When it comes to the growth of your online business, knowing what strategies aren’t working for you is just as essential as employing those that reap good rewards. You have to weed out the ineffective measures from your overall marketing and business plan. This will save you valuable resources and let you focus on those strategies that are giving your business a good boost. And, how you will go about sorting the good eggs from the bad is the real catch here.
The Origin of the Multivariate Test
You see, what could be doing wonders for one business may just work entirely against the other. Not all businesses are the same. Another major concern is the dynamic nature of many search engine algorithms. Just recently, Google has launched its latest update called the Google Penguin. If your search engine optimization strategies are focused on the predecessor Google Panda, then this could just leave you scratching your head and mindlessly wondering- what now?
What compounds these problems is the fact that major search engines have kept the ranking factors enshrouded in mystery. No one knows for sure, except of course the major search engines themselves, how much a certain SEO strategy’s benefits will factor in. Many SEO enthusiasts have come up with different solutions to test the efficiency of many of these strategies. At first, everything is all but guesswork. But, through years of numerous trial-and-error methods and other testing methodologies, things are getting less cloudy. One of the more accepted testing procedures is the multivariate test.
Definition of Multivariate Testing
A multivariate test is conducted by marketing experts to test how well a certain element/s of a site is performing. You can test more than one element and try different variations or combinations of a set of them. In this kind of testing a certain page is tested in a controlled and live manner.
Difference between A/B Testing and Multivariate Testing
In A/B testing, the performance of a page is tested by creating separate versions of the page. You can create two or more versions and distribute evenly among them the traffic received by the original web page. This kind of testing is very useful in determining what kind of changes must be done to improve your landing pages. On the other hand, a multivariate test is all about making the necessary changes within key elements on a single page. You don’t create multiple pages but you try to mix and match things on your page to come up with the most search engine optimized version of it. A multivariate test works even with large sites unlike the A/B testing. Another advantage of multivariate testing is that it gives you an idea what went wrong and what works better.
Steps on Conducting a Multivariate Test
1. Make an initial evaluation of your web page. You have to have an idea of what changes could be made for the better. You can also ask for an expert’s advice or you can do some analysis on what your competition is doing right.
2. Choose the elements on your page that you would want to make a test of. Then, you can make a different sets and combinations of elements. Now, you have to give each variations priority and schedule their tests.
3. Now you can start running the multivariate test. You can choose from the several online tool and software to aid you in the test. One of the most popular programs on the web is the Google Website Optimizer. You also have the option to seek for a professional expert or agency to do the testing on your behalf.
4. After you are done testing all the other variations, analyze the results. Then, you can make an assessment of what could work out best.
