Summary: This is part three of our four part guide to using Google’s website optimisation tool for better traffic and higher conversions.
With the Google Website Optimiser experiment underway, it’s now time to view reports. This article will also provide some insights into how to pause or even stop an experiment.
Results in the form of impressions and conversions will be sent back almost immediately after you’ve launched the experiment. The data can be found by selecting the View Reports link on the experiment dashboard under the Experiment List. It’s a good idea to check these results fairly soon after starting the experiment in case some tagging errors need to be addressed.
Reading the Reports
The report is easy-to-read because all the data is displayed as a graph or a table so the performance of each variation can be quickly identified and analysed. Google provides specific instructions on how to read the reports as well as how they create the results by checking out the technical overview found on their Website Optimizer Guide. Here are some key tips to remember about viewing reports:
- Page Section results usually appear much earlier than Combination results because of not requiring as many visits before meaningful data can be collected.
- Waiting for the Combinations report will most likely provide more comprehensive information that you were looking for so it’s worth the wait!
- You will receive some final analysis from Google Website Optimizer in the form of a final recommendation on the best combination possible, i.e. the combination of variables that most optimises your site.
- All the results are entirely dependent on how much traffic you receive and the number of variations you have created.
Re-working and Re-developing Content Variations
If you begin to get results back that you are not satisfied with, it means you will need to go back to the drawing board and create some more dramatic variations that will yield more effective reactions from your visitors. This is where it may be a good time to pause or stop the experiment and rework your content so that you can continue experimenting to find those optimum results.
Pressing the Pause Button
It is possible to temporarily stop the Google Website Optimizer test by selecting the Pause link that is found on the report page. You can even permanently stop the experiment by selecting the Stop link also found in the same location. When ending the experiment, the tool will still provide the results up to that point so that you can choose the best possible variations to use on your website as determined by the data gathered to that point in the experiment. If you do choose to stop the experiment, it’s important to remember that it cannot be restarted. Instead, you will have to go back to the very beginning as outline in previous articles and start an entirely new experiment within Google Website Optimizer.
Final Thoughts
This series of articles has walked you through the process of using Google’s Website Optimizer tool from start to finish, illustrating just how easy and valuable it is to help you optimise your website by understanding what elements garner more attention and higher traffic. Now, it’s time for you to go get started!
Links to other sections:
- Intro: Using Web Optimiser to increase traffic and optimise content
- Part 1: Planning Your Experiment with Google’s Website Optimiser Tool
- Part 2: Conducting an A/B Experiment with Google’s Website Optimiser
- 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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