November 26, 2008 by Jack Fox
Those of you who follow Google’s exploits religiously will already know about the Google Website Optimizer Tool, it was released over eight months ago, after all – ages in online terms. However, what we’re finding day in day out is that very few people actually know much about it, certainly not enough to feel comfortable using it on their sites. This is a shame as it can be a very useful tool if you use it properly, so we thought we’d do our bit for the cause of online enlightenment and explain…
Put simply, Google Website Optimizer is an application that allows you to test various different page layouts. Anyone who has an AdWords account can use it to try out various different layouts and designs. The application also has a report function which will tell you how each design is actually doing for you in terms of conversions so that you can decide on the perfect layout. Essentially, you no longer have to guess which set up is going to work best, you can scientifically test them.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Although this all slightly begs the question, if it’s so good, why isn’t its profile bigger? Why isn’t everybody using it?
Well, in all honesty, I don’t know for sure why Google Website Optimizer doesn’t enjoy a better level of usage. However, I wouldn’t mind betting that it has something to do with the application’s perceived similarity to the ‘black hat’ practice of cloaking. More about that next time…
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