Nelio A/B Testing is a native WordPress plugin that allows its users to run split tests easily and effectively. The plugin offers different types of tests, each focusing on different elements of a WordPress site. In general, Nelio A/B Tests can be organized in two categories:
- Tests that modify a specific page or post, and whose variants only affect that very same page or post. An example of this kind of tests is, as you can imagine, page tests.
- Tests that have a global impact on your website, as the tested element is spread across multiple pages in your site. For example, widget tests or menu tests affect (in general) multiple pages in your website, as the same set of widgets or the same menu might appear in more than one page.
The scope of a test lets you specify the concrete pages that should be affected by a particular test. That is, when running a “global test,” you can limit the test to only a subset of pages in your website (instead of it being loaded everywhere, always). Conversely, when running a “page/post test,” you can also broaden the scope of the test so that alternative content is loaded even when the visited page is not the tested page. Let’s take a closer look at these two perspectives.
Global Consistency
As we just said, there are some tests in Nelio A/B Testing that, by default, only affect a single page in your website. For example, if you run a page test on your Pricing page, one would expect that alternative content would only be loaded in the Pricing page itself, right? Well, this is Nelio A/B Testing’s default behavior.
Now consider the following scenario: you’re running an A/B test in one of your posts. In this test, you’ve applied several changes to your variant B: you crafted a different title, you’ve uploaded a new featured image, and you changed the wording of the CTA that’s at the end of the post’s copy.
What happens when this post is listed in your blog? What if it appears in a “Related Posts” section in your website? Should alternative content be loaded there or not?
Some users believe these pages should also load the appropriate variant everywhere, so that the user gets a consistent experience across the site. Enter “Global Consistency.”
Global Consistency is a specific test scope setting that allows you to tell Nelio A/B Testing that alternative content should be loaded everywhere, always. This doesn’t have any impact or your page views or quota consumption—its goal is to simply make sure that your visitors get a consistent experience while browsing your website.
Custom Test Scope
There are some tests in Nelio A/B Testing that, by definition, might affect all pages in your website: menus, widgets, CSS… Whenever you’re testing one of these elements, they might show up in more than one page of your website and, therefore, all pages in your website are potentially under test.
When running one of these tests, every time a visitor accesses one of the pages in your WordPress site, Nelio A/B Testing will try to load alternative content (even if it’s not really necessary). If the loaded page happens to include the tested element, Nelio A/B Testing will count that visit and use a page view in your monthly quota.
If you want to limit the scope of the test, you can do so using the section displayed in the previous screenshot. Simply specify the concrete URLs in which alternative content can and should be loaded, and Nelio A/B Testing will only load alternative content when a visitor accesses a page that matches the rules you specified. Using this approach, you can tweak Nelio A/B Testing’s specific behavior and fine tune your quota usage.