This is an article “Why You Should Run These A/B Tests on Your Website” by Marc Primo Warren
One of the most difficult search engine optimization (SEO) practices that most marketers have yet to master is increasing conversion rates. If you are new to the SEO game, getting to know the importance of A/B testing on your website should be your first step to see some signs of improvement. However, the challenge usually lies in knowing where to begin and which website elements you should test.
There are many elements to a website that contribute to how your page will rank on search engines. You’ve got your site speed, on-page SEO, coding, and visual content to name a few. Checking every element might just waste your time, so knowing where to start your A/B testing can not only save you precious hours but money as well. Contrary to what many online articles say about how you should conduct your A/B tests, you don’t have to review everything that comes with your website to increase your page revenues.
A/B testing in a nutshell
Simply put, A/B testing means comparing two web pages, alternatives, or any other element in digital marketing to find out which will work best for a target audience. The tests involve two versions per element in your web page that are classified as either A for ‘control’ which is how your current web page looks, and B for ‘treatment’ which are modified elements based on analyzed data. By running both A and B pages, you can gather more insights as to what elements your audiences prefer and which ones can help you generate more sign-ups and conversions.
These tests are a common practice among digital marketers in their neverending goal to optimize a website’s performance through web development. Nowadays, A/B testing also extends to measuring elements in your online presence efforts as part of the overall website rehaul.
By coming up with a simple insight on how your site performs, and some useful tools that can generate more user data on bounce rates, page/site speeds, as well as the time spent by your audience on each page, you can greatly improve your website performance for better conversion and search ranking. Some available A/B testing software can monitor information about how your audience behaves and efficiently review both control and treatment data, so you can adjust and improve while you run the tests without losing your customers.
What to look for
When doing A/B tests, you should first consider how your page speed is performing. Page speed is simply either how long your pages display their content in full or how long your page’s server can send the first byte to an online user. Of course, when testing your page speed, you’ll have to review performances of your HTML code, cascading style sheets (CSS), JavaScript files, images, videos, and other display elements as these all contribute to how fast your page can load. Remember that every kilobyte matters, so compress as much as possible without compromising the quality of your design elements.
Many people prefer to browse online so it would be best if you optimize your site speeds for mobile rather than desktop devices. To put it into context, browsing with the use of smartphones increased by a staggering 222% over the past seven years owing to how Millennials and Generation Z’ers prefer it over other multimedia gadgets. And now that we have 5G technology, figures for mobile use will only shoot up in the coming years.
The faster you can load your pages on your followers’ mobile devices, the more you can optimize your lead generation and conversion efforts because you are providing them better on-page user experience. Test your page speeds and ensure that they load up in less than 3 seconds by trying to compress your page elements as much as you can. This will not only lessen your bounce rate or the number of times users leave your page to go to the next option, and increase your chances for high search rankings as well.
Is your ‘call to action’ being heard (or seen)?
Your call to action (CTA) is one of the most important parts of any landing page. It talks directly to the user and encourages them to go on a journey with you online. That’s why you should also perform A/B tests on your CTAs and experiment to find out which ones work.
Placing your CTAs conspicuously in the right sections of your page matters a lot. Many marketers share that CTAs that are placed below your page’s fold (or the bottom border part of a web browser) work better than just leaving it in the middle like an ad blurb. Positioning your CTA messages below can increase your conversion rates by up to 300%! Do test which part of the bottom fold section works best in terms of design and user experience and use the right color palette so users can distinguish it as CTA rather than just simple content they can read through.
Applying a little color psychology will tell you that CTAs with red elements work better than those designed in green by 21%, but adding a little green cart button can get you around 35% more sales if your site has e-commerce. Test these simple additions to your site and let your CTAs stand out as a function button to a conversion landing page more effectively.
Never get tired of experimenting
In terms of your overall website structure, try designing your page in single column view rather than multiple ones that can only distract the user. Besides, multiple columns can add up to your site speed’s load and may increase your bounce rates.
Try out these simple A/B testing tips above and work your way to focusing on more elements such as content management (whether short forms are better than long forms or the other way around), typography (are serif fonts the way to go for your brand design or will sans serifs do better), and video content (short and sweet or long clips), among others.
Keep in mind that there’s always plenty of room to improve your web and landing pages with some great A/B testing!
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