How to Create a Menu Test

Your website’s menus are one of its most critical elements — they guide visitors, highlight your priorities, and shape navigation flow. With Nelio A/B Testing, you can easily test different menu structures to discover which one directs users more efficiently to key pages or drives more conversions.

Duplicate your current menus, modify them by adding, removing, or renaming items, and find out which configuration performs best. No other A/B testing tool lets you do this as seamlessly within WordPress.

Step 1: Create a New Menu Test

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Nelio A/B Testing → Tests.
2. Click Add Test.
3. In the dialog, select Menu (under the “Global” test category).

💡 This will create a test based on one of your site’s existing menus.

Step 2: Name and Define Your Test

Give your test a descriptive name (for example, “Main Navigation – Simple vs. Expanded”).

In the right sidebar, you’ll find:

• Status & Management — Shows whether the test is Draft, Ready, Scheduled, or Paused, and lets you set start/end dates.
• Description — Summarize what you are testing and what you expect to achieve (for example, “We believe a simplified menu will improve click-throughs to the pricing page”).
• Test Scope — Define where your test will run:
  • By default, variants are visible on all pages of your website.
  • To limit visibility to specific areas, use the form to define URLs where the test should execute (for example, /shop/* or /blog/).

Step 3: Create and Edit Variants

A menu test compares different menu structures to determine which performs best for your goals. For example, you might test whether including more menu options drives more engagement, or if a simplified version reduces confusion and boosts conversions.

Select the Menu to Test

Choose the control menu (Version A) you want to test from the list of menus available on your site.

Create New Variants

• Create a “Variant B” (or more than one) based on the selected control menu.
• Each new variant starts as an exact copy of the control version.
• Rename each variant for clarity — for example, “Simplified Menu Without Submenus” or “Variant 2 – Highlighted CTA.”
• Click Edit to modify each variant.

💡 Click New Variant to duplicate the control menu, or use Duplicate under an existing variant to copy its configuration.

Editing a Variant

When editing a menu variant, Nelio uses the standard WordPress Menu Editor, so you can:

• Add, remove, or reorder menu items.
• Change menu item names, destinations, or hierarchy.
• Click Save Menu when done.

At the top of the editor, you’ll also find:

• Duplicate Control Menu — Overwrite the variant with the control version to start over.
• Back to Test — Return to the test overview.

💡 Before running the test, ensure your menus include all required links and that they appear in consistent locations across variants.

Step 4: Define Goals and Conversion Actions

Every test needs a goal — what counts as success.

Each goal can include one or more conversion actions that describe the specific behavior you want to track.

Name your goals, then click the Add Action button to choose from the available conversion actions.

You can combine multiple actions under one goal.

🔍 Learn more: What Are the Conversion Actions and Goals? →

Step 5: Add Segmentation Rules (Optional)

Segmentation lets you decide who participates in the test. You can target visitors by conditions such as:

URL parameter · Referrer · Language · Location · Logged-in status · Visitor Type · Day/time · Browser · Device type · Operating system · Window Width · Cookie · IP address

If you skip segmentation, all visitors to the tested pages are included automatically.

🔍 Learn more What is Segmentation and How to Use It →

Step 6: Start the Test

When everything is ready:

1. Review your setup summary at the top of the page.
2. Click Start.

Nelio A/B Testing will:

• Randomly assign visitors to variants.
• Track conversions anonymously via Nelio Cloud.
• Display real-time results in your dashboard.

⏯ Pause, Resume, or Stop Your Test

• Pause a running test if you need to make changes, then resume it later.
• Stop a test manually whenever you want, or let it end automatically under certain conditions such as duration, total number of visits or confidence results (available in Professional and Enterprise plans).
• Once a test is stopped, its results remain available for review.

Step 7: View Results and Analyze Performance

While your test runs, go to Nelio A/B Testing → Tests and click View Results to monitor its progress.

Summary of the results

In the right sidebar, you’ll find a quick overview of your test:

Goal selector – Choose which goal’s results to display.

Status icon – Indicates experiment status:

🟡 Collecting data.

🕒💛 Potential winner, low confidence

🟢🏅 Clear winner found.

🔴 No improvement over control.

Unique results – Filter duplicates.

Public results – Share a public link.

Export results – Download a CSV.

Summary – Shows status, duration, start date, and end condition.

Test Progress

The main area of the results page is divided into two tabs that visualize your test’s progress and performance:

• Conversion Rates — A line chart showing conversion evolution across variants.
• Views and Conversions — Compares total visits and conversions for each variant.

Confidence indicators appear alongside these charts, updating automatically as more data accumulates.

Below the charts, you’ll find a summary table with:

• A thumbnail preview (if available) of each variant.
• Number of visits and conversions.
• Conversion rate and improvement over control.

Step 8: Improve Your Web Conversion

You can end a test manually using the Stop button in the upper-right corner of the results page, or let it end automatically based on the configured end mode.

After completing a test and identifying a clear winner, click Apply on the winning variant to replace your current menu with the best-performing one and improve user navigation and conversions.