Google Website Optimizer v 1.0 The Techie Guide User Manual download pdf (Page 18)

Experiments with Dynamic Content

Background

It’s a common question: “How do I deal with experiments where the section I want to test includes dynamic

content?”

Suppose you want to test three sections on a product detail page:

• Product name (testing a short name vs. long name)

• Product image (testing large vs. small)

• Call-to-action button (testing “Add to Cart” vs. “Buy Now”)

At ﬁrst glance, this seems to be a prime candidate for a MVT experiment. But when setting up the

experiment you realize to your horror that there’s no way to enter dynamic data into any of the sections.

What’s the solution?

There are actually two ways to tackle this:

Option 1 - Use a MVT experiment and custom JavaScript

Pros:

• This is a true MVT experiment.

• Does not require a redirect

• Works well if you’re comfortable with advanced JavaScript.

Cons:

• Requires an additional layer of JavaScript to display the content, which could potentially get very

complex and difﬁcult to debug.

• Requires additional code to support users who have JavaScript disabled.

Option 2: Use an A/B experiment

Set up the experiment as an A/B experiment, regardless of what you’re testing. Since the GWO server does

not return dynamic content any dynamic content has to come from the your own web server.

There are two ways to implement this using an A/B experiment, which we’ll cover in a moment, but the

underlying idea is the same.

Pros:

• Simple to implement

• Works for everyone (even if they have JavaScript off).

• Works well if you’re not a JavaScript guru.

Cons:

• You’ll need to manually create aseparateversion of the page for each combination.

• Requires a redirect.

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Google Website Optimizer v 1.0 The Techie Guide User Manual Page 18