Step 2 - Google Website Optimizer

Through testing you're able to compare different components within your site or in a PPC campaign to figure out which version works best over time.   The one that wins out will effectively convince your visitors to take an action that you specify, i.e. conversion. 

The winning version enhances the momentum of your conversion snowball.

Keep in mind that you can have hundreds of first page rankings, thousands of quality inlinks, and an AdWords campaign with a super high CTR running 24/7 but it's all for nothing if your website does not yield a high conversion rate.  More...

Google Website Optimizer is a free testing platform.  

It's a ridiculously powerful tool to help boost your conversion rate. 

Top 7 Reasons to Test with Google's Website Optimizer

#1.   It's free to use and quick to set up tests

#7.   Higher conversion rates...improvements can be dramatic when you know how and what to test

A Note about What You Should Expect

An important caveat is that our job is to underscore the importance of testing with Website Optimizer and to introduce you to the basics so that you can take the first baby step and begin testing.  This specific step of SEO Central is not, by any stretch whatsoever, a complete guide to using Website Optimizer.

We will highlight key features and explain common terminology used by Endo SEO and Google in the realm of testing.

Don't forget that you're in the process of learning and trying to understand how you can leverage this specific tool to increase profits for your business.   Although Website Optimizer allows you to perform simple to complex tests, works the numbers for you, and displays which things you've tested perform better, it will NOT be the brains behind your testing. 

It's incumbent upon you or someone within your organization to take on the role of scientist - one who knows the what, when, how, and why of testing.  More...

Endo SEO Testing Vocab

As alluded to a bit earlier, testing allows you to compare different components within your site or in a PPC campaign to figure out which version works best over time.  Here are the vocab terms we commonly use within our testing framework to ensure that we understand and communicate clearly about testing design and interpretation of results.

• Component - this can be a button, image, headline, etc.  It's an individual piece of your site. 

• Variable - something where the value changes or varies (the opposite is a constant).  You create a variable on your site when you change or vary any component, e.g. button size, button color, or button shape. 

• Version -  a different way that you can design or rearrange a component (a version is also a variation).

An example using these three terms: 

-  The headline is that little piece or component of the site that we're interested in testing.

-  Because we're actually writing two versions of the headline, the headline itself is a variable because it is not fixed.

-  This is an example of a classic A/B test (more on this in a few...).

Google's Testing Vocab

We use the terms above in an effort to be more specific when testing.   You'll quickly see that it may get a little bit confusing because Google only discusses "sections." 

They decided on this term because you test different sections of code, of varying sizes, within your site.  The tracking script includes areas that you've "sectioned off" for your experiments; thus, it makes sense intuitively yet we prefer to stick to highly specific terms.

Feel free to stick to whichever terms you like.  Just remember to be consistent once you've decided on a set of vocab terms.  More...

Types of Testing

This method compares which version of a single-variable test results in the higher conversion rate.  It's referred to as split testing because you actually split traffic to several versions of the component you're testing. 

Again, our previous example of two different headlines is a classic A/B test.  Remember that the headline is the single variable of interest that you're testing.

Classic A/B Test example:

Traffic is split to Headline Version A and Headline Version B.   More...

2.   Multivariate Testing

Before talking about multivariate experiments, we'd like to share Endo SEO's definitions for a section and a combination.

• Sections - the components you're testing on a specific visual location on your page - things like headlines, buttons, forms, etc.

• Combinations - the different ways that versions across components can be paired up

The moment when you start testing more than one component on a page at the same time, you step into the arena of multivariate testing. 

Of the multivariate design options, you have the highest degree over control of how simple or complicated you make your multivariate experiment, i.e. the number of combinations.

Website Optimizer lets you test up to 1,000 combinations but it wouldn't be intelligent to create such a beast that would be a nightmare to interpret...and it would take a super long time to run this test.  Therefore, we suggest that you start simple.  More...

   If you check out Website Optimizer's Calculator, you'll see how long it will take to run an 8-combination test, for example.

The output from our calculation recommends that this experiment should run for 26 days.   Google suggests that each of your tests run for a bare minimum of two weeks.  More...

It can be a bit tricky and overwhelming to set up a multivariate test with multiple combinations to account for.  But with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer it's totally doable!  Check out this example of Multivariate Testing made easy.  More...

You cannot afford to lose this amazing opportunity of letting your customers design your site in a way that works best for them!  We're going to help you take that first baby step into the testing world of Google Website Optimizer.  Try these two starter experiments.  More...