How Do I Check If Nelio A/B Testing Is Working Properly and Variants Are Active?

After starting your first test, it’s a good idea to verify that everything is working as expected before waiting for results.

A correctly configured test should:

• assign visitors to one of its variants;
• consistently show each visitor the same variant across visits;
• record page views when visitors access tested pages;
• track conversions when your goals are completed; and
• collect heatmap interactions (if heatmaps are enabled).

The easiest way to validate all of this is by using Nelio A/B Testing’s Debug Tools (Nelio A/B Testing version 8.3 and later).

Validate Your Test with the Debug Tools

The Debug Tools let you safely test your tests without affecting your analytics data or consuming your monthly testing quota.

To use them:

1. Make sure Show debugging tools on the site (staging only) is enabled in Nelio A/B Testing → Settings.
2. Open a page that’s part of your test.
3. Activate Staging Mode (either by using a staging site or by adding the nabstaging query parameter to the page URL).
4. Verify that the debug panel appears.

While Staging Mode is active, Nelio A/B Testing simulates tracking locally instead of sending events to Nelio Cloud.

What Should I Verify?

When validating your test, confirm that:

• The expected variant is displayed.
• The test is active for the current page.
• Page views are detected when the page loads.
• Conversions are triggered when you perform the expected actions.
• Heatmap clicks are recorded, if you’re collecting heatmap data.

If all these checks pass, your test is correctly configured and ready to collect real data.

🔍 Learn more: Using the Debug Tools

What If Something Isn’t Working?

If the debug panel doesn’t appear or your test isn’t behaving as expected:

• make sure the test has been started;
• confirm that the current page belongs to the test’s scope;
• verify that you’re eligible to participate in the test (for example, you’re not excluded by segmentation);
• check whether tracking is waiting for GDPR consent; and
• ensure that no caching or security configuration is preventing the correct variant from loading.

Most of these issues can be diagnosed directly from the Debug Tools.

Viewing Results

Once your test is running on your production site, page views and conversions should begin appearing in the results shortly after visitors access the tested pages.

Heatmap data may take a little longer to become available because it requires collecting and processing interaction events.

🛠 Troubleshooting

If you’re always seeing the original version no matter what, check this guide for common causes and solutions.