AB Testing & Conversion Rate Optimization

Are blue buttons better? Or red? How about using an image versus a video? So many choices! A/B testing is very important to being able to fully optimize your website for your audience and getting them to take the actions you want them to take (known as conversions).

Analysis is Everything

Once your website is finished and live for a few months, you can start using those traffic numbers as a baseline. Look at your data and analyze.  (Note: analyzing after only a few weeks is not enough time to understand if something is working or not.) You should be analyzing the behavior flow of users on the website to look for areas of improvement.

Here are some things you might check:

• Look at pages that have a high bounce rate and low page time per session. If there is plenty of content on the page, this might be a red flag. Is there a call to action? Do you tell the user what you want them to do next?
• Look at your top exit pages. Should people be leaving your site on this page? If those pages aren’t the thank you page for your form fill or the confirmation page for a conversion, you might want to do testing and optimizing.

Measuring and analyzing data points will help to determine areas on your website that might need to be improved.

You might show one group of users an improved look or an improved checkout process to see if it helps your conversions. Or you may test new creative, messaging or a new navigation. The possibilities are really endless. Sometimes the smallest tweaks make all the difference in the world.

It’s best to review and discuss the analysis monthly or at least quarterly. Then you make your changes and do more analysis. Rinse and repeat. It is really trial and error, but keep at it. You will get there.