Google Website Optimizer v 1.0 The Techie Guide User Manual

Page 15

The Techie Guide to Google Website Optimizer

Non-Standard Experiments

Step 2: Install and validate JavaScript tags

In Step 2, GWO asks you to add the JavaScript code to the appropriate pages or sections of your site. The

system will then:

• Try to validate that you correctly copied the Control Script, Tracking Script and Conversion Scripts.
• Look for parts of the page tagged with Section Script.

Click

Validate pages and GWO will try to download the files from the URLs provided.

To use your own files for validation, use this option:

Test page not accessible? Try offline validation »

The question you may ask now is: “What files do I upload and where do I put the tags if I’m uploading my

own files for validation?”

For the

test page, we recommend:

1. Add the tags in the right places so you can see them using the browser’s “view source” on your local

machine.

2. Use a web browser to view the page you want to test locally on your computer (such as http://dev.

mysite.com/product.php?id=50)

3. Save the HTML source of the page to a local static file (product_php.html)
4. Edit that saved file (product_php.html) by adding the right tags in the right places

Notes from a GWO tester:

“For the test page, you can technically create a page that contains nothing but the Control Script, the

test page Tracking Script, and the appropriate sections with nothing in them. Something like this:

{Control Script}

{test page Tracking Script}

While this will work fine from a technical perspective, I find that by using the actual HTML output

from the test page, it forces me identify the start and end of each section in the page, which I’ll have

to do in any case and should have done before setting up the experiment. It’s also helpful to see the

correct version of the original content within the GWO interface.”