Website split testing is used to determine the very best design and layout for a company’s site in order to increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, and meet other milestones. Using the split testing strategy, all of your questions as a business owner will be answered with regards to what’s really the best choice for your website. Rather than just assuming or guessing what your customers prefer, this technique will definitively tell you what direction to go in to be most successful.

How Does Split Testing Work?

Put simply, your website designer will create multiple versions of your website. One version, for example, may use a different layout than another, or your designer may use different fonts, colours, and images in order to differentiate between the options. These different versions of your site are loaded up randomly and then data is collected in order to determine how much users love or hate the site overall.

How to Use Split Testing Successfully

In order to use split testing techniques successfully, you have to first choose between multivariate testing and A/B split testing. Multivariate testing is more complex and complicated, especially for beginners, so if you’re new to split testing, start off with a simpler A/B split test, which tests the effectiveness of two websites with just one major difference between them.

Choose variables that you’ll test, such as background colours or the hues within other design elements throughout the page, fonts, headers, wording, the way your social media buttons look, or the way your “Buy Now” buttons look, as a few examples. Just choose elements that will really play a role in how successful your website is at generating sales by attracting and retaining customers. Then just make the change by creating a second homepage that looks exactly the same as the original except for the one difference.

Use Google’s Content Experiments Program

Next, all you need to do is install the Content Experiments Program from Google by logging into your Google Analytics account. You can tell Google what websites are involved in the test, how many users should be exposed to the test, and the ultimate goal of the test. Google will provide you with a code that you’ll add to your site prior to launching it. And from that point forward, you’ll receive test results as they’re generated in Google Analytics.

Keep Testing

Once you’ve determined the winner of your first test, you may be ready to just launch that site as is. But if you want, you can continue the split testing procedure over and over again by changing up different elements of the pages as you go until you have a site that’s truly optimised and ready to work for you.

The Results of Split Testing

The whole goal of split testing should never be forgotten throughout the process. Remember, the test isn’t about creating the most attractive website, it’s about creating a site that encourages visitors to remain on it for longer periods and also increase their interaction with it. You want to see newsletter subscriptions increase and, of course, more sales.