Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Setting Up A Split Test With Google Website Optimizer [How To]

March 18, 2009 | Feature, Marketing

A few weeks ago, I talked about the basics of split testing. It is a super useful thing to do and it isn’t only relevant to sales letters. You can use it to test things all across your site – even on a blog.

A couple weeks ago, I set up a super-simple split test on PCMech.com. I did it with Google Website Optimizer. It is a completely free tool from Google and, well, awesome. As I set up the split test, I documented the procedure. I’m going to walk you through it, however bear in mind that the steps below are going to make a lot more sense if you are looking at Website Optimizer and actively setting up a split test.

  1. Go to Google Website Optimizer.
  2. Click the “Great Experiment” link.
  3. We want to test only a particular section of the theme. An A/B split test is meant to test entirely separate pages against each other. That doesn’t fit this situation. So, we’ll create a multivariate experiment.
  4. The next will give you an overview of the process. At this point, you need to come up with what your test is going to be. In my case, I am going to test the banner section on the PCMech homepage which advertises the PCMech Premium program. The goal page will be the signup sales letter. With that in mind, check “and continue.
  5. Assign a name to the experiment (whatever makes sense for you). The test page URL where be will all the testing happens (in my case, the PCMech homepage). The conversion page is the place where you’re trying to get people to go to (in my case, the signup salesletter). Hit continue.
  6. On Step 2 of the process, you’ll select whether you have people setting this up for you or whether you’re doing it yourself. Choose the option for doing it yourself.
  7. On the next step, you will get a few snippets of javascript code that need to be included in your test page and conversion page. Ideally, these snippets will go within the HTML header and before the closing HTML tags, but in my experience it is OK to have the control script simply above the testing region, the tracking script below it, etc. In my case, I included the control script into my home.php file right underneath the call to get_header() and the tracking script right before the call to get_footer(). You will have Google validate the pages once you’ve done it and it will tell you if what you’ve done is correct.
  8. On the next step, you will set up your variations. It will automatically detect your existing section as your “original”. In my case, I kept the original in place (obviously) and created a new variation to provide a test. When you create a new variation, the original will be pre-filled. Make the changes you want to test and save. I recommend you use only 2-3 variations so as to not introduce too much into your first split test.
  9. On the last step, you will review the specs of your test and launch. You can preview your page using the test variations to make sure it works OK. Use the “Preview This Experiment Now” link to do so.
  10. Press the Launch button. Your split test is now live.

You won’t see your first results for a few hours.

Now, what I have done here is simply put the banner section of the PCMech homepage into a split test. As visitors hit the home page, they will see differing version of the banner section. I can then see which version does the best job of causing readers to click through to the sales letter.

Split testing can be done in the same fashion across the entire site, all with different goals. I could perform different split tests on the sales letter itself to see what works best to convert into new members. I could test different headlines on the newsletter opt-in form in the site sidebar to see what works the best to bring in new subscribers.

The idea is to continually be running tests and, over time, consistently be improving conversions. It is a never-ending process. And it is one that most bloggers don’t do at all, and I’m guilty of not doing it enough.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

  1. Split Testing 101 [Increasing Conversions]
  2. Sales Funnel – Business Website And Your Strategy
  3. How To Replace Your Wordpress Search With Google
  4. Getting Your Business Website Online
  5. What’s the Point of Your Website?

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  • Great tip David, I was looking into something like this for a sales page I have. This might be a good way to go.
  • This is cool stuff!Surely would try this out soon!Thanks..
  • This is great, I read about split tests last week and did not really know what to do with it until now. Great walkthrough!
  • I might try using this next week with a couple of roofing specials. Thanks for the how-to guide. Finding a ton of useful and interesting stuff, David!
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