A common concern among our clients is how an experimentation and optimization program may affect their site performance (load times) and SEO. We know that great performance and an effective SEO strategy are hard-fought battles. The good news is that experimentation, when done right, has minimal impact on both.
Experimentation & Your Website’s Performance
All A/B testing initiatives require a Javascript site snippet for each page or template used during an experiment. Although there are many snippet configurations available, they’re all minimal in size (80kb to 120kb). This means the snippet won’t cause website load issues.
Adding the snippet may come with some page speed cost. Yet, by consistently evaluating performance configurations for CRO/CX needs, we can ensure these costs remain acceptable. The insights gathered through testing will outweigh the page speed loss.
Snippet Installation Best Practices
Best practices exist for installing the snippet and configuring your website for the best performance. We often recommend these resources to our clients as they get started:
At Cro Metrics, we address any performance concerns as part of our new client onboarding process. This includes running a page speed audit to pinpoint our recommendations for reducing page loading times.
We then work with engineering and web teams to implement snippet best practices. This will reduce any snippet bloat, optimize experiment rendering and improve account organization.
We take care to ensure our experiments follow optimization techniques such as excluding low-traffic audience segments. We’re judicious with metrics and work to render page elements without compromising the user experience.
Experimentation Can Support Your SEO Strategy
A successful SEO strategy includes creating quality content, building domain authority with backlinks and ensuring optimal website load time. SEO also depends on the experience a user has while on your website.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) helps you determine what your users truly care about to improve elements such as copy, sitewide navigation, breadcrumbs and links. As a result, you can provide a positive user experience that lowers friction—a win for your SEO.
Want even more insight into experimentation, SEO and website performance? We recommend giving the following articles a look:
- A/B Testing Doesn’t Impact SEO. At All. If You Do It Right.
- Why You Need to Prioritize Page Experience on Your Website
Reach Out to the CRO Experts at Cro Metrics
If done correctly, A/B testing and experimentation won’t hinder your website’s on-page performance or your rank in search. We’re always here to support you and answer your questions. To learn more about experimentation, send our team a message.
The post What You Need to Know About Experimentation, Site Performance & SEO appeared first on Cro Metrics.
