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When it comes to A/B testing WooCommerce and the need to increase conversion rate results, there are common myths running rampant.
These myths are cemented in the marketing world and their causing lower conversion rates.
Not to worry!
Here are more details about A/B testing, the best WooCommerce extension to use for tests as well as the truth about the myths surrounding A/B testing WooCommerce to increase conversion rate results for your store.
What is A/B Testing?
A/B testing is a marketing strategy where you test two different pages that are nearly identical.
You serve one copy of the page to half your visitors and the other page to the other half. The first page is labelled “A” as the control group. It’s the original page you had displayed on your site.
The second page, “B”, is the same except for a few elements that you want to test to see if they raise your conversion rate more than your original page and ideas.
A/B testing WooCommerce is all about running this kind of test for your WooCommerce online store.
A/B testing WooCommerce is essential because it’s one of the tried and true ways to increase conversion rate results.
What’s a Conversion Rate?
A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors you have successfully converted into customers with your marketing strategies.
The higher the percentage, the better. It means you were able to get more people to decide to make a purchase., and an increase in sales.
Traditionally, the idea to increase conversion rates has to do with increasing the number of people who make a purchase on your site. But, it can also mean converting visitors to do any task you ideally want them to make.
For example, signing up for your email newsletter, sharing your page to social media, or whatever other marketing goal you have for your website or WooCommerce store.
Myths of A/B Testing WooCommerce to Increase Conversion Rate
As previously mentioned, there are several myths having to do with A/B testing WooCommerce to increase conversion rate results.
Here they are along with the truth so A/B testing WooCommerce doesn’t have to be a drag and so you can increase conversion rate results for your own store.
Myth #1: Quick Tests or Bust
Traditionally, A/B testing WooCommerce and other sites has focused on the idea that if you don’t get the results you want in a month, your tests have failed.
The truth: Increasing your conversion rate by A/B testing WooCommerce takes time. It’s rare to see amazing results in a month.
It can take at least three to six months or more of running multiple different tests to finally start getting a decent handle on what works and what doesn’t and finally start to increase conversion rate results.
While you can speed up your testing times if your store sees an enormous amount of monthly traffic, it’s still often not long enough to be certain your tests have run their course and your data is accurate.
Unless your site sees millions of views per month, be patient and keep running tests for much longer than a month.
Myth #2: High Traffic
Speaking of high traffic, conventional wisdom states that A/B testing WooCommerce requires high monthly traffic to do A/B testing.
The truth: How much traffic you have determines how long you have to do a single test.
If your WooCommerce store has low traffic, or less than one million monthly visitors, just extend each of your tests so their durations are three months or longer.
This will alot more time for visitors to go through the pages so you can collect much more reliable data.
Myth #3: Test Multiple Obvious Elements at Once
Another myth that’s causing many missed opportunities for A/B testing WooCommerce is that you have to test multiple things at a time. Each element you test also needs to be obvious for visitors to notice.
For example, you can’t just test the text on one button since visitors won’t be able to see a difference and you won’t collect any data that’s worth a darn as a result.
The truth: Not only can you test one small thing at a time, you definitely should do that.
In fact, testing multiple things at once can make it difficult to pinpoint exactly what was effective. If you don’t truly know what worked, you won’t be able to easily increase conversion rate results later without wasting more time A/B testing WooCommerce.
You also don’t need to test obvious changes like large images or offering a huge, discounted pricing model.
Whether the elements you test are obvious or not, they can affect visitors on a subconscious level, and more often than not, that’s exactly what typically happens when it comes to marketing.
So, you should run multiple tests, but they should be done one-at-a-time. When one test is done, you can start the next one.
If you want to test something small, just extend the length of your tests to make sure your data is accurate. That way, you won’t have to wonder at all if your visitors subconsciously noticed the change.
Myth #4: Only Run Reasonable A/B Tests
A similar myth to the one above is that you should only test things that are reasonable and make sense to test.
If your idea is too outlandish, it’s not worth testing because your visitors will also think it’s too out there.
The truth: Sometimes, it helps to think outside the box. Every so often, it makes sense to test a big or seemingly irrational idea that has no guarantee of working.
Sometimes, it may actually work.
People don’t always act or think rationally so it makes sense to test something that may seem somewhat irrational.
You don’t have to go too far out of your comfort zone, but rely on the data you collect to tell you if something works, not reason.
