Hours of work will go into creating most websites online today. The design is completed, the content is written. Yet how can you be sure the website you end up with is the best one you could have?
The answer is that you cannot. Not unless you try A/B testing. If you’re new to this, allow me to explain the concept behind A/B testing. Let’s suppose you’ve written a landing page for your new product. You would view that as A and monitor the performance of different elements on that page.
So far, so good. But where does B come in? Maybe you toyed with two different headlines for your landing page and you eventually went with the one that is now on your website. But you cannot be certain whether it is the better headline. The idea is to collect the performance data from your existing landing page before switching to the other headline. This would be viewed as B, with the second headline in place and everything else kept the same. You can then collect the performance data from B and compare it to A. Hence, A/B testing.
A/B testing works for headlines, content, adverts, and more
This is one of the most appealing elements of A/B testing. You can use it to find the best headline, as we have seen. Yet you can also use it to find the best call-to-action for your website to get more click-throughs and conversions. Are you experimenting with the text on a clickable button to encourage people to make a purchase? Use A/B testing (or split testing, to give it another name) to figure out which text gets the best results. Do you want to get more signups to your email list? Use A/B testing to see which freebie they prefer to get when signing up.
This is one of the most appealing elements of A/B testing. Not only does it allow you to experiment with different approaches to each part of your website, it also allows you to understand which approach works best.
Be aware this is not a fast method as you could run different split tests on various elements that are of interest to you. However, it is a method you can count on to produce results. And those results could lead to more sales, bigger sales, and better conversions. Everything every website would benefit from.
Tristan Whittaker
Founder & Director, Infinity3
Tristan Whittaker is the founder and director of Infinity3, with more than 20 years of experience in web design, digital marketing and technology. He works with businesses across the UK to improve their online presence, generate more opportunities and make better use of digital tools, AI and automation.
Combining strong technical knowledge with a practical understanding of how businesses actually operate, Tristan has helped hundreds of organisations create better websites, improve their visibility and simplify the systems behind them. He’s particularly interested in finding sensible ways to use technology to solve real business problems, without unnecessary complexity or jargon.