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The Beginner's Guide to A/B Testing of Your Website

17.11.2015
The Beginner's Guide to A/B Testing of Your Website
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The Beginner's Guide to A/B Testing of Your Website

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Having shared our 50-point checklist for website usability testing with you, today we would like to focus on one interesting issue, namely A/B testing of your website. Let's start.

Imagine that you are designing a webpage for promoting and selling a software product. And there’s no denying that you want to sell as many items of your product as possible. Now, how do you think you can turn your website visitors into your potential customers and eventually convince them to buy this software? Showing some stunning videos advertising the application and demonstrating the various aspects of its possibilities, providing detailed information on the product delivery or having an appealing logo, or probably offering money-back guarantee? Now, you may be confused, because you don’t know what to choose. Why don’t you consider asking your users and get things straight? Once you get feedback from them, you’ll know whether or not you are on the right way.

In this blog, you will discover one of the most objective testing techniques, called A/B testing. Wondering what it actually is? It is a possibility to conduct website usability testing or quality assurance testing, as well as get thousands or even millions of users’ opinions about which website version is more efficient. Just make projects of all prototypes you want to get compared, and then run the test! Throughout the entire process, one particular user can see only one option, and after the test is done by a certain number of participants, you will see which website version had more clicks. Now, we are moving to more specific steps to be taken in A/B testing.

Map It Out

To begin with, set up a goal and come up with a plan. Why is it essential for you to do A/B testing? The reason may be improving your conversion rates or increasing sales. By having a well-defined plan in your head, you will be able to take solid next steps and avoid possible mistakes.

Which Tools to Choose?

For A/B test running, you will need one of the following specialized services. If you use Google Analytics, then Content Experiments by Google is one of the best options for you. With the help of this tool you will be able to test multiple elements on your page, including headlines, fonts, buttons and forms, images and many more. Of course, you may opt for another service like Visual Website, Optimizer or Optimizely Unbounce.

Pick Some Elements to Be Tested

Almost everything on your website may be tested. The look, as well as the location of conversion buttons; headlines and products’ description; size, appearance and layout of conversion forms; mockups and web design; prices or other offerings, various images, the amount of text placed on the page - all this stuff can be successfully evaluated by means of A/B testing.

Generating Ideas

For achieving effective and profitable results, set up some ideas, which you think will make a positive contribution to the website metrics. These suggestions and objectives should be carefully deliberated. For instance, increase the period during which users can try your product for free. It is an idea worth trying for companies selling software and website services. You may also experiment with conversion buttons colors. Red color might annoy users, however, it can work effectively in other cases, so apply the A/B test to find out which color will work best for your website. Think through the changes you want to see thoroughly enough, and then make the analysis.

Which Pages to Compare?

Having launched a page and then comparing its performance with the old one won’t give you accurate results. The same applies to assessing completely different pages, like a home page or a basket page. The best solution is to run pages simultaneously, and offer the test to the same number of users. Moreover, A/B test will be more reliable, when compared designs differ only in one detail.

Repeat the Test

So, you have done the test, obtained the results and implemented necessary changes on your site. However, it’s not enough. It’s a good idea to run these tests frequently, for you to see whether there are improvements or it requires further modifications.

Summary

That being said, we can conclude that A/B testing is an awesome way to test your website and grasp and hold your customers’ attention. All you need to do is to make a plan, find a tool you need (e.g. Content Experiments), generate ideas and objectives, compare corresponding pages and finally, repeat the test several times. Hopefully, you’ve got the gist of A/B testing, so get down to work!

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