How to A/B Test Your Website

Have your ever heard about the notion of color psychology? Since color is an important factor in the visual appearance of products as well as in brand recognition, color psychology becomes crucial to marketing. Now put everything else aside, and just think how much time, money and other resources you spend on your website design. From time to time we provide you information on web design trends, the right themes for your Drupal site, the importance of responsive web design and so on and so forth. Today, we introduce one more useful tool to make your website more attractive — A/B testing.

What is A/B testing?

Before we begin to discuss all the benefits of A/B tests, let’s discover what is hidden under the heading “41 shades of blue.” There was a team at Google who couldn’t decide between two blues to use in a navigation bar, so they’re testing 41 shades of blue to see which one performs better. This testing proves that there are people who really are committed to their job.

Now we are approaching the concept of A/B testing as a secret weapon of successful marketers. An A/B test is a surefire way to see how little changes can impact a lot of things. You might not think about it, but very often the font, text size and a color of a website can significantly influence a buying decision. To see what works best for your website and your audience, you can find out by running an A/B test.

A/B testing is a way of testing two versions of a web page or app simultaneously to optimize your Drupal website and increase your sales. It is as simple as it sounds. For example, group A sees the dark blue button and group B sees the light blue button. The goal of such experiment is to decide which button color gets more clicks.

When it comes to A/B testing, it is important to figure out what elements should be tested. There are a few parameters you can check:

• call-to-action
• colors of buttons and pages
• text
• headline
• fonts
• images
• layout
• testimonials from others.

Always remember that you can simultaneously test only one element! Once you’ve got the results and have made the change, you can begin the process all over again. For example, you changed the title to see if a new name leads to more clicks. Then you can try changing colors of buttons and pages. The only limit is your imagination.

Why A/B testing is important

You can never know whether you’re operating a website in the most efficient way without comparing the information. That’s why A/B testing is used. With the help of this method, you can determine what is the best way to run your platform and what your audience likes the most. When conducting A/B testing, you can measure engagement levels and choose what is better for your website’s success.

Put ads in different places, change image sizes and positions, think about spacing, fonts, colors, and much more. Create two or more versions of the element you want to test and check out the metrics regularly to discover which version appeals to your visitors the most. 

Benefits of A/B testing

See how A/B testing benefits your website:

• improved user engagement

If you update your website by adding the elements that appealed to the visitors the most, you’ll see how user engagement grows. 

• reduced bounce rate

If visitors are satisfied with how your platform looks and functions, there is a smaller chance that they will bounce out.

• increased conversion rates

Your conversion rates will grow as well. A/B testing is the best tool to determine the best way to convert regular visits into sign-ups or purchases simply because you will know what works and what doesn’t.

• reduced risks

With the help of A/B testing you can avoid costly and ineffective changes that could influence your website’s success dramatically. 

• increased sales

As a result of all mentioned above, A/B testing benefits your sales as well because of the better user experience and increase in credibility.

Why you should use A/B test?

A/B testing is a powerful method for a marketing campaign because it can easily determine what should be changed in order to have a successful website. Whether you want to increase conversion rates or improve content engagement, A/B testing is an effective handy tool. Of course, that's not all. There are many more other benefits:

• ease of analysis
• increase sales
• reduce bounce rates
• insight into user behavior
• find innovative strategies
• reach the main business objectives.

It’s worth using, especially as a large number of websites run A/B testing. Maybe it’s time for you to conduct successful A/B tests for a specific project. Besides, many support services offer you ready-to-use modules (Optimizely, A/B test, A/B Test JS, A/B Variate Test Module, etc.). Drudesk can also amplify your content marketing strategy with a click of a button.