Editing Experiments in Google Website Optimizer

When I went to edit my original Experiment so I could add more Test Sections, the first thing I did was Stop the test. Don't do this. The Experiment is then considered "done". I had to recreate the experiment and replace much of the tracking code. I thought at first, "no problem, all the tracking code and scripts are in place"...but as discussed in this previous post, that didn't matter.

So I re-pasted all the tracking code and scripts. There is a 'pause' feature which is probably the correct option for doing this - if that is even really necessary.

At first I was having a hard time figuring out how to go back and add more Test Sections to an exsisting Experiment (without "stopping" it!) - then I noticed the "edit" link on the right hand side of the checck list telling you what steps have been completed when you click on the Experiment name.

Take note of this: when previewing your variations, hit the save button first - after you paaste your variation code in the box - otherwise it wont show up and you'll probably think error first.

What I added: I put a variation on a blank space below the discounted price that read "limited sale price", and also replaced a large amount of data in a table. The table contained three books that are part of the package and also had many links to see samples of the books and other related pages. I thought I would test out getting rid of all the links (possibly distracting the potential customer) and re-arranged the books so the most popular selling book was up top, and the second two were listed as 'Free Bonuses'.

The way I handeled the variation code was pinpointing the TR and /TR for the set of three rows containing the info on the three books. I made the changes in Dreamwaever using the test editing page duplicate (discussed in this post) and then just cut and pasted into the variation box in Google Website Optimizer, taking note to cut from the same exact TR and /TR that I placed the Test Section Code in.

So I feel like I've come a long way in the past few days...Ive got a lot more experiment with and look forward to posting on the reports.

Ironing Out More Wrinkles Setting Up Google Optimizer Split Tests

The problem with the delay in conversion tracking I had was that I left the product password on the (off domain) download page - the one I disccovered earlier I couldn't use as a Google Optimizer converion page becasue it was on a different domain. My resolution to that problem was to tell the customer they needed to click "here" to get the password (and land on an on-domian conversion page) - which didn't work since they saw the password I left on the download page and went about their merry way without ever hitting my conversion page. I fixed that by deleting the "the password to open the .pdf is..." text from the download page.

More Things I've Learned & Updates:

OK - I've now tried to modify an experiment unsuccesfully, and then successfully...adding a significantly more amount of Test Section combinations. I learned a lot and have updated the Clarifying Terms post to better reflect the relationship between Google Website Optimizer Experiments, Test Pages, Test Sections, Variations, and Conversion Pages.

I've also discovered that you can't use the same Test Page script on all pages, originally thinking I could add it to a Dreamweaver Template in the header. I updated a previous post about that here.

My original Experiment, which simply added a graphic showing an "old price" (higher) crossed out and none such thing as variants above the actual price produced results of a .62% conversion with the crossed out higher price, 0% without (only about a day of testing).

Next I wanted to add some more Test Sections and Variations to this experiment, but ran into a fatal flaw I'll discuss in my next post...

Templates and G Optimizer Tracking Code

I use Dreamweaver for development and typically have a single "main" template for each site. G Optimizer requires you to put a script in the header of the page you will be testing for a given experiment, along with the tracking code on that page and your conversion page, as well as the start/stop code snippets to ID the sections of html to be tested, or 'swapped', on your test page.

I immediately ran into the problem of code having to be embedded in non-editable template regions of the page. What I did was place the tracking script in the header of the template, so all pages have that now. I've only experimented so far with testing sections within editable regions so the test section code hasn't been a problem....and then the tracking code can go anywhere in the body so that shouldn't be a problem with anyone.

UPDATE: You can't get away with posting the tracking code in the template for it is unique for each experiment. You'll need to put an 'editable attribute' section in the template head and add the script there for each test page.

I ran my first test of Google Optimizer on a pure test test page (that is , a page i made just for the test) but used an actual conversion page (the new thank you page I mentioned earlier with the DLGuard problem).

When I was satisfied I knew enough to be dangerous, I implemented on a real test page with a new experiment I planned on taking live (the sales page). I figured since the conversion page (thank you) was still the same, I would just leave the tracking code there and put tacking code, test snippets, and script on the new, actual, test page.

No can do. The "test that you didn't screw up your code" section of a G Optimizer experiment setup told me it didn't see tracking code on the conversion page...So then I wondered "what if I'm running multiple experiments with the same goal? No problem apparently, I've got two different tracking codes pasted into the same conversion page and although I don't have data posted to reports yet, it passed the smell test.

I havent tested multiple experiments to the same Test Page yet. After thinking about this, I dont think you should have to do that anyway. The way I see it, an experiment is page based. You experiment on a given page, with multiple sections tested within that page. One page is defined per experiment. I might test it out anyway.