Google Website Optimizer v 1.0 The Techie Guide - Manual (Page 20)

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The Techie Guide to Google Website Optimizer
Experiments with Dynamic Content
Option 2 - Use an A/B experiment.
As noted earlier, an A/B experiment can be implemented two ways:
Option A: Create multiple physical copies of the dynamic page.
Option B: Have a single physical page with multiple virtual versions.
Let’s look at the implementation details of each option.
Option A: Create multiple physical copies of the dynamic page.
For example:
• Original: product.php
• Test Variation B: product_b.php
• Test Variation C: product_c.php
From a technical integration perspective, this is the simplest option. It needs no special backend code to
support GWO.
If version A is chosen for a visitor, any time they get to product.php the page will load and then immediately
redirect them to product_a.php.
GWO will append the query string when doing a redirect, so if a visitor clicks:
http://ww w.mysite.com/product.php?pid=72&group=boys&sid=1234
...they will be redirected to:
http://ww w.mysite.com/product_b.php?pid=72&group=boys&sid=1234
For some sites, creating multiple copies of a dynamic page, such as the product page, creates additional
problems unto itself. For instance, you now have to maintain and update all of the copies. Web analytics data
is complicated as well, since we have several versions of the product page.
Sometimes having unique URLs for each version of the product page is a good thing, however. For one, you
now have web analytics data for each version separately and can gain additional insights such as time on
page, etc.
When setting up the experiment, here are the URLs you’d use:
• Original: http://ww w.mysite.com/product.php
• Test Variation A: http://ww w.mysite.com/product_b.php
• Test Variation B: http://ww w.mysite.com/product_c.php
Note: If your product.php page returns an error when no product ID is passed in, simply use the offline
validation.
Option B: Have a single physical page with multiple virtual versions.
Each of the multiple virtual versions will dynamically include the content you want to test. You’ll need to
differentiate between the virtual versions using a query parameter in the URL, and add a few lines to the
server side code of your page.