Squarespace is an intuitive website builder that makes creating beautiful websites simple without needing to code extensively.
Utilizing A/B testing can help you compare different versions of content on your site to determine which performs better, potentially leading to increased conversion rates, leads, and business revenue.
How to do A/B testing on a Squarespace site
Squarespace is a widely-used website builder that gives users the power to build functional yet aesthetic sites without needing prior design or development experience. Over the past few years, this platform has added more marketing features for marketers such as email automation services (Mailchimp, Drip, ConvertKit etc) that integrate with third-party apps (Mailchimp Drip ConvertKit etc).
One of the key objectives for businesses when designing websites is increasing traffic and ultimately driving sales or leads. A/B testing can be used as a powerful tool to help achieve these goals by comparing two versions of a page to see which performs better, such as changing wording for call-to-action buttons or the layout of landing pages.
Before diving in to A/B testing, there are a few points you should keep in mind before initiating. A/B testing isn’t an exact science and often includes tradeoffs – for instance reducing conversion rate may improve usability; or longer tests might run so as to get more accurate data.
Unfortunately, Squarespace doesn’t currently allow for third-party AB testing tools like Optimizely or VWO; however, there are a few workarounds you can use to enable A/B testing on a Squarespace website. One method would be using Google Analytics’ code injection feature to inject tracking code directly into your website – this way enabling A/B tests with similar traffic analytics data as your website traffic overall.
1. Plan your test
A/B testing can help your website increase its conversion rate by identifying which variations of a page are more effective. Furthermore, A/B testing helps uncover why visitors are leaving and provide solutions to solve them.
Planning is key for making the most out of an A/B test. Before diving in and testing pages, decide on your test criteria and objectives as well as its length and statistical significance depending on your goals and traffic volume.
At the same time, it’s also essential not to alter too many variables simultaneously as this could skew your results of testing. For instance, switching from version A to B makes it hard to tell whether any increase in conversions was the result of its design or just because something different has come along.
Consider how long it will take to receive meaningful data from your A/B test. This depends on both how many visitors come through and the changes being implemented on your website, so using an A/B testing tool that allows you to set sample groups and determine statistical significance could be invaluable.
So that your experiment results don’t take too long to show themselves, investing in an A/B testing tool with a statistical significance calculator will ensure your data is reliable and trustworthy – something which could have serious ramifications for your business in case of false positives.
2. Set up your test
A/B testing allows you to analyze which variants of your website produce optimal conversions, defined as any desired action taken by visitors to complete on your site, such as filling out forms or clicking call-to-action buttons.
To conduct an A/B test, first create two versions of your target page that differ only in one aspect, such as call-to-action (CTA). Then you can measure their performance against one another to identify which variant was the victor.
Before initiating an A/B test, it’s essential to have a firm grasp of what aspects of your website you hope to improve upon. This will enable you to devise a focused test with clear objectives, making results comparison easier. Furthermore, understanding current metrics provides an ideal benchmark against which to measure results and compare.
Once your test begins, the next step should be deciding its duration and collecting sufficient data for statistical significance. Each company will have their own particular preferences when it comes to these variables – it’s essential to have enough samples available so your results are statistically valid.
As part of your A/B test setup, it’s also helpful to identify what metric you wish to optimize for. This should become your main goal metric and become the focal point for analysis; otherwise it could easily become overwhelming with too many metrics and useless data that doesn’t provide you with useful insight for making decisions.
To avoid this scenario, focus on one metric that will provide maximum benefit to your business. As you analyze results, keep this as your main goal metric while using other metrics as benchmarks of success.
3. Run your test
Once your test has been set up, it’s essential that it runs long enough to generate sufficient views in order to assess whether your experiment had a statistically significant impact on your goal metric. To minimize this issue, allow it to run for as long as possible while using tools like sample size calculators to ensure that data collected by your experiment doesn’t simply result from random chance.
Once your A/B test results have been collected, it’s time to analyze them and identify a winner. First consider your goal metric–generally conversions–then compare how many conversions each variation earned against one another to determine which performed better. Once identified as such, take any appropriate actions based on its results.
As well as quantitative metrics, it’s also crucial to evaluate qualitative feedback from customers. You can do this by conducting an exit survey on your site or placing a question on your thank-you page asking visitors why they took (or didn’t take) certain actions (or didn’t take). These data points can help you understand what’s driving users to behave in specific ways and implement changes accordingly. With this insight in hand, it will allow you to test more variations that may increase conversion rates over time. At its core, A/B testing is about understanding your audience and providing them with relevant content and marketing at just the right time. With the right tools in place, this task becomes easier than ever – which is why we created Campaign Assistant, a tool which makes A/B tests for websites, email campaigns, CTAs etc easier than ever!
4. Analyze your results
Utilizing data gleaned from A/B testing is integral to optimizing your site for conversions. But in order to do this effectively, it’s essential that you know which metrics are relevant for achieving your business’s goals and how best to interpret them.
If you’re selling products through your Squarespace site, tracking orders metric should help determine how many visitors have actually purchased something from you. In addition, tracking search keywords so as to pinpoint those with the greatest impact can also provide insights.
Analyzing test results using an A/B testing calculator is another excellent way to get a handle on their significance and understand if an experiment’s result warrants further investigation or action being taken on it.
No matter where your testing starts – from headlines to more complex changes – A/B testing can be one of the best tools in your CRO arsenal, helping to increase conversions, expand website traffic and ultimately grow your business.
