Server-Side A/B Testing - Okay for SEO?
-
Hey Moz Community!
I've been digging into the differences between server-side testing and client-side testing and had a generic question. Is it safe to run server-side A/B testing?
For example, if I want to Split Test the home page of a site and show 50% of my traffic one home page, and show 50% of my traffic a completely different (read: new template, new content, new CTAs, etc) home page, are there any implications to SEO and organic search?
I've spent about five hour researching and from what I can find A/B testing is acceptable as long as you don't show Googlebot different content or run A/B tests on Googlebot. Matt Cutts, head of Webspam at Google, has stated that A/B testing does not impact search rankings. "A/B or split testing or other forms of testing web sites is okay by Google as long as you don't test GoogleBot or don't treat GoogleBot differently."
The biggest concerns for SEO cloaking, so from my understanding, for server-side testing, you'd need to do user-agent based redirection so that Googlebot (or any search bot) gets the normal version of the home page. The bots shouldn't be part of the test. Technically that is cloaking, but intention-wise, we're not trying to be sneaky. I've also read through this article about experimentation from Google developers here.
Am I missing anything here or is there a definitive answer? If we serve a “B” as a different site for user testing, just exclude google bot by user-agent and we’re good? THANKS!
-
Hi,
I wouldn't be worried about this too much, the biggest and smallest sites in the world do A/B testing and most of the big ones run it through the back-end of their site. In all cases you're trying to improve the user experience and make sure they have a better time on your site. I don't worry about this for TNW at least.
-
Hello, my friend.
Good question you got here. Made my brain leftovers to spin.
Anyway, here is my understanding (and I can be completely wrong).
As Google always says, don't treat Google bot differently from human users, also, they say don't play a/b testing on him. At the same time Google Analytics' a/b testing is working like this: when you visit page for the first time, you get "normal" page, than, based on chance of a/b testing, you either gonna stay or be redirected after loading the page (this one is important) to test page. After this you are being assign a cookie, so every recurring visit you are not "played" with testing until test is complete. Then all cookies are removed and everybody is served whatever version of a/b testing "won".
So, putting three hypothesizes above together, my understanding is that Google bot is being treated the same way - it gets "assigned" (or simply served the original) a version of the page on the first visit. This makes sure that there is no confusion by Google which version of tested page to index.
I think as long as you keep this in mind, there won't be any troubles for SEO.
Hope this makes sense and helps you.
Cheers.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can Very High Impressions and 0% Organic CTR Impact our SEO Rankings?
I have a very strange feeling that someone bad is trying to hurt our company, but maybe I am wrong. Let me explain. In the last two month, we have seen a very significant drop in sales on our website, but we couldn't figure out why. We have looked at different metrics (Google Search Console, Moz, Google Analytics), but everything looked alright. We had 10% loss in traffic, but we didnt believe at the time that it could be the main issue. Just yesterday we've discovered the following (please see attached screenshot😞 On August 18, 2018 Google launched Search Update On the same date, we had a jump in Organic Search Impressions for one particular keyword, which we never tracked before: "free facebook login". Majority of all impressions (233,000 out of 258,000) were from Philippines. Very low total number of clicks (50 clicks) led to 0% Average CTR for this keyword. Which in return, also lowered our global CTR by 1%. One month later we had 1000's of spam emails sent to our Helpdesk from two IP addresses, also from Philippines. We blocked them of course. It could be all coincidence. I dont know. But do you think that someone can use this fraudulent tactic to lower our CTR and drop our ranking and traffic? Can this influence our SEO in any way? It's also possible that someone is attacking Facebook and we just happen to be there, on the first page, for the same keyword. Should we try to eliminate our page for this keyword and see what happens? I've checked this article from Rand Fishkin - https://moz.com/blog/impact-of-queries-and-clicks-on-googles-rankings-whiteboard-friday and it seems that CTR is an important factor. However the article is from 2015 and maybe it's no longer relevant. What should we do? Thanks! G86Nge4
Conversion Rate Optimization | | plumrocket11 -
BEST WEBSITE/SEO/DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY FOR A GROWING MULTI-SITE MEDICAL PRACTICE [Edited by moderators]
[This content has been removed by moderators as off-topic. The Q&A Forum should not be used for job posting or recommending SEO companies and, as commenters have pointed out, we have a specific resource for this information]
Conversion Rate Optimization | | KetamineTreatmentCenters0 -
Channel grouping path / assisted conversion benchmarks by industry
Hi Mozzers, I'm trying to find benchmark channel grouping paths to conversion, or assisted conversion trends, by industry... is anybody aware of any benchmark data out there? Thanks!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Zoope0 -
Anyone using WebP to optimize your images? Also is there any SEO benefit to doing so?
While researching ways to optimise images for SEO and quick load speeds, I've come across this:
Conversion Rate Optimization | | adamlcasey
https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/download Is anyone using this and are you seeing any SEO benefits?0 -
Tips on marketing actual "Products" rather than "SEO Advice"?
First of all I just want to say that I love SEOMoz, it's by far the best no-BS resource for SEO and online marketing information in general on the entire Internet, and well worth the money. HOWEVER, one beef I am starting to have with it recently is... Most of the content being generated is becoming about "how to market to marketers" or "selling SEO" rather than actual advice or focus selling general products or services. By this I mean that all the new trends towards pumping out content based on research, making fancy infographics etc. etc. are all well and good for those who are trying to market their marketing or SEO talents in general but not THAT applicable to traditional online storefronts. I work for a fairly large company that sells tickets for theme parks/attractions/tours etc. and SEOMoz was a huge help initially for a recent site redesign, but now every time I log on to check for fresh content it's seemingly a repeat similar advice on how to get links or traffic for an SEO business. I don't mean this to come off as a whine because as I said SEOMoz is wonderful, but I've conducted endless site searches for (recent) information on traditional online marketing etc. and the ratio just seems to be...off. Anyone else feeling this way?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | ExperienceOz0 -
Site Design for SEO & Conversions
This is a Real Estate Website focusing on a local market. What would you change about this site for SEO Purposes? What would you change for Conversion Purposes? What would you change for Visual Appeal and User Experience? Thank you all for your help on this one. http://www.bronxpad.com
Conversion Rate Optimization | | bronxpad0 -
Related/Recommended Products Engine
We have an e-commerce site which does not have this functionality. Does anyone have any recommendations for a solution to provide this functionality? Many thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | WAWKA0 -
What are the strategies to follow while doing the weekend SEO Promotion during festivals for any kind of e-commerce website?
I need a complete online marketing plan for the weekend SEO activities. As it relates with festive time so the plan must be covered all the elements of online marketing as well as offline marketing methods.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | srpatnaik0