to practical applications for testing that’ll be covered in this part of the series, well be focussing on how best to employ the free Google tools.

The most 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. You have to infer that for yourself. If you’d like the tests you run to be pointed and give you the feedback you need to improve your site, then you want to be certain youre going about it the best way, and making the most of the free tools that Google gives you.

Later in the series, well be going through precisely what you should be doing to get you going with testing. Where you take it from there’s up to you.

Before we dig into the nuts and bolts of actually running a test, there are a few things you want to remember for any test you run, whether its 1 or 1001 :

- Always start the test with a goal in mind. Know what you expect the outcome to be ( though you could be wrong very , very wrong ; thats what youre testing. ) In scientific tests, this is known as the conjecture. Your goal is the basis and the explanation for the whole test.

- Figure out 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 youre testing the colour of the checkout button, dont also change the shape or the font or where it appears on the site. You could get an amazing result, but you wont know what variable was responsible for the change. Be particularly aware of this when testing copy ; any other changes you make, even accidentally, to the layout or the font or any other facet of the display will totally cancel the validity of the test on the actual content.

- Remember that youmostly need a control. Even when 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 easier for you to find the info and results when you want to refer back to them to plan more tests.

- The tests mean nothing if you donot 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 foundation for the subsequent test, because

- And finally, youre never done testing. There will never be a time when you are able to say Thats it, its perfect, Im done. Even if your site is ideal and performing at its utmost capacity at that moment, the Net is a fluid, changing thing, and you need to make sure ( through testing ) that youre keeping up with the changes and keeping you and your website relevant and maintain your presence onthe internet as a Trusted Expert.

( This post is a continuation of the series of becoming a Trusted Expert. You can read the previous posts at Become a Trusted Expert Online )

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