Webdesign aus Witten » LONG RUN INTERNATIONAL LTD.

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1. Create an Account for Google Website Optimizer
   That’s the easy stuff: Go to www.google.com/websiteoptimizer and login with your Google Account or create a new one. Once you’re done with that, proceed to step 2.
2. Click “Create another experiment” in Google Website Optimizer
3. Choose “Multivariate Experiment” to start
   Multivariate experiments allow you to change the behavior of your website in multiple ways and is, in comparison to the “A/B experiment” an advanced tool. Choose this option to get the most of A/B testing. On the next page, Google Website Optimizer shows you a list of four things that should have been done up to now. Overall, this is the creation of your website variations that should be tested. If you haven’t done this steps up to know, contact your web designer. You can do this on your own, but it will be a hard way without any technical skills.
   Once your testing page and all the alternative contents are ready for testing, click on “Create”.
4. Set the configuration for your experiment
   Give your experiment a name and set the URL to your Testing page. This is, for example, a contact page or your product page. Also don’t forget to set the conversion page URL. This will be the page that means a success to your business once it is called. “continue”
5. Choose that you want to install the JavaScript yourself in your website. “continue” will show you an overview of your configuration and the necessary JavaScript code that you’ll have to insert into your Testing Page.
6. Install “Google WEbsite Optimizer for WordPress” Plugin in WordPress. This is actually the plugin that allows you to insert custom code for A/B testing in WordPress pages and posts.
7. Choose your testable post / page in your WordPress installation.
   (Maybe you have to disable the visual editor in Users > Your Profile to proceed the editing. Otherwise you can just use the switch “HTML” in WordPress RTE.)
8. Copy the controll script in the “Google Website Optimizer” section in your WordPress post / page.  Also add the tracking script in the same page.
9. Add the Page sections to your WordPress post / page and add the testable content (version A) inside the tags. Once you’ve done that and updated your post, it will show the version A content right where you added the Page sections. Don’t forget to change the “Insert your section name here” in the Page sections to your personal section name.
10. Next step is to add the Conversion Script. Again, open your WordPress installation and choose to edit the Conversion page you’ve entered in Step 4. Copy the Conversion Script into the Google Website Optimizer section.
11. Click “Validate pages” on the Google Website Optimizer homepage. This will check if you’ve done well. Once all necessary scripts are added, proceed to the next step with “Continue”.
12. Next Step will allow you to add the content in Version B (C, D,..). At first it show the Original Content. Add new variations with a click on the same-named link at the left. Choose a name for your Page section and enter the content for each version.That’s just copy&paste as you’ve created this variations with your designer and developer before.
13. Once all variations are added, proceed with “Preview” to the next step. This will give you a preview of all the variations right in your website you’ve added. Don’t forget that A/B testing requires you and your visitors to have JavaScript enabled. It’s important to use this preview. Otherwise you won’t have seen the implementation of all this variations right in your website. There is always a chance for typos, mistakes or technical problems. Just click through your variations and – once you’re done – close the window to get back to the experiment setup.
14. Click “Save and continue”. This shows you a last overview of all your configuration. One last notable thing is the amount of traffic that will be sent through this experiment. Usually, i would suggest you to keep this at 100%. If you’ve very risky changes regarding the content of your site, you can set this done to prohibit annoying your customers.
15. Click “Start Experiment”. Google will now estimate how long it will need to collect enough data for first reports. Now it’s your turn to stay cool and wait for any results. Once those are available, go through the reached conversion rates, interprete the results – and don’t forget to change the tested page’s content to the most successful one.

That’s it. After all there will be huge changes in the way A/B testing is done with WordPress in the next weeks. Google yesterday released an API for it’s Website Optimizer that allows to connect your (personal) software via plugins with it’s service. I’ll stay in touch with the development in that point and will update my article.

• Google Website Optimizier API announcement: http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-website-optimizer.html
• Carsonified’s podcast on A/B testing in WordPress: http://carsonified.com/blog/business/how-to-do-ab-testing-in-wordpress