Server-Side A/B Testing - Okay for SEO?
-
Hey Moz Community!
I've been digging into the differences between server-side testing and client-side testing and had a generic question. Is it safe to run server-side A/B testing?
For example, if I want to Split Test the home page of a site and show 50% of my traffic one home page, and show 50% of my traffic a completely different (read: new template, new content, new CTAs, etc) home page, are there any implications to SEO and organic search?
I've spent about five hour researching and from what I can find A/B testing is acceptable as long as you don't show Googlebot different content or run A/B tests on Googlebot. Matt Cutts, head of Webspam at Google, has stated that A/B testing does not impact search rankings. "A/B or split testing or other forms of testing web sites is okay by Google as long as you don't test GoogleBot or don't treat GoogleBot differently."
The biggest concerns for SEO cloaking, so from my understanding, for server-side testing, you'd need to do user-agent based redirection so that Googlebot (or any search bot) gets the normal version of the home page. The bots shouldn't be part of the test. Technically that is cloaking, but intention-wise, we're not trying to be sneaky. I've also read through this article about experimentation from Google developers here.
Am I missing anything here or is there a definitive answer? If we serve a “B” as a different site for user testing, just exclude google bot by user-agent and we’re good? THANKS!
-
Hi,
I wouldn't be worried about this too much, the biggest and smallest sites in the world do A/B testing and most of the big ones run it through the back-end of their site. In all cases you're trying to improve the user experience and make sure they have a better time on your site. I don't worry about this for TNW at least.
-
Hello, my friend.
Good question you got here. Made my brain leftovers to spin.
Anyway, here is my understanding (and I can be completely wrong).
As Google always says, don't treat Google bot differently from human users, also, they say don't play a/b testing on him. At the same time Google Analytics' a/b testing is working like this: when you visit page for the first time, you get "normal" page, than, based on chance of a/b testing, you either gonna stay or be redirected after loading the page (this one is important) to test page. After this you are being assign a cookie, so every recurring visit you are not "played" with testing until test is complete. Then all cookies are removed and everybody is served whatever version of a/b testing "won".
So, putting three hypothesizes above together, my understanding is that Google bot is being treated the same way - it gets "assigned" (or simply served the original) a version of the page on the first visit. This makes sure that there is no confusion by Google which version of tested page to index.
I think as long as you keep this in mind, there won't be any troubles for SEO.
Hope this makes sense and helps you.
Cheers.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
App Store Optimization - Google Play Console A/B Testing: Should I Optimize for Active Devices or Users
Can't seem to find any ASO type of communities to ask this question to and since the Moz community has been so helpful, I thought I'd try this out. I've been doing A/B Testing for featured graphics on the Google Play Store. There are segments of active devices and users and I've been keeping track daily for ~1.5 months. The data that I have written down displays that active devices shows a positive, however users show a negative. Google Play Console choose to display the scaled installs for active devices. When we do A/B Tests on Google Play Console, should we choose the winner based on the active devices or users?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | imjonny1230 -
What kind of home page need to be, to show good results of SEO?
Hello, i have couple questions about new home page building. I want to start build new home page to replace old one. At this moment my home page is obsolete and shows low conversion. My costumers often have negative thoughts about existing one. My knowledges in coding is weak, where should i pay more attention to design, to section placement, to pictures and video gallery? Can hosting positively or negatively affect to SEO results? How to make the new website load faster? Here's my website's example. http://www.skydas.lv http://www.m-lux.lv http://www.sosdienests.lv Thank you very much, waiting for replay.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Felter0 -
Best Day of Week & Best Time of Day for B+B Email
For business to business email, should we avoid sending on Mondays and Fridays? The nature of the service is commercial real estate brokerage for office space in New York City. We are mailing to corporate decision makers in various industries (technology, finance, law). Should we avoid mailing during certain times of day? Or is there a best time of day to send the email. Thanks,
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan1
Alan1 -
Split test content experiment - Why can't GA identify a winner here?
I have been running a content experiment for a short while now and GA has just ended it saying it cannot determine a winner. Looking at the images (links below), without any form of analysis I can already see a pattern of greater success in Variation 1. It ended with a 93% probability of outperforming the original yet the content experiment ended with no winner. Does this mean the 95% confidence threshold I set should've been lowered? Ultimately I'm going to choose this as my winner but why didn't GA push it as the winner? Is there something I am missing? Image 1 - Showing e-commerce performance (objective of split test was transactions) Image 2 - Showing conversions (same split test, same objective, just different report) Your thoughts and comments will be appreciated.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | OptiBacUK0 -
Why Google Analytics is still showing data for edited/old "Goals"?
For example, I edited "Goal #1" (goal type=event) with new values/event conditions last Nov. 20, 2014. Why Google Analytics is showing numbers from Nov 1-19 for Goal #1? Does Google Analytics show old data?TIA!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | zpm20140 -
How Do I Create a Google Analytics Dashboard for My Designer To Monitor Landing Page A/B Testing
Hello All, We recently started doing some "AdWords Experiments" using A/B testing of our search landing pages. My web design team does not have access to our AdWords account, but they do have "user" access to our Google Analytics account. What I need to figure out how to do is setup an easy dashboard (or custom report) that will show them at a quick glance how the two versions of their page are performing in terms of: Goal Completions (Conversions) where the specific page is the entrance/landing page. Bounce Rate Time spent on site where the specific page is the entrance/landing page. Pages viewed where the specific page is the entrance/landing page. Possibly a way to see the most popular page visited 'next' after starting on the specific entrance/landing page Anything else that might be useful The two URLs would be like: http://www.domain.com/search/testa/
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Robert-B
http://www.domain.com/search/testb/ Any insight about the best way to do this is greatly appreciated! Cheers!0 -
E-commerce Customer Reviews/Ratings Solutions?
Hi all, Was wondering if based on your experience you could recommend E-commerce customer reviews/ratings solutions? Or if you prefer to use in-house built solutions. I currently have proposals from bazaarvoice, Shopzilla and Reevoo. Cheers
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Carlos-R0 -
What are the strategies to follow while doing the weekend SEO Promotion during festivals for any kind of e-commerce website?
I need a complete online marketing plan for the weekend SEO activities. As it relates with festive time so the plan must be covered all the elements of online marketing as well as offline marketing methods.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | srpatnaik0