One of the most successful sections of our blog is the monthly series of interviews with professionals from the web and WordPress sector, known as “The WProfessional of the Month.” We’ve had this section for a while and we decided it’s time to add another one.
Today we present a new series of posts in which we will talk about real examples of A/B tests that we will be doing on our website and whose results, whether good or bad, we will share with you. And, of course, we have decided to call this new section “The A/B Test of the Month.”
When we talk about optimizing a web page, there are different aspects to focus on. You can optimize its performance, so that it loads faster and everything is more efficient. You can generate more content, promote it on social media, and work on SEO to attract more visitors. Or you can improve the conversion rate with the visitors you already have to get more of them to meet the goals of your website: buy products, subscribe to your mailing list, visit certain pages, etc.
It’s in this last aspect where the series of the A/B test of the month is going to focus on. And as you’ve guessed (you don’t have to be a genius for it), we will use the A/B testing technique to improve the conversion rate.
A/B Testing is a technique to increase the conversion rate in which we create a variant for an element of our website (a page, an image, a title, whatever) and test which version is better. In order to do so, we divide the web traffic so that one part of our visitors see the original version and the other part see the variant. Then, we simply analyze how many visitors perform a concrete action in each variant (i.e. visiting a link, clicking on a specific place, filling out a form, making a purchase, etc).
With the data provided by our A/B test and using analytics, we can see which version of the web is better. If there is a winning version, we apply it on the web. Thus, we improve our website based on data and not opinions. As it should be.
In this series we will explain step by step the whole methodology we follow to improve the conversion rate, from the generation of test hypotheses, the design of the test, and the analysis of the results and subsequent decision making process. All open and free right here, in our blog.
Before getting into the subject, today I want to dedicate this introductory post to tell you about the tools we will use in this series. The first thing we need is a web analytics tool. You can choose the one you want, but the one we will use is Google Analytics. If you do not use a web analytics tool yet and want to start with Google Analytics, I recommend that you read this post that explains how to get started.
On the other hand, it is clear that we need a tool to apply the A/B testing technique on our website. To do so, we will use Nelio A/B Testing, which not only is the best WordPress plugin for A/B testing, but also a plugin we developed it ourselves. So of course we’ll be using it 🙂
In particular, we’ll be using Nelio A/B Testing 5.0. At the time of writing this post, it hasn’t been published yet in the WordPress plugin directory. The new version requires WordPress 5.3, as it’s been rewritten from scratch using React components of the Gutenberg user interface, in addition to new ones created by us for the occasion. We are waiting for WordPress 5.3 to be installed on most WordPress sites. Once it reaches a sufficient amount of popularity, we will publish our new version of Nelio A/B Testing in the plugin directory.
In addition, this new version includes many new features, both in the creation and management of tests and in the tracking of visitor actions. It’s much lighter and more stable than previous versions and also allows it to be extended through hooks. And the heatmaps it includes have been totally overhauled with many more data and visual aids that you will surely like.
If you want to know a little more about everything that version 5.0 (and forthcoming releases) of Nelio A/B Testing will allow you to do, check out the video summary we have created:
If you already use WordPress 5.3 (something you should do) and want to have Nelio A/B Testing version 5.0 before its official release in the WordPress plugin directory, get in touch with us.
This is all for now. In the next post in the series we will see the first test we have created together with the results and conclusions that we have been able to draw from the whole process. I advance you it’s a very simple type of test that anyone can apply in their WordPress, whether or not they have advanced knowledge about conversion optimization. So don’t miss the next post and get ready to run the same test yourself!
If you have test suggestions or any other question about the A/B testing technique, do not hesitate to comment down below. Surely we’ll all learn many interesting things.
Featured image by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash.
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