A/B Testing

A/B Testing, or Split Testing, is the name given to testing two (or more) completely different versions of a webpage from your site. It is the often the best type of test to start with and can be used to test radically different versions of your pages.

A/B Testing works as follows:

The page to test on your website is identified, along with a conversion page. A new version of this page is designed and then added to a new URL. A snippet of Javascript code (similar to the Google Analytics code) is then added to each page. Google Website Optimizer then automatically diverts half the traffic to each version of that page and records the conversions from each. Once the results have been taken, further tests can be set up and appropriate recommendations made for the design of your site.