A/B Testing to improve website conversions

A/B testing is a brilliant way to gain insight into visitor behaviour at your point of conversion. Google Analytics will tell you what is working and what is not, but it won’t tell you what you can do to improve conversions and sales. That’s where A/B testing comes in.

This is how it works:

1. You decide what you want to test
2. You create another page that looks exactly like the one you want to test
3. You make one small change. This could be a change of colour, text, position, icon, button…
4. There are various tools available for A/B testing, at Wagada we use the Google Website Optimiser. Add your code and a sprinkling of magic from your chosen tool.
5. Now a certain percentage of users will be shown the original page while surfing through your website, and a certain number will be shown the new page.
6. Study the number of people who convert from your original page, and from your new page.

A/B testing can you give you some pretty astonishing results: a very small change to your website can drastically affect your conversions. This is usability testing on the cheap. The data is quantitative, rather than qualitative, and you’ll never know why a certain effect took place but this offers an opportunity to sculpt your website pages into efficient machines, carrying your users through to the point of conversion.

Contact us for more information on our A/B testing.