The Split tests » and search engine optimization (SEO) are two essential tools for any owner of a WordPress blog. However, they can have a negative effect if used in the wrong way on both your traffic and your SEO.
In this tutorial, we will talk about the different mistakes to avoid when you want to make a " A / B split test».
Error # 1: Do not Set a Canonical URL for Duplicate Pages
The " Split testing works by creating two slightly different versions of the same page, and displaying them randomly depending on the visiteurs. The software of Split Testing Follows such data as subscriptions, purchases, or " click-through Over time to determine which version of a page converts the best.
Unfortunately, this can make it imprecise for search engines, which ultimately won't know which version to display to users. When this happens, all of your valuable work " split testing " is lost.
You can avoid the confusion of search engines by making sure to define a "Canonical URLFor the two pages under test. This will give the search engine an indication of the final version.
Normally, you'll want to set the main page canonical when running a test. That might change once you determine a winning page, but avoiding confusion is the best policy for starters.
While you can manually set a canonical URL by modifying the section of the HTML code for the page, it's much easier to just put it inside WordPress. If you are using a tool like Yoast SEO, you can set the canonical URL of the page in the advanced settings.
Defining canonical URLs correctly does not take a lot of time, and helps you avoid confusion for search engines.
Mistake # 2: Running a test for a long time
It is important to avoid the execution of the " Split test For too long. If the search engines detect two very similar pages on your site over a long period of time, they may interpret this as an attempt to "cheat" to improve your ranking in the search engine results (SERPs).
According to Google, when they have reason to believe that you are making duplicate content:
“The site's ranking may suffer, or the site could be removed from the Google index, in which case it will no longer show in search results. "
You can easily avoid this SEO problem by running your tests for a limited time. Specifically, run your test until you have reached a statistically significant result, then stop.
You don't need to be proficient in math to see if your results are statistically significant (any splitting of test quality will tell you when you will have achieved a meaningful result). For example, Divi Leads displays this data when you run an A / B test.
Error # 3: Manually Block Search Engines on Duplicate Content
A popular method of preventing search engine spiders from crawling duplicate pages is to edit the " robots.txt ". It's simply a file that tells the bots how they should handle the page.
You can edit the robots.txt file to block bots from all major search engines, but this method is a bad idea for two reasons. First of all, it can make it look like you are showing different content to the search engine.
Google explicitly recommends against blocking with file " robots.txt ", Warning that:
“… If search engines cannot crawl pages with duplicate content, they cannot automatically detect that these URLs point to the same content and therefore should effectively be treated as separate unique pages. "
Second, everyone can see your file robots.txt " file. Since this file is publicly available, your competitors could use it to see which pages you don't want indexed. Because of this, they can understand the pages you are testing and will attempt to optimize their own page. For obvious reasons, you should avoid this.
Instead of modifying robots.txt, Google recommends using either a 302 redirect or a canonical URL to tell crawlers how to treat your similar pages.
Error # 4: Delete the losing page after a test
Once you have completed a " Split test And determined a winner, it makes sense to delete the page that has lost. It does not convert so well, so why keep it?
You should always keep the page that converts less for two reasons. First, deleting the page clears the over value data from the test. There is a lot to be learned from your mistakes, so you should save these pages for later reference.
Second, deleted pages can confuse users and search engines. If you've been running your test for a while, search engines will likely have indexed the page in question. Deleting does not remove search results, however, so it's quite possible that a user could find the page in a search, and clicking on it stumbles upon a 404 error.
Of course, you naturally want to show the page that converts the most. You can do this in one of two ways:
Use a program of " split testing Which archives the test pages. For example, from " Visual Website Optimizer Allows you to do this.
Make a 301 redirect page that does not convert to the one that does.
Error # 5: Do not update the control page
Assuming your new test page is doing better than the old one, not updating the control version may result in the " cannibalization of keyword "(a situation where the poor page in conversion ranks better in the search results than the one that converts the most).
This is most likely related to the control page because it exists on your site longer and is more established looking in terms of relevant keywords. If this happens, it can make all of your optimization efforts no longer make sense.
Fortunately, the " cannibalization of keyword Is an easy mistake to avoid. Be sure to hide the losing pages and you'll understand everything! You can do this by redirecting to the winning page.
Conclusion
Split testing and SEO are two powerful tools that can significantly increase traffic and conversions to your site. However, it is important to ensure that you divide the essay in a way that does not disrupt your efforts to SEO.