{"id":742,"date":"2016-01-14T12:41:32","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T20:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/?p=742"},"modified":"2017-05-27T09:51:02","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T16:51:02","slug":"free-ab-testing-for-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/free-ab-testing-for-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"Free A\/B Testing for WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Making changes and improving an existing site or page is always fun. But, are you really making \u201cimprovements\u201d? How do you track this?<\/p>\n

One must-have if you have a website is Google Analytics. Must, must, must. It takes just a few minutes and I ALWAYS include setting this up with any website I build for my clients. It\u2019s important for you or anyone who manages your website to know the basics of Analytics and just be aware of the traffic and reach of your website. For more hardcore tracking and Analytics, I recommend taking a course<\/a> and consistently dedicating time each month to maintain your site, or hiring a professional. Having that said, it\u2019s important to not<\/strong> focus on SEO over your actual business and your\u00a0products or services \u2013 these are what REALLY sell your brand. Your website and SEO efforts simply help you extend your reach to your consumers.<\/p>\n

Back to those \u201cimprovements\u201d for your site. You could<\/em> just make the changes and simply watch your Analytics data for changes. But, it\u2019s easier and a little more fun to do some A\/B Testing<\/a> to compare the results of both versions then make a decision based on that. Most services that offer A\/B Testing charge a monthly premium, though, you might be able to find a free trial. But for small websites or less extensive changes, you could get a free ride using a plugin and configuring your Google Analytics with a Content Experiment. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n

Plugin: Google Content Experiments<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

This plugin\u00a0enables you to use Google Content Experiments on your WordPress site.<\/p>\n

Get the plugin \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

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Setting Up A Google Content Experiment<\/h2>\n

A quick note: be sure you have the proper views set up for your property\u00a0before you edit your analytics tracking. You should ALWAYS have at least 3 views:<\/p>\n

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  1. Unfiltered<\/strong> (to track your site without any filters forever)<\/li>\n
  2. Master<\/strong> (your master view for current tracking)<\/li>\n
  3. and a Testing<\/strong> view (a clone of your Master \u2013 to make modifications to your \u201cmaster&#82#8221; view without mucking up your live master data).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Begin Setting Up Your Experiment<\/h3>\n

    Select your property & view after logging into your GA account. I used my \u201cMaster\u201d view to configure this experiment since I don\u2019t feel I have much to worry about with this one.
    \nNavigate to Behavior > Experiments<\/p>\n

    You\u2019ll then be prompted to fill out a 4-step form. Be sure to have your secondary content\/page set up already and the plugin above installed and activated.<\/p>\n

    \"Screen<\/p>\n

    With my settings above, my goal is to lower my bounce rate.\u00a0A bounce rate is when a\u00a0user first loads a page of your site and doesn\u2019t click through to any other pages on your site. I\u2019m splitting this test evenly at 50\/50. For changes that will be more drastic or risky, you\u2019ll want to do experiment on much<\/em> less of your traffic, like 15% or so.
    \nYou want to make sure you also have a clear call to action for the user to take \u2013 lead them into your site or other actionable.<\/p>\n

    Set The Pages<\/h3>\n

    \"Screen<\/p>\n

    Here, you\u2019ll now want to set the old\/current page and the new\/testing page.<\/p>\n

    Add The Tracking Code<\/h3>\n

    \"Screen<\/p>\n

    Having that plugin installed and activated, you\u2019ll now navigate to your original page, go to edit it, and at the bottom you\u2019ll see a box to mark the page as \u201can original page of a Content Experiment\u201d. This will then allow you add in the code above and save the page.<\/p>\n

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    Review and Confirm<\/h3>\n

    \"Screen<\/p>\n

    All set! For the next 2 weeks or set time, Google will serve up that B page whenever it decides and track the data for you. No need for a fancy external service to pay monthly for (unless you have bigger goals\/needs or don\u2019t know your way around Analytics much). Some of these services do have some fancy benefits though,\u00a0like heat mapping.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"Screen<\/p>\n

    For larger, more risky experiments, A\/B Testing should be a habit! You don\u2019t want to change up a landing page only to have your sells or opt-ins drop\u00a0drastically and your left scratching your head or scrambling to put the old content back up while loosing money in the process.<\/p>\n

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    More info: https:\/\/support.google.com\/analytics\/answer\/1745152?hl=en<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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    Update:<\/span><\/p>\n

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    I received an email a few days ago from Google notifying me that the experiment ended. Here are the results!
    \nIf you use this setup, let me know what you use it for.<\/p>\n

    \"Screen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Making changes and improving an existing site or page is always fun. But, are you really making \u201cimprovements\u201d? How do you track this? One must-have if you have a website is Google Analytics. Must, must, must. It takes just a few minutes and I ALWAYS include setting this up with any website I build for my clients. It\u2019s important for you or anyone who manages your website to know the basics of Analytics and just be aware of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757,"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginastricklind.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}