Summary: This is part two of our four part guide to using Google’s website optimisation tool for better traffic and higher conversions.
Now that some crucial decisions have been made in regards to running an optimisation experiment on your web pages with Google’s Website Optimizer tool, the next part of the testing process can also be laid out with some very simple steps to follow as outlined below:
Step 1: Sign in to Google’s Website Optimizer Tool
To get started, you’ll need to get to Google’s landing page for its Website Optimizer Tool. If you haven’t yet been there, the link is: https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/splash?hl=en. You can also use this tool within AdWords and access it there by signing into your AdWords account and selecting the tab: Reporting>Website Optimizer.
- If this is your first time using this particular Google tool, you’ll need to select the button that says: Get Started.
- From here, you’ll be sent to the Experiment List page where Google tracks previous experiments that you have conducted.
- To start a new experiment, you will need to click on the button that says: Create New Experiment. From there, you then select the A/B Experiment tab.
Follow the A/B Experiment Checklist that is user-friendly and guides your through the new experiment set-up phase.
Step 2: Gather Experiment Page Information
After setting up the experiment, the next step involves gathering some information that the Website Optimizer Tool needs to conduct the experiment on your behalf:
- Pick an experiment name: The first experiment may not need a descriptive name, but future experiments should have a name that distinguishes them from the others that have been previously conducted and located on the Experiment List page.
- Enter the URL for each test page: During this process, make sure that the URL for each test page, including the original test page and the variable test pages, do not have any information after the page’s file name. Each one that you enter should have a unique URL so that it can be tested within the A/B test process.
- Submit the URL for the conversion page: Like the process for entering the URLs for each test page, this URL should also not contain anything after the page’s file name.
After these steps are finished, Google’s tool will check each for validity and send error messages if there are any blank fields or the URLs cannot be accessed. The tool will not waste time testing invalid URLs and neither should you! Once the validation process is complete, it’s on to the next step.
Step 3: Include Tags on the Test Pages
If you are have the knowledge to handle this next task, then you can proceed with installing the HTML script tags on each of the test pages. If not, don’t be afraid to hand this step off to someone who knows the ins and outs of HTML and has a working knowledge of your website’s architecture. The person in charge of installing these tags will need the URLs for the original page, the test pages, and the conversion pages. The following tags will need to be installed on each of these pages:
- Original page: Add the control script to ensure that experiment variations are changed randomly and that all variations are displayed equally. This should be placed immediately after the tag. Also install the tracking script to make sure that visits to the original page are recorded as part of the experiment. This script would be put immediately before the closing tag.
- Variation pages: The corresponding tracking script from the original page should be inserted immediately before the closing tag for each variation page that was created from the original page.
- Conversion page: The corresponding tracking script from the original page should be inserted immediately before the closing tags on the conversion page.
After these tags are installed, the Google Website Optimization tool will again validate the pages and make sure that all tags were installed their proper place. Any problems must be fixed because the tool will not let you proceed otherwise.
Step 4: Begin the Experiment
Now, it’s time to begin the experiment. As a last-minute check to ensure you are satisfied with your test pages, you can always select the Preview link and update pages by clicking the back button and returning as far back as you need in the aforementioned steps. Once the experiment begins, the parameters of the test must remain the same, so this is the last chance to make any changes, including potentially reinstalling control or tracking tags and undertaking the validation process again.
Now, the experiment begins and there are some parameters that you will need to select as the test gets underway:
- Select a percentage of people you would like to participate in the test when you are given the Total Traffic Sent through This Experiment prompt.
- Choose to eliminate any of the poorly performing page variations by selecting the “On” button located next to the Auto-Disable Losing Variations prompt or speed up this process by picking the Aggressive option or slow it down by picking the Conservative option found on the pull-down menu.
- After these testing parameters are in place, it’s time to select the Get Started button and let Google’s Website Optimizer Tool do the work. The experiment’s progress can be checked through a link to the experiment’s dashboard where you can view where the test stands under the View Report link. Progress and the duration of the test are related directly to the amount of traffic on both the test and conversion pages.
The next article will outline a multivariate experiment for those more interested in this type of test often viewed as the more results-oriented of the two testing mechanisms.
Other sections:
- Intro: Using Web Optimiser to increase traffic and optimise content
- Part 1: Planning Your Experiment with Google’s Website Optimiser Tool
- Part 3: Undertaking a Multivariate Experiment with Google’s Website Optimiser
- Part 4: Completing a Google Website Optimiser Experiment and Understand the Results
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