Of all the tools that are used in improving a website's search engine optimization, split testing is the most crucial. It can often make or break a website's search engine rankings. The big problem most companies have with split testing is that it's time consuming and takes a bit of skill to use. That's why many companies will outsource this process to companies such as ours. In a nutshell, split testing eliminates a great deal of the guess work in improving a given page's SEO. It takes two versions of a given page, compares them, and decides which one is more optimized. The criteria it looks at are numerous, but essentially include the headline, the placement of your text, photos and other elements, as well as any guarantees or special offers you make on the page. The goal of split testing isn't really to increase Google rankings, but it seems to be an excellent side benefit. The actual goal is to improve conversion rates, or increase sales. More often than not, this will often translate into an improved search engine ranking. By far, split testing is more of a scientific process than merely staring at a page and trying to figure out how it could be done better. For instance, did you know that the average person reading a web page will read a page starting at the top left and move towards the bottom right in most countries? Most people don't think about this, but split testing takes this into account and will judge a page with this 'in mind.' Though it may seem desirable to test each and every page on a website this way, it's actually not the best idea. Only the most important pages of your website should be put through split testing. These are your landing page, your squeeze page and your sales page. If you have any other page on your site that collects information from visitors, they should be tested as well. However, if it's your desire to make sure that all the pages are optimized, then by all means, it can be done. Any page can benefit from split testing. It's all a matter of how much labor and money you want to put into it each week. The two major split testing softwares available are Google's web site optimizer and Taguchi's tool. Many users choose Google's tool for its ease of use. The problem with it is that it doesn't allow for as many personal variations as Taguchi. Taguchi uses a new technology called multi-variant testing. The supposed benefits of this form of split testing is that you can test more pages with fewer clicks and impressions than Google and other programs. However, it has been shown that it may not be as accurate a tool as Google, since there is often a major difference between Taguchi's results than in actual sales figures.
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