Using Google’s Website Optimizer for the First Time

July 11, 2008

I must say that I am an avid lover of Google’s tools from Google Analytics to Google Trends and even iGoogle. Recently I had a chance to play around with Google’s Website Optimizer tool which allows you to run “experiments” on your website to see which page has a higher conversion rate and then you have more “actionable” data to base your company’s decision making on rather then just guessing blindly in the dark.

In order to use Google Website Optimizer you will need to first sign up for an account by clicking here (http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer). Once you login you your Google Website Optimizer account you will see that you have the option of running an A/B Split test or a Multivariate Testing on your web site or landing page. For those of you who are unsure of what A/B split testing is please read the article.

How do I create an experiment using Google’s Website Optimizer?

  1. Login to Google Website Optimizer
  2. Click on the “Create another Experiment” link
  3. Select the option of creating an A/B Experiment or a Multivariate Experiment (The difference as Google defines it is that A/B Experiments are for few then 1000 views a week and Multivariate Experiments are for web pages that receive greater than 1000 views per week)
  4. For the purposes of this article we select “A/B Experiment” and click the “create >>” button
  5. Click the check box on the A/B Experiment Checklist and click continue once you have everything mentioned on that list ready to go (The page you want to test, created alternate versions of the page and identify the conversion page)
  6. On this next page you will need to name your experiment, Identify the original and variation web page URL s and enter the URL for the conversion web page and click “Continue >>” button at the bottom of the page.
  7. Lastly you will need to add the JavaScript code to the pages (Original web page, Variation web page and Conversion web page) and click “Preview” to see how your experiment will look like when it runs.

Google’s Website Optimizer is an awesome tool in providing actionable information about the design of a web page and how visitors user it. I hope you enjoyed the article as it has been a little while since i’ve written on the PureWebAnalytics blog.

Luc

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Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Google Website Optimizer, Site Optimization, Tips, Tricks and Tools, Web Analytics, Web Intelligence, Website Usability 

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