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What Is SEO A/B Testing and How Can It Benefit Me?

We say it all the time here: SEO is a process, not a one-time event.

And sometimes, it feels like a moving target.

It’s no wonder. Google is continually changing its algorithm. Their increasing reliance on machine learning and AI, coupled with its notorious lack of transparency, are making it harder than ever to understand what the search engine wants from your site.

Aside from that, your company’s needs and goals change. If you add new services or enter new markets, the searches you should rank for need to change, too.

With conditions and best-practices continually evolving, how can you use SEO intelligently to gain more market share?

Try A/B testing.

What is A/B testing in SEO?

The short version: A/B testing helps you figure out what Google wants from your site.

The longer version: SEO A/B testing allows you to systematically test “control” against “variant” groups of pages to yield a number of benefits, including:

  1. Cost-justifying SEO and marketing activities based on data (not hunches).
  2. Preventing changes to your site from having unforeseen negative impacts on SEO.
  3. Ultimately ranking better in the right types of searches.

While A/B testing pages is somewhat complex, the process generally includes four steps:

  1. Choose the website pages you want to improve.
  2. Create the test to run across those pages. For example, you may want to design a test that measures whether a change in SEO improves total conversions for the group of pages.
  3. Randomly assign the pages into the control and variant groups.
  4. Measure the resulting changes in SEO. If the variant group outperforms its forecast by a statistically significant amount, and the control group does not, the test is a success.

Is there more to mastering SEO?

Absolutely. We’ve barely scratched the surface! If you want to learn more, check out these related posts on search engine optimization:

7 Rules to Follow for SEO Friendly Content

Get to Page 1 Faster with Semantic Keywords

What Is Google RankBrain?

What Are Google’s Rules for SEO?

What other digital trends are shaping marketing in 2020?

 

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