What is A/B Testing?
A/B testing is a process that uses one control and compares it to something else that is identical to the control, except for one variable that has been changed. The critical part of A/B testing is to make sure that there is only one variable that is changed, during the testing. For a website, the control would be one element of the website. As an example, the control might be an image on the website that is used as an advertisement. When clicked the website receives revenue.
To conduct A/B testing on this element, the website owner would change one element of the image. As an example, they might choose to put a colored border around the image. So, the control would be the image alone. The object to be tested would be the image with a colored border around it. During the time of testing, the image is monitored to see which image produces the most clicks. A more detailed explanation is available here on A/B testing and how it compares to other forms of testing.
How is A/B Testing Used?
The website owner conducts A/B testing to find out which variables can be changed to make an element produce the greatest number of clicks, possible, from the traffic that already visits the website. Although A/B testing is used on one element and one variable at the time, the website owner can conduct many of these tests, over a series of time to find out the best combination of variables for each element on the page. In doing this, the website owner can guarantee that the website is optimized to bring in the greatest number of clicks possible.
How Does A/B Testing Help a Website?
Many website owners have a good understanding of the process of generating targeted traffic for their website. The numbers of visitors that come to the website can be a source of pride. And, it becomes even better when a few of those visitors decide to click on revenue producing ads. But, it is a known fact that it might be only a small percentage of those visitors who end up clicking on the revenue producing ads. If the website owner is only gathering targeted traffic, then the only way to generate more revenue is to bring in massive amounts of more targeted traffic and hope they click on revenue producing ads.
But, with A/B testing, the website owner can be more sure that the visitors to the site will be more likely to click on the ads. So, A/B testing provides a more reliable way to ensure that more visitors click on revenue producing ads. This method of generating revenue is much more efficient than just blindly gathering traffic and hoping they end up clicking on the ads.
How to get started ?
Start by listing the elements on your site that generate revenue, e.g. clicks on banners, affiliate links or clicks on ‘but now’ buttons for products you sell. Next list the elements on the that could influence buying behaviour, for example the title of the page, the size, color and placement of the ‘buy now’ button and images plus the text used on a sales page are all factors that could contribute to a visitor deciding whether or not they buy from you or click a link. Once you know what you want to test you can start A/B testing free of charge thanks to Google’s Website Optimizer. Website Optimizer is not only free it’s relatively easy to use and provides some great tutorial videos to get you started.
Why A/B Test?
If you are a website owner, you could spend a lot of time, trying to drive traffic to your site. Granted, if that traffic is targeted, there might be a higher chance that they will be interested in your particular product on your site. However, the brutal truth is that the majority of those visitors may not be inclined to click on your revenue producing ads. So, you could spend even more time, trying to generate even more and more traffic. But, since only a small percentage of the new traffic will click the ads, the amount of traffic needed to generate the required revenue could be massive.
A better use of some of that time could be spent conducting A/B testing on the elements of the website. By optimizing the entire website to entice visitors to click, you will be causing your website to generate even more income and make the most out of your existing visits. This method can be much more efficient for generating revenue than to just blindly try to bring in more traffic. If your dream is to use your website to generate revenue and support yourself, then A/B testing could be your smartest move this year. The results could prove to be exactly what is needed to fully monetize your website.
Author Bio :-
This is a guest post written by Anto Dominic, who writes for Techiesniffer.
