Most companies design a website, get it up and running on the internet and hope for the best. Even if they put a lot of effort into specifying which marketing tactics they will use, they don’t optimize their pages by testing whether or not their efforts are effective. Split testing is one way to narrow down which parts of your website are working for you and which are turning customers off or just taking up space.
The most common technique is creating dual homepages that have the same purpose but vary in content, graphics, color, layout, or any combination of components. You would launch both versions of the same page for a predetermined amount of time. During this period you measure which configuration performs better according to performance factors that you set ahead of time.
To get more in-depth you will need to decide exactly which elements you will vary on the two pages. That way you will know if it is the difference in graphics, colors, or text that sparked the better sales on one page or the other. You may also want to simply reposition certain pieces of your page to see which alignment produces more sales.
Knowing what you would like your end result to be helps as well. If you know you want to improve your conversion rate by a certain amount, you can keep altering your page until you reach those numbers. With a second version of the page, you can still have the original page available so nothing is lost if the new one isn’t working
The higher sales in your first round of tests may have also been due to another factor, though. You have to continue testing and narrowing down your options. This way you will be able to zero in on which particular combination of elements will be the most effective.
If you need rather complex comparisons done you certainly want to hire professionals. You would also want to look outside your company for help if you don’t have the know-how or resources to accomplish even simple split testing. Such a venture takes time, money, and the ability to correctly analyze server statistics.
If you do decide to hire someone else to run this process, they are also usually able to test out new ads and other features you may have originally overlooked. They can highlight sources of low conversion rates. If you are willing to invest the money, people with split testing experience can boost your web traffic beyond what you can normally do yourself.
Selecting the right company for you is usually an easy choice. While there are many companies to pick from, usually you have a certain budget in mind and there are also limitations to what some companies can do. Whichever route you take, make sure you have an end goal for your website improvements in mind before you begin.
Related posts: