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The Ultimate SEO Technique

Split Testing is a powerful SEO tool that is easy to use. This is something that every professional in the industry should understand how to use.
Essentially, a split test means taking two slightly different versions of the same website or web page and then seeing which of them converts better. Then you keep the one that performs and converts best. Some try to introduce another new tweak in the same way, but that is not necessary.

As mentioned, Split Testing is a powerful SEO tool and by using it repeatedly, you can make a series of data-driven decisions that will be guaranteed to help your site climb the ranks of Google and other search engines.

Split Testing is a powerful SEO tool and hugely effective, but it does not mean you can make a lot of mistakes or use Split Testing poorly. This can result in incorrect data at best and completely destroy your website at worst.

Read on to learn more about why Split Testing is a powerful SEO tool and which mistakes you should avoid.

The Ultimate Quick SEO Cheat-Sheet

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is a set of practices that are designed to help a website perform well on Google. That means reaching the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and getting lots of clicks.

But how precisely do you go about this? What are the key things you need to be doing as a new site owner? The site will jump into the very basics and give you just enough information to start doing SEO right, without paying for a pro or spending years reading.

The Basics

In order to be successful in SEO, you need to create a website that Google can find and understand, and a website that Google thinks i high-quality. To make a website Google can find and understand, you need to make sure lots of sites point at your page – ideally sites that are in the same niche as you.

At the same time, you need to think about what you want people to search for in order to find your website, and you need to subtly include that term in your content and your files. You should also make sure that your site is structured with lots of internal links, and that you fill out such things as your meta description. But do not overuse your keywords as this can make it look as though you are trying to game the system and trick Google.

For the second part, you should demonstrate that your site is high-quality. For this, you need to try and keep visitors on your page for as long as possible. To get your visitors to stay as long as possible you need to include a lot of good content. You should also ensure your site loads quickly and that it is easy to use on any device, this means your site must be mobilefriendly.

Finally, getting lots of high-quality links to your page will help with this as well because it will show Google that other people recommend your site.

Steps

Keeping all this in mind, there are a number of simple steps you need to follow if you want to conduct good SEO.

- Research popular search terms
- Write posts around these subjects and attempt to use the key terms with a density of around 1-3%
- Keep content fairly long, between 800 – 1500 words
- Post regularly
- Place key terms in your article title, on the header, and in the first and last paragraph of your post wherever possible
- Put the key term in your meta descriptions
- Write blogs for other sites where possible and ask them to link back to you in return
- Choose sites that are popular with Google and that appear in their featured and news sections

All this will help you conduct good SEO and put you on the right path. From there, you can start looking into more advanced techniques, such as split testing and using analytics.

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Use Google Analytics For Smarter SEO

Google Analytics is a free tool from Google that is used by nearly every SEO professional and webmaster. That should tell you something about just how important and valuable it is. And it should tell you that you really need to go and set up your own Google Analytics account.

Google Analytics provides analytics, as the name suggests, This means that you will be able to see how many people visit your site, how many come from one source or another, what those people do on your page, and much more. This can help you to make better choices about how you proceed with your future SEO decisions, and it is essential if you want to try your hand at split testing.

Getting Started

To get started, you first had to set up a Google Analytics account. You can log into the tool by using your regular Google Account, and from there you need to add accounts for each site you want to use.

When you do this, you first start by entering the name of the account, the name of the website, and the URL. From there, you will get a tracking ID. You then have to paste this onto each of your pages, which will in turn allow Google Analytics to get stats from them.

The good news is that if you have a WordPress site, then you can do this very easily by installing one of several plugins. A good one to use is Google Analytics for WP. This will not only make it easy for you to set up your tracking code but will also mean that you can easily view advanced settings through your WP dashboard.

You will be asked to add an access code, which you can do as easily as clicking a button, signing into your Google Account, and then copying and pasting it.

Using Google Analytics

So now you have Google Analytics, exactly what do you do with it?

The stat you will likely look at most often is the Audience Overview. This will show you who has been viewing your site (not by name) and a graph at the top will show you how many users you get on a daily basis. A pie chart will show you how many of those are returning visitors.

Acquisitions tell you where your traffic comes from and how the source will impact their behavior. For instance, you might find that traffic coming from Google is more likely to have a higher bounce rate, but also more likely to convert.

A real-time tab on the left shows you how many people are on your site at any given time. Conversions lets you set up goals such as sales, and then see what percentage of visitors are converting and carrying out their goals.

All this data will allow you to see what works and what doesn’t for your website. As a result, you will be able to make smarter, data-driven decisions that will ultimately lead to more success. And it is very encouraging to see those numbers go up!

