Google AdWords pay per click has a fairly new tool called Website Optimizer that allows Google AdWords advertisers the ability to test their landing pages and perform other cool functions to help them better optimize their web pages. To go to Website Optimizer, sign in to your AdWords account and click on Website Optimizer in the green bar at the top of the page.
Website Optimizer allows you to do three very important things:
- Get feedback from your site visitors
- Measure the parts of your website that visitors respond to best
- Perform multivariate testing and A/B testing to determine which versions of your web pages are best
Before you can use Website Optimizer, you must first have a Google Analytics account, and to get one of those you need to have a Google AdWords account. First things first, you know.
When you first start using Website Optimizer, you’ll need to define the scope of your test. What is it exactly do you want to test about your web site? Which page do you want to test? Which elements on that page do you want to test? Etc. Etc.
Next you’ll need to decide whether you are going to use multivariate testing or A/B testing. A/B testing allows you to test different versions of the same page to see which one is best. You can move things around on your page to see whether or not one headline performs better than another or whether a particular photo gets better responses in one location or another. You are essentially comparing two different versions of the same content. Multivariate testing allows you to test different components of your web pages simultaneously.
Website Optimizer will walk you through the process of deciding which elements you want to test, how much traffic you want to apply the test to, and other aspects of your test. When all is said and done, you’ll know within a few days of running your test which parts of your web pages are performing the best or getting the type of response you want to get from your visitors. Once you know that, you can make the proper changes to improve the results, the conversions, of your content.
