B2B Markeplace

For testing purposes and the examples we give, were going to be using Googles website Analyzer which is part of Google Analytics. Why? Well, for one, because its free and so accessible to everyone ; and secondly, because its a darn good testing platform free or not.

Googles Website Optimizer is free, forceful, convenient. What else could you want? It allows you to perform A / B and multivariate testing.

Why is it free?

Because Google knows that if you improve your conversion rates, youre more likely to take a position in more advertising campaigns, users are happy because theyre happier with the sites that they find thru searches. Fundamentally, most are happy and Google makes more money.

Appears sensible when you put it that way, doesnt it?

There are other, paid services that you can use to further your testing, measuring, and optimising practices. But this series is all about making the most out of what you can get for almost no money spent, by focusing on the buyer and conducting your communications strategy in a completely different way. Because of this, in regards to practical applications for testing that’ll be covered in this part of the series, well be focussing on how best to utilize the free Google tools.

The main thing to remember about the Google website Optimizer is that it’s a tool. It only provides the metrics, it cant tell you what changes to make. Youhave got to infer that for yourself. If you’d like the tests you run to be meaningful and give you the feedback you need to improve your site, then you want to be sure you are going about it the best way, and making the best of the free tools that Google gives you.

Later in the series, well be going thru exactly what you should be doing to get you started with testing. Where you take it from there’s up to you.

Before we dig into the nuts and bolts of actually running a test, there are a few things you want to remember for any test you run, whether its 1 or 1001 :

- Always start the test with a goal in mind. Know what you are expecting the end result to be ( although you could be wrong extremely wrong ; thats what youre testing. ) In scientific tests, this is called the conjecture. Your goal is the basis and the reason for the whole test.

- Work out what you metric of success will be before you start the test. How much better is good enough to be considered a success? 5%? Ten percent 50%? Only you can decide that.

- Remember not to muddy the waters. If you are testing the color of the checkout button, dont also change the shape or the font or where it appears on the site. You might get a fantastic result, but you wont know what variable was responsible for the change. Be especially mindful of this when testing copy ; any other changes you make, even coincidentally, to the layout or the font or any other aspect of the display will totally annul the validity of the test on the content.

- Remember that you always need a control. Even if youre dong multivariate testing, you continue to need to use the first version of the page to act as a control, something to compare the test results to.

- Use detailed names for your tests. You could be able to keep track of the fact that Tests 1-10 were about buttons and Tests 11-15 were about news, but what about when you are at Test 345? If you give your tests clear, descriptive names, itll be easier for you to find the info and results when you want to refer back to them to plan more tests.

- The tests mean nothing if you dont learn anything from them. Your test isnt actually done ( or of any use to you ) unless youve analyzed the results and applied the learnings to your site. You then use that knowledge youve gained as the basis for the following test, because

- And ultimately, youre never done testing. There won’t ever come a time when you are able to say Thats it, its perfect, Im done. Even if your website is perfect and performing at its maximum capacity at that moment, the internet is a fluid, changing thing, and you need to make sure ( thru testing ) that you are keeping up with the changes and keeping you and your internet site relevant and maintain your presence on the web as a Trusted Expert.

( This post is a continuation of the series of turning into a Trusted Expert. You can read the previous posts at Become a Trusted Expert Online )

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