Optimizing Your Website with A/B Testing

When you first begin to learn about the concept of online marketing and website creation, the chances are you’ll hear and see a number of terms that you may not fully understand. One particularly common term used within the digital world is “A/B testing”.

A/B testing refers to a simple method that is used to test the changes that have been made to a web page against a previous design to determine which produces positive results. For example, if you changed the format of your website, you may want to learn whether visitors have a more positive response to your new format than they did to your old one.

A/B testing provides a method of validating a change or new design within a webpage to ensure that each move you make in digital marketing takes you closer towards higher conversion rates.

The Importance of Testing

Imagine you built a house for the first time out of wood. The wooden house may seem to work fine and do what it is intended to do, but regardless of this, as time passes, you may start to consider the concept of using brick instead. With testing, you can ensure that the second build works better and provides more of the results that you want before you demolish the first house.

Testing makes website optimization easier by removing some of the guesswork that may be involved, enabling owners to make decisions that are based on hard data and facts. By measuring the difference that changes made to your website through download numbers, purchases, or signups, you can ensure that you’re only producing positive results.

Many businesses have hunches about the ways in which site visitors may react to particular elements of design, but A/B testing allows you to provide an example of two versions of the same page, and check how they perform before you announce a winner.

How it Works

An A/B test involves carefully considering two versions of the same web page, one that is called the A version (typically the control, or the page you started with) and another called the B version (the one that has received changes). Usually, the test is done by allowing live traffic to interact with your website, so that it is possible to measure the effect each version has on your conversion rate. If, for example, the B version leads to ten more purchases than the A version, you could assume that the changes have had a positive effect.

Once enough visitors have been directed through the test, allowing the optimization tool that you are using to check for significant results, you will be able to determine whether the changes to your website are worth doing, or not.