AB Split Testing for WordPress–Full Page
May 21st 2011 05:46 pm
I’ve been looking for a simple AB split tester to use with WordPress. When I say ‘simple’ I mean something that will let me test an entire sales page against another, not a small bit (like the heading or an image). I also just wanted to compare conversion rates for now. My full requirements are:
There are plugins to test one theme against another, and plugins that work with Google Website Optimizer.
The closest I could find did work with Google Analytics (called Phoenix Split Tester which simply randomly swapped two pages with different Google Analytics code (you had to set up two different profiles). The advantage of this is you can compare a lot of stats such as which landing page has a higher bounce rate, etc.
But one problem with this tool is it automatically put both sets of GA code on the both pages. So if you had page A as a control and page B as a variation, page B would have the GA code for the main page and also the GA code for the split test page on it. This means that page A would also show the page B visitors. (I’m not sure why he did this; his readme file indicates you used to be able to turn the double tracking off).
I was going to give up until I found a plugin that doesn’t show up on the regular plugin site.
It is a freebie from Max Foundry which is a company that sells WordPress themes. It’s called the Max AB plugin.
So far it does everything I want.
It has a very simple interface: you pick two pages from a list of WP posts/pages. Then you pick your success page. If it is an external link, you put in that URL and you have to put a js script into the header of the success page.
In my case, I consider a success if the user clicks on Add to Cart, which sends them to my Zen Cart shopping cart with the eBook already in the cart. So I added the js to the shopping cart page.
The good thing about this plugin is it’s very simple and it doesn’t use Google at all. It also lets you have multiple variations, not just one.
The bad thing is it’s very simple. If you want more advanced statistics, you’re better off using something like HitsLink.
But for now, it’s all I need.
- Lets me compare a full page against another full page
- Doesn’t use Google Website Optimizer
- Doesn’t use Google Analytics
- Is free!
There are plugins to test one theme against another, and plugins that work with Google Website Optimizer.
The closest I could find did work with Google Analytics (called Phoenix Split Tester which simply randomly swapped two pages with different Google Analytics code (you had to set up two different profiles). The advantage of this is you can compare a lot of stats such as which landing page has a higher bounce rate, etc.
But one problem with this tool is it automatically put both sets of GA code on the both pages. So if you had page A as a control and page B as a variation, page B would have the GA code for the main page and also the GA code for the split test page on it. This means that page A would also show the page B visitors. (I’m not sure why he did this; his readme file indicates you used to be able to turn the double tracking off).
I was going to give up until I found a plugin that doesn’t show up on the regular plugin site.
It is a freebie from Max Foundry which is a company that sells WordPress themes. It’s called the Max AB plugin.
So far it does everything I want.
It has a very simple interface: you pick two pages from a list of WP posts/pages. Then you pick your success page. If it is an external link, you put in that URL and you have to put a js script into the header of the success page.
In my case, I consider a success if the user clicks on Add to Cart, which sends them to my Zen Cart shopping cart with the eBook already in the cart. So I added the js to the shopping cart page.
The good thing about this plugin is it’s very simple and it doesn’t use Google at all. It also lets you have multiple variations, not just one.
The bad thing is it’s very simple. If you want more advanced statistics, you’re better off using something like HitsLink.
But for now, it’s all I need.
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