Using Google Website Optimizer to increase conversion rates

If you sign up for a Google AdWords account, you can get a free marketing tool called Google Website Optimizer. It won’t be necessary to pay for a campaign execution. What you have to do is to click the “Website Optimizer” link in the “Campaign Management” tab at the top of the page. You can carry out two types of split tests on your site by means of Google Website Optimizer:

1. A/B split testing – For this type of split test you have to select two pages on your website. 50% of the visitors will be able to see page A. The rest 50% will see page B.

2. Multivariate testing – This type of testing gives you a possibility to separate your web pages into blocks. Each block will exhibit different content (in various combinations).

A/B split testing is usually quite comprehensible. What you have to do with it is to preserve your existing home page (let’s call it “page A”) and make a new version of it changing the header text and colours (let’s call it “page B”). Then, visitors will see either page A or page B on your website which will be unsystematically chosen by Google website optimizer. Each time a purchase is made through your website a conversion will be recorded which will have information about which home page (A or B) has been shown to the customer. Due to a special cookie, with this type of split test each user will see the same page every time he visits your website.

People find the situation with multivariate testing a little more complex. In fact it is a means of testing various combinations of content on a page in order to get information which combinations will lead to most conversions. To make it simple to understand you can imagine a website as a set of blocks.

Imagine that each block is a kind of content – a paragraph, an image, video or all the three together. Multivariate testing allows you to specify different versions of content for each block. After designing several versions of content for each block on the page, different combinations will be displayed for each block. The number of conversions will help you find out which combination of blocks is responsible for more sales on your site.

The period for test performance varies between 1-8 weeks. After that Google website optimizer will be able to tell you which version has been most successful.

“Conversion rate” means the percentage of visitors to your site that achieved a specific purpose for a determined period of time. The purpose can be buying a product, submitting an inquiry form or enrolling for a free newsletter.

The reason for choosing split testing
Nowadays you have to perform all tests available. Marketing is the objective of your website – how you are going to present your products and services to your visitors. You can increase the conversion rate of your website through split testing. The result will be more sales, free trial sign ups, etc.
The execution and tracking of split tests requires inserting some code into your website. It is a JavaScript code which means that you won’t have any problems if you have some knowledge about HTML and FTP.

You can begin with A/B split test if you have a few hundred visitors to your website daily. For this purpose you will have to create one page (apart of the existing home page you have) on which one or several visual changes have been implemented. It is recommendable to make only 2-3 changes simultaneously and wait for the result. The split test usually takes about 2-3 weeks.

You’d better not test more than 2-3 things at the same time and make not more than 3 variations of any section of your site. If you don’t do this, you will have too many combinations to test. The optimal number of combinations is not more that 20. For example, you may decide to test 3 things, each having 2 variations.

You shouldn’t forget also that creating a good-looking website does not always guarantee increased sales.

First and foremost marketing means making researches and experimentation in order to achieve the best effect. Therefore, you should make as many tests as possible to increase your conversion rate.

Many companies have already started testing. The rest should follow their example. Google Website Optimizer offers a quick, easy and free way to start testing. You will save both your time and money.