Knowing what my cat is doing

A/B testing is easy to understand; you take two variants and then compare their performance. If you A/B test your website, you might use two different sales pages, adopt two different calls to action, or simply use two different colours for your drop-down menus.

Here are just four reasons why A/B testing your website is something to commit to.

1. Easy and Inexpensive

A/B testing can provide you with invaluable data, and all without involving much cost or effort on your part. Though you will need to go to the effort of ensuring that different users receive slightly different experiences, A/B testing is generally very easy, and you'll rarely need to perform any kind of advanced statistical analysis -the metrics – such as time spent on page or conversion rates - are relatively easy to determine. Simply look at which variant is performing the best, then act accordingly.

2. Increased Actions

Ultimately, every part of your website is going to serve a purpose, whether that means having people provide you with their email addresses or getting them to purchase something. A/B testing provides a straightforward way to refine those processes, increasing conversions and improving the results that your website yields.

3. Identify User Experience Problems

Though it's easy to think of A/B testing in terms of nothing but sales and conversion rates, the truth is that it can be used to assess all kinds of things. For example, your website might suffer from user experience issues; they might not necessarily affect the way the website is performing, but they could lower a user's opinion of your business. Let's say a customer loves your copy, digs your product, and just can't wait to buy out your inventory – then they reach the shopping cart and find things too finicky, or perhaps they find it hard to navigate between different items. You could have lost business thanks to nothing more than a poor online layout.

4. Sharper Targeting

As you conduct more A/B tests, you'll start to find that you're able to target certain clients more effectively. This will allow you to create content and sales offers that work to address the concerns of those clients rather than those of your entire audience. Sending targeted emails based on factors such as age and spending habits can prove extremely valuable for your business, and A/B testing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to start identifying and targeting those smaller groups.