5 Important Changes On Your Website That Require A/B Testing

We can keep relying on our assumptions about what looks good on our website or we can turn to A/B testing for the truth to achieve desired business goals.

Digital marketing isn’t about guessing. It is about a proven hypothesis that helps boost CR, improves conversions and increases sales.
We won’t lie to you, conversion rate optimization isn’t a piece of cake. It requires constant trial and error. It probably isn’t news to you. A/B testing is often humorously called "Always Be Testing" for a reason.
Here are the most important changes that you should consider when using A/B testing to improve your CR and boost sales.

The CTA Button

The Call-To-Action (CTA) button is an essential element for your website. You guide your customer through your page hoping they will click on a button and take a desired action. To rely on your gut feelings and not test what is working and what is not is not reliable.
A/B testing is vital if you wish to come up with the ideal CTA button, aimed at improving your click-through rate (CTR). Here are three things that you should definitely be aware of:

• CTA alone: For example, in some cases a “shop now” button may seem too pushy to a customer who has just landed on your website. In this situation, a simple “search” might work better. Experimenting with different CTA’s will help you to find the best one for your audience.
• Color: Even a change in color can significantly increase the conversion rate. Different colors can actually result in achieving absolutely different goals. Check out the infographic below!
• Text: What you write to call to action is important as well. Compare the two buttons below. The second one is obviously the better choice.
• Position: Should it be the top of your homepage, the bottom, or maybe in the middle? Don’t guess it, testing it is better. Generally, it is best to use all three options simultaneously.

New Design & Website Color Scheme

Never ever roll out a new website redesign without split-testing how both the old and new options of your website perform. Whether it is some peculiar color, an image, or a pattern, you need to examine how customers react to the change. To run A/B test to see which design is better for your business you need to have two versions of your website, each shown to the same percentage of visitors. You can easily do that by setting up an experiment in Google Analytics.
To prove that background testing is important, let’s have a look at the following example: American computer technology company Dell increased conversions by 36% by just changing the background from white to an image with people talking and smiling.

The Front Page

A good first impression is critical. The initial page is often the place where a visitor immediately decides whether they are going to interact with your website or not. The background image, the position of elements on the page, the size of the typography... before changing anything on your front page, you must surely test it. Tools like Hotjar can show you the heatmaps and scroll maps that reveal your users’ clicking and scrolling activity. If you see that activity should be improved, it’s high time you start testing!

Text Length

Another thing that raises fiery discussions is the length of the text on your website page. Some claim that long-form copy produces more leads, and others strongly support short-form copy seeing that it helped to improve conversions. So what’s the truth behind all these claims?
The thing is that the text length should be tested for each company individually. Often, the standard rules just don’t work. For instance, let’s come back to the example of Humana initial banner we have examined earlier.
Even though the text was written in accordance with all the standards: the headline has the number and there was a bulleted list. But it just didn’t work. Shortening the text, but at the same time personalizing it and making it more call-to-action, the company finally achieved the results they have been waiting for.

Explainer Videos

Mostly, it is preferred to use text instead of video on a webpage. However, aren’t we missing a great opportunity of improving conversions by using a great explainer video? It goes without saying that it needs to be tested as well. Explainer videos are generally good for complicated businesses, and A/B testing is the best way to see whether it is worth the effort to invest in video sales page.
Finally, let’s provide you with a bit of advice on how to conduct A/B testing.

• Firstly, determine your business objectives. Whether it’s boosting sales, increasing visitor sign ups or etc.
• Secondly, define your website goals: improving online purchases, or raising the number of clients contacting your company.
• Thirdly, determine key performance indicators (KPI). These are the indicators that show how your website improvement helps you to achieve the desired results. For example, submissions of contact information, email signups or completed online purchases. When you run A/B testing remember to focus on one KPI at a time.
• Then see what target metrics to use.
• After defining your goals and metrics, you need to decide which website page you’re going to test.
• Finally, we get down to choosing elements for A/B testing: CTA button, new order form, form fields, color scheme, etc.

Running A/B tests may seem difficult at the beginning, but if you invest your time, energy and money into it, you will immensely benefit in the long run. It’s generally a very fun and insightful process, as you may discover a lot of interesting information about your users and their behaviour. Through testing, you get closer and closer to the creation of a perfect website that will satisfy your clients needs, and you in turn will get your business thriving.