Definition: A/B testing (content)
What is A/B testing?
A/B (Alpha/Beta) testing is an approach where two different versions of content are tried out on an audience who are made up of actual or potential consumers that reflect your target market.
There are two types of A/B testing:
- User experience (UX) testing: This tests features like CTA buttons or forms and their placement, and measures how they improve or degrade the user experience.
- Design testing: This type measures how color schemes, the placement of images, and other visual aspects affect consumer behavior and engagement.
Traditionally, A/B testing was performed by e-commerce marketers to test metrics like click-through rates or conversions and to monitor paid traffic.
Whilst this sort of analysis and reporting is indeed important, it overlooks one thing that both Google and consumers care about — content quality.
Study after study proved that correctly performing A/B tests and making the changes indicated by the results of the tests can increase revenue by up to 12%.
What are the main benefits of A/B testing your content?
Split testing in this way can provide key insights into user behavior and indicate which elements of your content are driving key metrics like conversions, bounce rates, consumer confidence — and ultimately, revenue generation.
When it comes to aspects like how you organize your content and the elements you should add or remove on a webpage, A/B testing can be a game-changer for how effective your content is by providing some meaningful data based on real user behavior.