Why Split Testing Is A Powerful SEO Tool

Data-driven is a term that a lot of businesses like to throw around, but what does it really mean?

Well essentially, it means that you will be making decisions based on pure data that comes from research and testing, rather than decisions that are based on hunches and emotions. Often, we make the mistake of thinking that we know our audience. We might say to ourselves that because we would prefer a web page to be blue, everyone else must do it. We then make a change and find that it actually hurts our profits.

So what do you do? You test because split testing is a powerful SEO tool. And this can help you to build a business strategy that absolutely cannot fail. To demonstrate, let’s see how you might conduct split tests (comparing two versions of something) and other tests in order to build an ideal business selling eBooks.

The Set Up

To get started, you are going to choose digital products to sell, and then create a sales page to sell it from. The digital product can be an eBook you bought the rights to, and the sales page will talk about how that eBook can help the readers.

You then choose your target demographic and you attempt to conduct some SEO on a related blog in a bid to get your sales page to the top of Google for a related search term.

You might also use some advertising in order to drive more sales.

As long as you make more money on average from each visitor than you spend, then this simple business model will generate income as you sleep. Pretty straightforward!

How To Win

The problem is, that countless people try this and fail.

Why? Because they chose the wrong eBook. They market to the wrong people. They set the price wrong. They are not good at persuasive writing. Or they don’t do their SEO correctly.

Testing can solve all these issues.

First, choose a product that you already know is selling well. Many PLR products will provide some sales figures you can go off. You know this eBook sells, so you know the product won’t be the issue.
Next, use split tests to create the ideal sales page with a high conversion rate (meaning a high proportion of people who land on the page go on to buy ).

A split test means you will make two identical copies of your sales page apart from one small difference, it can be the headline, the size of the text, the color of the page, etc. You can do the same thing with the price as well to get the ideal price for your eBook.

Before you perform any SEO, try out the top of the SERPs for different keywords by using AdWords. You can then see which keywords have the right intent for your products BEFORE you invest a huge amount of time or money into SEO.

Finally, use split testing to write articles with the ideal SEO techniques. Do all this and your business model will evolve to become the perfect cash cow.

How Long Should You Run A Split-Test?

In SEO and internet marketing, split testing is one of the most powerful techniques available to marketers. So, split testing is a powerful SEO tool and should always be used when testing the best SEO strategy. The reason this is so effective is it means you can make sure that a strategy or a change will be beneficial before you employ it across your entire site.

That means you can make smarter, data-driven decisions, and each one will improve your ranking, conversions, and profits.

The problem though, is that many people don’t fully understand how a split test works, and they cut the experiment short prematurely. This ultimately results in skewed findings which can mislead you on the best way to act.

So, how long should you run your split test, and why?

Why Lengths Matters

The ideal answer to the question of how long you should run a split test is indefinite. The longer you can run the test, the more data you can collect, and the more accurate it will be.
The reason for this has to do with what is known as confounding variables. A confounding variable is anything that you don’t control for, and this in turn can hurt your outcome.

Let’s say for example, that you have two versions of a website. On version A, you use one font, and on version B, you use another font. Your hope is to see if one of the fonts improves the amount of time people stay on your website, which should in turn also improve the SEO.
Half of the visitors are sent to version A, and half are sent to version B. You run the test for 48 hours.
But by sheer coincidence, a large proportion of the people who go to version A of the website happen to be from the UK. And let’s say for argument’s sake, that people from the UK prefer a particular font. You have no way of testing for this, and therefore the results you get are not accurate. You assume that the new font is better, and you put it on every page of your website – thereby hurting your ranking significantly.

Had you instead run the test for five weeks though, then the likelihood of this being a sheer coincidence will shring remarkeably. Throwing heads ten times in a row is unlikely, but throwing it 100 times in a row is so unlikely as to be sage to discount.
This is what you are aiming for with your split tests, and that is why split testing is a powerful SEO tool. You can never be 100% sure, but the longer the test runs, the more sure you can be.

The good news is that there are ways to test for significance, using – for example – a chi-squared test. This way, you get a number (called P), that will tell you precisely the likelihood of your study being a fluke. As long as it is lower than 0,005, then you are good to act on the information.

Top Split Testing Mistakes

Split Testing is a powerful SEO tool when done right, and that is why professionals in the industry should understand how to use split testing.

By using split testing repeatedly, you can make a series of data-driven decisions that will be guaranteed to help your site climb the ranks of Google.

