The Conversion is in the Details

If your organization or business has a website, you ought to be A/B testing. This is one of those universal pieces of advice. You can follow best practices for web design, talk to focus groups, and usability test your website ad infinitum to be prepared for the go-live date, but nothing tells you more than real use data. A/B testing is one of the simplest ways to improve your site, increase conversions, and get decision driving data after your site goes live.

What are you talking about?

A/B testing is based on simple, single-variable comparisons. If you think that a red “Buy This Goat” button will lead to more conversions than a blue “Buy This Goat” button, then you have two versions of your site and you track which one does better.

For each test, you change only one page element. You might move the header, increase the font size, change the color, change the wording, or just about anything else you can think of, but you only change one thing per site version, and you test the live site with real users. You can, of course, have several different versions being tested at once, so it’s more like an A/B/C/D/E test, but you’re always comparing the original to one new version.

Does this really work?

Yes! You would be amazed at what one small change on a site can do. Your website and every other website in existence convey many messages at once. From the colors you select to how the elements are arranged, everything on your site is saying something about you. If you change something, you change the message and you change the potential to motivate the website visitor.

You can see real A/B testing results at abtests.com, where people upload information about their tests. Hyundai, for example, saw a 62 percent conversion improvement on a sign-up form.

Heavy hitters like Netflix and Starbucks use these tests. Netflix, in fact, is consistently engaged in A/B testing. Because A/B testing isn’t usually as expensive as gathering large focus groups, it’s also used by smaller organizations, like nonprofits that want to know the best way to motivate volunteers or get donations.

Okay, how do I know what to change?

A/B testing is relatively easy to do, so some people get carried away with it. Small changes can make big differences, but not every change will matter. You need to make targeted changes that focus on your call-to-action items—those page elements that are designed to spur visitors to take actions that help achieve your business goals. A skilled web designer can help you make choices about what you should test and what you shouldn’t. Web designers are magical creatures; they know a lot about creating compelling website layout.

Don’t be afraid to challenge best practices. The funny thing about best practices is that they change. Sometimes, they change in unexpected, unpredictable ways.

Once you’ve made your changes, you test those changes. Working with a web developer, you can have the site randomly distributed so that half of users will get one version (A) and the other half will get the other (B). Next, you track the number of clicks or conversions or whatever you’re testing. If the change helps you meet your goals in a way that is statistically significant, you have hard data to justify updating the site. You also already know exactly what needs changing, so you can just roll that into your regularly scheduled website maintenance.

A website is never finished. The web is constantly evolving and your site should be as well. In the digital world, where Return On Investment (ROI) can be fuzzy, A/B testing delivers solid metrics. You won’t need to wonder if your investment in updating your site was worth it, because you’ll know.