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The analysis here makes sense. It is likely that the redirection test tripped Google's URL cloaking detection algorithm [1]. I've not used redirects for split t
by hartror 14y ago
The analysis here makes sense. It is likely that the redirection test tripped Google's URL cloaking detection algorithm [1]. I've not used redirects for split testing before, rather I use client or server side variations. Redirects don't make sense from a page speed and UX stand point which is why you don't see them advocated for use in split testing.
One thing that rang alarm bells that you and readers should be aware about is to do with this statement:
> The VWO javascript automatically redirected equal portions of the traffic to the test pages.
If you are not randomly assigning visitors to a group and instead just putting odds and evens in separate groups when you run more than one test at once you are will synchronize those tests and generate incorrect results.
[1] http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66355 http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&...
- melvinram 14y agoThat was a simplification on my end. I'm sure VWO does randomly assign the traffic to the variations. I just wanted to get across that part of the traffic went to page A and part of it went to page B.
- hartror 14y agoIf you were using VWO why not have a single landing page with different content? Also why did you segment the traffic during the test (ignoring traffic that didn't match you criteria) instead of doing it at the analysis stage? Is this a limitation of VWO? I haven't used VWO rather I have rolled my solutions and I found segmenting traffic during analysis allowed for a great deal of discovery and indications for further testing. What if one of your test pages caused people who searched using a phrase that didn't indicate an intention to buy converted those users better?
- melvinram 14y agoI typically use the client-side variations approach but didn't in this instance because the two pages were created separately and were pretty different in terms of css and it was just easier to keep them separate. Moving forward, I'll do the extra work to make VWO swap content on the same page and adjust the css appropriately. Segmenting traffic after the test is something I wish VWO would allow me to do but that is currently a limitation of their system.