A/B testing

In short: A/B testing gives an opportunity to compare many versions, to understand which one works better, to analyze it and to make changes.

When can it be used?

• In website design. You can check several design options to choose the one that works better.
• Test the new features. For example, you can create the old features with the new features.
• You can compare the landing pages for the higher conversion rate
• You can compare the ads’ performance to understand which ad text is more efficient.
• With email marketing, there are many ways to use A/B testing.
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What do you need to do to start the A/B testing?

1. You need to analyze the situation and find the problematic parts which don’t work for you.
2. Try to come up with the options that “could” work better
3. Determine which parameter interprets the success to you. The CTR, conversion rate, etc.
4. Create several options for the test. Sometimes you will need special software to do that.
5. Run the experiment
6. Analyze the results. Make the data speak.

What are the main issues with the A/B testing and SEO?

1. Stop cloaking. Don’t use different content to different users based on their IP address for example.
2. If you use many URLs, don’t forget to use the rel=” canonical”  for the main page which you want to be crawled.
3. Don’t use permanently redirect (301), instead use temporarily redirect (302) with the URLs. Google will not be confused this way and will keep the main page indexed.

Which sites and software can help with the A/B testing?

• Optimizely
• Google Analytics
• Kameleoon
• Visual Website Optimizer:
• Unbounce
• LeadPages
• Kissmetrics