David Ogilvy, the founding fathers of modern marketing, says, "Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving." You have created a website; now, it is time to perform testing to boost SEO and see what strategy is working and which one needs to be changed. A/B testing, also called split testing, is a process that compares two versions of a web page or a marketing material to see which one performs better.
Think of A/B testing as a competition. You are creating two groups side by side to see which version performs better. For example, you have two landing pages, and you want to see which one performs better. After creating a landing page, you create two groups and see how it performs in different metrics like the number of clicks, traffic, conversions, etc.
How Does A/B Testing Work for SEO?
A/B testing is an important part of the technical SEO that most people don't know about. Traditional testing includes creating two versions of a web page and separate site visitors into two groups. However, Google doesn't like near-duplicates, and it is a bad idea to create two versions of a page to see which one works better.
Instead of creating separate groups of users, you can create groups of pages, i.e., there will be just one version of each page shown to the viewers. For that, you need to identify the pages that you need to improve, choose the test that you want to run on these pages. In this case, you will need to group pages into a control and a variant group and see which group outperforms the other.
Five Simple Tips for Running A/B Testing the Right Way
In an attempt to simplify A/B testing for you, here are five simple tips for implementing an insightful A/B testing for your website for maximum SEO.
1. Collect Data
A/B testing alone will not help you boost conversion rates. For boosting online conversion, you need to gather maximum quantitative and qualitative data and analyze it to figure out where to make changes in the website. Don't run the tests based on your gut feeling because you will end up running a lot of tests and failing to achieve anything conclusive.
Make sure to base you're A/B testing on data. But the data needs to be both quantitative and qualitative because numbers don't always paint the whole picture. Similarly, it is better to have more data. If you have trouble collecting data, you can always consult with our SEO company in Dubai so you can enjoy a higher ROI and conversions.
2. Pay Attention to Words
Another tip is to pay attention to words. One of the biggest red flags in the SEO industry is jargon and big words. As George Orwell says,
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink."
There is a difference between detailed text and word stuffing. Similarly, most of the time, marketers become too obscure with the content. Viewers care more about what your product can do for them instead of how your product is different from your competitors. The best way is to be clear and concise. Create multiple copies and test to see which one converts better.
3. Test Colors, Shapes, and Sizes
Good website design is not easy to achieve, especially when it comes to making data-driven choices in regard to several elements. Visual content, just like other forms of content, needs to have a purpose other than enhancing the aesthetic appeal of the website. A/B testing also helps optimize different website elements like colors of buttons, size, and shape of the logo, images, CTA, and even white space.
A/B testing is essential because it is hard to measure the impact of these small elements and changes. Heat maps provide excellent data for visual testing as it lets you see a heat map of viewers click and how they interact with different elements. Design different copies of a web page design and test it to see which one works better.
4. Optimize Content and Description
When it comes to website content, some viewers prefer a basic overview of the topic that is highly informative. In contrast, other customers prefer the content to explore every nook and cranny of the topic and dive deep. The question is to identify which category your targeted customers belong to?
This is where A/B testing can help you. You can test the depth of your content by creating two copies. One copy needs to be longer with more insight, and the other needs to be concise and to-the-point. A/B testing will help you find an ideal balance between the two because content depth significantly impacts your SEO and conversion rates.
The same can be said about the product descriptions. Some customers want a detailed product description covering all the aspects. At the same time, other customers prefer short product descriptions that are easy to digest. You can test your product descriptions, e.g., with bullet points, etc. to see which one works better.
5. Test Images, Video and Audio
Omnichannel marketing is on the rise. Almost all high-ranking websites use several approaches to target their audiences like SEO-optimized text, images, infographics, and videos. If you are using videos and images on your websites, then it is a good idea to A/B test them against the written content to see which one is more efficient.
Even if you don't have your own video or image library, eve stock images can significantly impact your A/B testing. Let’s suppose your landing page has a photo of someone pointing at the CTA; the image will draw the viewer's attention directly towards the CTA element. Therefore, A/B testing will help you figure out what and how your audience responds to different visuals on your page.
Get Your Website A/B Tested for Maximum SEO
A/B testing is essential for websites, and if you have a strategy, it isn't complicated at all. Just start with a question or a web page to figure out why isn't it converting and performing its best. Results from A/B testing will help you understand your web page's performance and ways to optimize. When it comes to A/B testing, always remember the duration of testing is essential to get results. If you run a test for a few months, you won't have enough iterations and data to base your conclusion on. If you have steady traffic, then A/B testing for several weeks will give you results that you need.
A/B testing is one of the most powerful tools to help you collect information about different elements of your website. This data helps you make the right design and copyright choices. With this information, you can learn about ways to convert your audiences.
