So You’re Finally Testing – But Are You Testing Smart?
| Share |
Good for you. You’ve finally decided to start testing elements of your website using Google’s Website Optimizer. It’s a great idea – everyone’s site could always do better, and it’s hard to resist using a tool that’s free.
But are you using it in a way that will most benefit you? Or are you testing things, willy-nilly, and making changes at the drop of a hat? And you’re not seeing any real improvement in your metrics? That could be because you’re going about this in the wrong way.
To properly test, assess, and optimize your website, you’ve got to go back to Grade 10 science class. That’s right, I’m busting out the scientific method on y’all. By using the simple experimental guidelines that we all learned in high school, you can ensure that the test that you run will provide you with real information that you can then use to improve your site’s conversion rate.
It seems a strange thing to do, but, really, it makes sense. After all, what is a test but a form of experiment? And if you don’t perform an experiment properly, you get skewed results. So, by following the scientific method, you’ll ensure that you can trust the learnings you get from running the test.
Every good experiment must start with a hypothesis. The hypothesis is the answer that you expect to see at the end of the experiment. It could be something as simple as “A blue “buy now” button would have a better conversion rate than a red one.” You can’t just start out testing with thinking “I want to improve my conversion rate.” Well, yeah, that’s what everyone wants. You need to be more specific than that.
For optimal results, you’ll want to come up with a hypothesis that is a true/false statement. As you can see from the way I worded mine, either the blue button is better than the red one, or it isn’t. Depending on whether my hypothesis is proved true or false, I will know whether or not to have a red or blue “buy now” on my sales page.
By setting up a hypothesis at the beginning of the test, you ensure that you stay on track and have a very clear idea about what you want to accomplish with the test. It also gives you the method for evaluating your results. Then, you can take your learnings, and apply them to your next test. You know that blue is better than red, but would green work even better than blue? And you’ve got your next test already.
This is a grossly oversimplified method for testing, but it’s somewhere to start. The example I gave is one of the easiest A/B tests you can do, but you can take the same methods and apply them to more complicated A/B tests as well as multivariate tests.
Just start doing it! You don’t know how much better your stats could be until you start testing them.
The important thing is that you start testing using Google Website Optimizer, and you test in a way that makes the results valuable information. And that means you have to actually follow scientific guidelines. There’s much more that can be said about testing, enough to fill several books, but this is a place for you to start.
Testing a site-structure (design) is sure-shot way of testing out what works best for you; But it is even more effective if you give enough time to a particular design.
I have seen people changing the design so often that no design works for them. Nice post.
I couldn’t agree more that testing is of the utmost importance, and since I’m pretty sorry at such things, I’m extremely fortunate that I have a partner who loves to do it.
The answers I get from experiments are never what I guess. That is why you do them.
Thanks for the tip on Google website optimizer. I am training with Alex Goad and getting sites ranking well but have not learned much on testing yet.
I will need to work on the patience doing testing and using a systematic approach
Greg’s latest<href=”http://increasingfemalelibido.com/category/how-to-increase-sex-drive-in-women”Increasing Female Libido”
Good stuff. I haven’t messed with optimizer myself, but I know peeps that do.
Like you said, if you don’t have a specific test, then you’ll get no where.
Knowing what you’re trying to prove, or disprove, will help you carry out the tests you need.
good stuff bro.
It costs a lot of money sometime depending on what niches you select and sometime you realize horrible results but yes, testing sometime saves your money too. I realilzed how simple tweaking in landing page can affect big.
I couldn't agree more that testing is of the utmost importance, and since I'm pretty sorry at such things, I'm extremely fortunate that I have a partner who loves to do it.