Is your website getting a decent amount of traffic but sales or enquiries are low?

When done right, AB testing (also know as split or multivariate testing) is a very effective method of increasing a websites conversion rate. Basically, it is used to test various page elements to see which works to be the most effective at reaching a certain goal – that could be more enquiries or increased sales.

A B Split Testing Website

Whether it’s landing pages for paid search ads, regional optimisation or a checkout page, split testing can help optimise the customer’s journey for a better user experience.

AB testing will help you address any problems on your site. Before carrying out this method of evaluation for a website you should ensure your site is up to scratch. A technical and SEO Audit will help pinpoint any problems that may need to be fixed. There’s little point coming up with a hypothesis if your site is running slow, has lots of crawl errors or coding issues. Although you may need to do a little or much tidying up, to begin with, the benefits of AB testing should not be underestimated!

When two variants of the same page have been designed, traffic is then diverted between the two to see which performs better. Results can usually be analysed after a 7 – 14 day period. With this data, you will then know which version your customers prefer and which drives the most conversions. What business doesn’t want more users to their site to click the enquiry or buy now buttons! With AB testing you will be able to analyse key metrics which can help give you an overall view of the design and performance of your website.


Basic metrics

  • Unique page views: measured by the number of page views from a single individual visitor during their session on the website.
  • Page views: the number of times a single page has been viewed. This can be any page including, but not limited to, product pages, landing pages, contact pages etc.
  • Location: refers to where your visitors are coming from, so you can create more targeted localised content or advertisements.


Engaging metrics

  • Average time on a page: shows you how engaging the website design is by giving you the average time a user spends on a webpage.
  • Pages/Session: shows you how many pages a single user visits while they’re on the website.
  • New vs returning: shows you how many new or returning visitors you have, giving you an indication of whether your site is engaging enough to bring visitors back.
  • Referral traffic: shows the number of websites that link and share content that’s on your site.


Conversion metrics

  • Purchases/Transactions: shows the percentage of revenue and how many transactions your website is converting.
  • Time to purchase: gives you an idea of the time it takes a single user to purchase from the variation page.

AB testing can show you which areas of your site’s design may be lacking and needs improvement to boost conversions, which can include:


Images

Unfortunately, there are many web designers who don’t use high-quality images or files correctly sized for multiple devices. This can make a site look really unprofessional and impact on sales and the reputation of the business.


Navigation

Making it easy for your visitors to get around could be lacking depending on the layout and design of your site. Fancy menus are great! But your customers should have a clear and concise menu tree to find the information they want and quickly, without being confusing. A minimum design has and will always be a winner and works well across many sites today. There’s nothing more off-putting to a visitor when information is cluttered, all over the place and makes them feel confused.


Calls to action (CTA)

The point of a CTA is to encourage a visitor to ‘take action’ and encourage them to connect. Whether the conversion is a sale, enquiry, sign-up or download, you need to have a well designed and enticing CTA to motivate visitors. More and more marketers are realising how effective a good CTA can be so you’ll already be seeing less of the ‘Click Here’ and more of the ‘Discover Something Great’ CTAS.

Other metrics analysed can include:

  • Visitor flow – how your visitors go from point A to B.
  • Layout – the layout of menus, CTA design, forms etc.
  • Text – titles, descriptions and content itself.
  • Visual Elements – images, colors, media, brand logo etc.

AB testing is the perfect way to redefine your website design into a powerful and more profitable marketing medium. With careful analysis of the data collected from AB testing, you can change elements of the design that can help drive more conversions. Identifying weak areas of your site will offer an abundance of opportunities to really engage with your site’s visitors and improve your overall site.


And finally …

Choose High Traffic Pages! You should work on high traffic source pages first. These are being seen by more people and will benefit greatly from initial AB testing.

Then, it’s worthwhile during your sites SEO campaign to create and split test landing pages which will enable you to; convert more sales, lower bounce rate, reveal any pitfalls your site may be experiencing, eliminate guesswork and assumptions and allow you to gain better leverage over your competitors!

Your digital performance is about to get a serious lift ...

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