Oftentimes, people respond positively to the smallest or weirdest things like the direction a duck image is facing on a page.
Myth #5: A Plugin for A/B Testing WooCommerce Ruins SEO
Another awful myth that can also cause a lot of missed opportunities is the belief that using a WooCommerce extension or WordPress plugin for A/B testing WooCommerce will ruin your ranking in search engine results.
The idea behind this is that if you’re publishing two nearly identical pages to test them, the pages will do worse than compete in search results: Search engines will mark both pages as spam.
This results in both pages not ranking no matter what kind of search engine optimisation you try which means less traffic coming to your store.
Bummer.
The truth: This isn’t the case if you use a plugin like A/B Testing for WooCommerce to test, which takes SEO into full account.
This WooCommerce extension hooks into the price filter on product and checkout pages and dynamically returns the pricing you set up for the test. This is done each time it’s requested.
Since it’s a WooCommerce hook, it’s much more likely to display correctly than it would using other methods. It also ensures search engines like Google are none the wiser. So, your WooCommerce store has every chance of ranking well.
Myth #6: A/B Testing WooCommerce is Purely Cosmetic
Possibly one of the biggest myths that leads to a lot of losses rather than the success of reaching the goal to increase conversion rate results is that A/B testing WooCommerce is solely a frontend or aesthetic issue.
It’s all about the design and layout of your store rather than its inner workings.
The truth: It goes far beyond that. It’s not just how the site visually looks, but also how it operates.
Yes, the store’s design is a factor, but the biggest impact comes from fundamental aspects of marketing like pricing and the factors that affect your bottom line.
It’s just as important to businesses as it is to customers. While visitors prefer a great visual user experience, it’s not enough to convert them if the price isn’t right.
The Best Option for A/B Testing WooCommerce
So, how can you be successful with A/B testing WooCommerce to increase conversion rate results? By using the A/B Testing for WooCommerce extension.
It tests what’s ultimately going to affect your bottom line the most.
WooCommerce is already built for conversion so it’s worth your time to do A/B testing WooCommerce that isn’t already optimised automatically such as product pricing, discounts and shipping rates or discounts.
Key Benefits of the A/B Testing WooCommerce Extension
Here are some of the other benefits of this extension:
- It’s user-friendly – The A/B Testing WooCommerce extension has straightforward settings and options. You won’t be lost with endless, complicated settings because they don’t exist. Everything is streamlined to help you increase conversion rate results quickly.
- Quick to set up – Speaking of quick, it’s also effortless to set up. In a few minutes, you can have everything set up and already start A/B testing WooCommerce to increase conversion rate results.
- Created by experts – The extension is created and maintained by verified WooCommerce experts so you don’t have to worry about things going wonky. Even if they do, it will all be fixed before you know it.
- SEO-friendly – As mentioned above, this extension dynamically updates the pricing filter in a WooCommerce hook each time the page loads. This means search engines won’t cache two identical pages and your search ranking is protected as a result.
- Uses Google Optimize – Forget the basic data reports other A/B testing plugins and extensions use. This option uses Google Optimize for incredibly detailed reports.
- Secure data – Even though you get super detailed data reporting, none of it is stored locally. So, you don’t have to worry about the security of your site, well, not any more than usual, anyway.
- Reliable – This plugin is meant to be installed on your WooCommerce store. So, it’s a self-hosted option for A/B testing WooCommerce. This means don’t have to worry about third-party apps suddenly changing things for the worse or sunsetting their product altogether. No matter what, you keep the extension so you don’t ever have to worry about suddenly not being able to run any tests.
- No limits – You get unlimited tests on unlimited sites with this extension.
Don’t Cache A/B Testing for WooCommerce
It may also be important to note that it’s best practice to not cache WooCommerce product pages or the checkout page.
With other A/B testing plugins for WordPress, you have to test it with caching plugins. But, that’s not the case with these WooCommerce pages. So, make sure you omit them in any caching system you use.
In Conclusion
A/B testing WooCommerce can help you to increase conversion rate results. But, it’s crucial you focus on the aspects of testing that will actually improve your bottom line.
Now that you know the truth about A/B testing WooCommerce, you’re better equipped to increase conversion rate results for your store. Not to mention, you know about the extension you need to make it happen.
Were you surprised by any of these myths? Can you think of any other myths when it comes to A/B testing WooCommerce or about how to increase conversion rates? Share your experience in the comments below.
