Website Optimizer: Defining Variants

Variants are the different versions of a Website Element that you wish to test. For example, if the Element is the Wording of a page heading, the Variants would be the various different versions of the wording.

The content of a Variant is text content that is inserted into a PHP page by inserting the content at the point of the Element place-holder. It can’t be PHP code since a PHP function is used to insert the content and the PHP for the page has already been parsed by the Web Server. So it can be Text, JavaScript, an Inline-style  or HTML.

To Add a new Variant, click on the link for the Element it applies to in the List of Elements on the Manage Element Page (arrived at via the Manage Group Page).

This takes us to the Manage Element Page:

Here we can edit the current Element settings and create new Variants for this Element.

The above example shows 2 existing Variants and 1 new one about to be created. Here we are going to add some CSS style code to try with our Element: Main Heading Style.

So in our Web Page, we have Inline-style code where this Element is to appear e.g.

<h1 style=”<?php element(1); ?>”>Paragraph Text</h1>

The Multiplier is used to adjust the importance of this Variant but is normally left as 1 (equally important as the other Variants). This needs to be an Integer value >=1 More important Variants will be displayed more often.

The Value is an amount of money that this Variant is worth when a conversion to a Goal involving this Variant takes place. Only assign values to Variants of say the Price of a Product. For example, the Variant may be the Code for an Encrypted PayPal Buy Button that sets the Price to one of several Prices under test.

After a period of time where you are getting consistent results with your price testing, where the number of conversions is maximizing, you can adjust the Multipliers of Variants for the Price Element to achieve the maximum conversion to Profit.

The Name you give to the Variant simply appears in the list of Variants to remind you what it is.

After filling in the details of the new Variant, press the Submit button to create it.

Current Variants List

# is just the number of the Variant

Under Actions there will be a Trash Can Icon to Delete the Variant and a Edit Icon to make changes. Clicking on the Edit Icon opens a new tab where you can update the settings for a Variant.

Exposures shows a count of how many times the Variant has been displayed on the Web.

#Conversions shows a count of how many Goal Conversions  for the current Group that this Variant was a part of.

CTR is the Click-Through Ratio or rather ratio of Conversions to Exposures for this Variant in percent.