What is SEO Split Testing? How Do They Improve Rankings in SERP

A SEO split test is quite a common term in the realm of digital marketing. But if you’re not already familiar with the term, a split test is an A/B test used to compare two or more versions of a web page to see which brings better results. SEO split testing is a way to find out which page changes actually help your rankings, rather than guessing.

Split testing your webpage is an important and a much-needed activity, no matter how big or small it can have a big impact on your SEO rankings, click-through rate (CTR) and conversions. And whether negative or positive, testing it out is always better. Split testing can also be used to improve your search engine ranking positions (SERP).

In this blog post, we will take a look at how split testing can improve your rankings in SERP and share some tips on how to get started.

How Can Split Testing Improve Your SERP?

As we mentioned above, split testing can be used to fine-tune various elements on your web pages in order to improve your CTR and conversions. But there is more to split testing than just improving your CTR and conversions. Split testing can also impact your search engine results page (SERP) rankings.

Here’s how it works: let’s say you have two versions of a landing page—Version A and Version B.

Here’s how SEO split testing works. Because Google only sees one version of each page, you split pages, not visitors. Take a group of similar pages built on the same template, such as 100 product or location pages. Leave half of them unchanged (the control group) and make one change to the other half (the variant group), such as a new title tag format. After a few weeks, compare organic clicks and rankings between the two groups. If the variant group clearly does better, roll the change out to every page.

This is different from a classic A/B test, which splits visitors between two versions of one page to see which converts better. Both are useful, but they answer different questions. Also note that SEO split testing needs plenty of similar pages, so on a small site, a simple before-and-after test is often the practical option.

Tips for Getting Started with SEO Split Testing

Want to know where to get started with your split testing experiment? Here are some tips for your search engine optimization.

• Consider one single element for the first-time experiment. You can choose to make two versions of a page’s headline, the call to action, or the hero image even. Just make sure the number of elements is low because even if you see positive results, it will be hard to know which change helped.
• You can consider one element but different standards of it – like you can test a short headline or a longer one.
• If you had only traffic, to begin with, the test would probably not offer a viable result. So, the priority here is to ensure you have enough traffic, to begin with.
• Do not be impatient. You need to run your tests for at least 15 days or more to see changes.
• Before making any further changes, use your results data, analyze them, and try to use these insights.

Google has its own guidance on running tests safely, so they don’t harm your rankings.

Conclusion

A/B split testing is an essential tool for any internet marketing strategy. A business that wants to improve its website performance and its SERP rankings, can invest some effort or money in these tests. You can fine-tune your site by testing different elements on your web pages until it is driving optimal results. Not sure where to start? Check out our tips above. And if you ever get stuck, don’t stop. Instead, find more similar blogs to learn and guide yourself through this.