But while this can be hugely effective, it is important to make sure you don’t make any common mistakes. Split testing done well is game-changing for all the right reasons. Split testing done poorly can result in incorrect data at best and completely destroy your website at worst!

Top Split Testing Mistakes

Here are some of the top split testing mistakes most people do and you don’t.

Generalizing Your Findings

One of the most common mistakes that SEOs make when using split testing is to generalize their results to all websites. This is actually one of the things that we have learned as an industry from using split tests: techniques that work on one website won’t necessarily work on another. In fact, the same technique won’t necessarily work twice even on the same website!

With that in mind, you should not think you can run a single experiment and then be done. You need to keep testing new strategies in order to ensure that you are doing the best thing for that specific site, at that specific moment.

Not Including a Canonical Tag

There are different approaches to split testing, but one of the most common involves using a redirect. This will push half of your visitors automatically to an alternate version of the same page, but the problem is that it can end up confusing Google and potentially leading to your getting penalized.

The solution is to include the canonical attribute on one version of the webpage. This earmarks that page as being the main version, which in turn will ensure that Google does not think you are trying to pull the wool over its eyes or spam the SERPs.

Not Running The Test Long Enough

Another common mistake is to only run the test for a short time. The problem with this is that the date you collect could be the result of pure chance. The smaller the sample size (the fewer the impressions), the less able you will be to draw any conclusions from your findings.

For this reason, you should make sure that you run your test for long enough in order to know that the results are what is called significant in mathematical terms.

Not Backing Up

Finally, you should ALWAYS make sure to back up your webpage before you begin. If you making changes to your pages for purely testing purposes, then it is crucial to ensure you can reverse those changes if you need to.

Use Google Analytics For Smarter Testing

Getting Started

You will be asked to add an access code, which you can do as easily as clicking a button, signing into your Google Account, and then copying and pasting it.

Using Google Analytics

So now you have Google Analytics, exactly what do you do with it?

Save Your SEO’s Reputation

Ten years ago, writers all around the web were announcing the death of SEO. Google has been changing its algorithms, meaning that nobody can be certain that what once worked would still work. Therefore, no one could necessarily put any trust in the advice of their SEO professionals. SEO was dead. Right?

Of course not. SEO specialists adapted and found new strategies, and the industry continued thriving.

But fast forward 10 years and we are still hearing the same message; SEO is dead! they cry.
This time they are talking about Google’s move toward AI. It focuses on things like natural language and SML markup.
Of course, they are wrong again. But that is not really the point. The point is that some businesses and other would-be clients have heard this cry, and they now believe it.

And the many poor-quality SEO companies out there aren’t doing anything to help matters. When an SEO agency conducts an SEO audit and tells a bunch of site owners that they need to make a hundred tiny changes – only for those changes to then prove pointless – it hurts the reputation.
And when an SEO company promises it can get a company to the top spot on Google and then fails to do so, that trust in the industry is eroded just a little bit more again.

The Erosion Of Trust

So, what does split testing have to do with anything of this?

Well, companies have been promising the world when it comes to SEO for years. That is intentional, and it is hardly going to change.

But SEO companies that are trying to do right by their clients an actually not affecting any positive change… that is a real problem. And it is one we need to fight tooth and nail.

In one huge study conducted by a well-known SEO company, it was found that 30-40% of all the actions recommended in a typical SEO audit… actually have no noticeable impact on search rankings!
Think about this for a minute, companies are being told to go to great lengths to carry out frustrating changes, and half the time they amount to nothing! Again, is it any surprise that these same companies are losing faith in SEO as a tool?
Worse, is that an SEO technique that works for one client has been shown to sometimes not work for a very similar one. That is the exact same technique. So, what are we supposed to do?

The Answer Is Split-Testing

Split-Testing is the process of taking an existing set of web pages, or websites, splitting them into two groups, and then making a small change to just one of those groups. This way, you can carry out a controlled experiment and see if the changes work.
If it does, then you accept the change, and you adopt it on all the other pages as well.
If the change has no effect or has a negative effect, then you ignore it.

This strategy is perfect because you now know for sure ahead of time, that your strategy will work. And you can show this to clients.

If every SEO were to use this approach, eventually the entire reputation of our craft would be restored! We can dream!

Wrapping Up

First, learn what proper SEO is and adapt it. Then, if you follow these tips and use a split test to see why your site does not convert as you thought it should, you will be doing it the right way. If you use split testing right of course.

Don’t try to find a fast solution to get a high SERP rank, you will not succeed. You will probably hurt your website’s reputation by doing this.

By doing split testing the right way you will discover that split testing is a powerful SEO tool!

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