Google Website Optimiser – The story from Google
At the TFMA (Technology for marketing and advertising) event at London Earls Court last week, there was an interesting presentation by Google on their Google Website Optimiser Tool.
We have been using this for a while now and it offers some really powerful features for website owners. It allows very accurate testing of webpage designs and means that users of the site will help to determine what works on the site and what doesn’t.
There are two types of tests that are available through Google Website Optimiser. A/B testing and multi variant testing. The advice from Google’s team, was that generally website owners should start with A/B testing and then move on to multi variant as a next step in the process.
A/B simple tests one web page against another or a number. It is best for testing more radical redesigns of a web page. Once you have been through this process multi variant testing will permit much more granular testing of elements. This might include the language used on buttons, changing logos and images used to represent process etc.
As the name would suggest multi variant testing allows the testing of multiple variations of a web page at the same time. This vastly speeds up the testing process and allows the system to calculate which design and copy variations perform the best in terms of driving conversion on a page.
Google gave examples of how they have used Google Website Optimiser to improve a number of their sites. Relatively minor changes on the Picassa homepage improved downloads by 30%.
It was also used on the Google Mail and Google Adwords sites to improve sign-ups. For example using the button text Try Adwords Now >> in place of a more standard call to action, improved sign-up by a significant percentage.
We’ll bring you more on Google Website Optimiser over the next few months, in the Google Website Optimiser category of the blog.
If you would like more information on it at the moment these websites will give you some good information on it:
The Google Website Optimiser – Main Site
The official Google Website Optimiser Blog
Google Website Optimiser is also available via your Google Adwords Console and is free to use.
We offer Google website optimiser testing as part of our Website Analytics Services. If you would like to find out more, you can contact our Web Analytics Team.
Happy testing.
