What is A/B testing?

To put it simply, A/B testing for websites involves setting up two different versions of a website, or a single page on a website.  When visitors come to the site, half of them are shown the regular, or control, version of the page, "A", and half of them are shown the new, or test, version of the page "B".  Then these pages compete against one another.  This type of testing lets site owners get fast results to see which version of the site works better. 

 

Why is A/B testing important?

By performing A/B tests, site owners can easily see what internet users prefer when it comes to ads, websites, landing pages, etc.  By implementing changes based on the results of A/B testing, the number of site visitors can vastly increase.  When speaking of a webpage specifically where a site already has visitors, implementing changes after A/B testing can also increase profit made from the website.  In the long run, A/B testing is a great tool for learning and developing new ideas to attract new clients to a website and to keep existing ones.
 

 What goes into A/B testing?

The first thing to do when starting A/B testing on your website is to come up with a test.  Maybe it is something as simple as changing the wording of product descriptions.  With this test you will then look at four different areas to decide your results.  One of these areas is the number of conversion events and view events during the test.  A view event means that a customer has begun a test.  A conversion event means that a site viewer has completed a desired action during the test.  The next area to look at is conversion rate.  This is simply conversions divided by views.  Next you will look at change, which is the overall difference in each change compared to the control setup (the original page).  The last area to look at is confidence, which shows if the variation made is significant.
 

How to manage A/B testing?

There are many things that can be tested using A/B testing: buttons, wording, size of logos, colors, headlines, product descriptions, layout of website, promotional offers, and many more.  The idea of A/B testing is to take one of these areas of testing and perform a test.  When that test is done, try again in another way.  And try again.  And when you are finally satisfied with your website in that respect, try A/B testing in another area.  Since this requires a lot of time and commitment it can get stressful to take care of each test by yourself.  While that is an option, there are also other routes available some which are free, and others which require payment.  One of the most widely available and popular options is Google Website Optimizer, a free A/B testing tool.  There are also other options such as SiteSpect and Visual Website Optimizer.

For full project-management and user-experience consultation, contact a professional at Blue Archer.

Michelle Hawley
Digital Content Writer
@BlueArcherPGH