Increase your conversion rates with A/B testing

Are you one of those people who can’t just leave well enough alone? You redecorate your house every three months, or constantly reorganize your books and records, I mean CDs, I mean MP3s, until things feel “right.”

Then you’re going to love A/B testing!

A/B testing is a controlled experiment, designed to maximize your conversion rates. Let’s say you’ve had the same light blue “Get a quote” button on your site since the dawn of time, and you want to increase the number of people who click on the button.

You’re thinking that changing the color of the button itself is the way to go, but you want to test that theory. You’ll need to create an alternative version of your call to action button and run it simultaneously with the current version, then sit back and wait for the results to tell you which is more successful. This, in a nutshell, is A/B testing.

The right tool for the job

A/B testing sounds all well and good, but how do you start? You need to find an online tool that will test the element you’re looking to change, at an acceptable price point.

Virtual Website Optimizer and Unbounce are two such tools. You can test out Virtual Website Optimizer for free for thirty days; if you don’t know if that is enough time to get the results you’re looking for, the site has a calculator that will determine how long you should run the test.

Yeah, but can changing colors really do anything?

Check out this test that a site called Carelogger did. They changed the color of their call to action button from green to red, and saw their conversion rate increase by 34%.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll see dramatic increases — this is testing, after all. It might be the case that your button’s color isn’t the problem, it’s the placement on the page, or the copy, or something else entirely. But again, that is what testing is for, to experiment until you find what works for you and your customers.

For more tips on A/B testing, check out this super-detailed “Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing.”