Elise Morel - Winning the SEO game with split testing - BrightonSEO [Auto-saved].pptx

In this talk, I'm delving into the impact of conducting tests directly in the SERPs to optimise CTR in the ever-changing Google Search Results. From concrete case studies to a practical step-by-step guide on split testing, you'll know everything before starting your own SEO tests.

1. Winning the SEO game with Split testing 💥 Elise Morel Trainline Speakerdeck.com / elisemorel @ elise -morel- seo @ eliseisnottaken

2. ELISE MOREL SEO Manager @ Trainline 3+ years at Trainline, 6+ years in SEO French born, British at heart Swiftie Loves a Music Festival All about Autumn (and a good Pumpkin Spice Latte) It’s me! Hi!

3. What is Trainline? ​ We sell tickets on behalf of more than 270 train and coach companies in the UK and EU To customers over 40 countries in the world Our platform hosts more than 128 million visits per month

4. What you’ll learn… ​ Testing is not reserved for Tech teams only Understand the impact of small changes at scale The importance of testing directly in the SERPs

5. What is split testing ?  🤔 ​

6. SOMETIMES IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT MOST

7. + 63 %  CTR uplift ⬇️ extra clicks and sales Control Variant

8. What’s the difference between user A/B testing and split testing? ​   ​

9. What’s the difference between user A/B testing and split testing? ​   ​

10. Why not pre/post test? ​   ​ Change to site ​ published here

11. Traffic falls post change roll out  🤡

12. But demand fell here

13. And this was Christmas

14. There are too many factors outside of our control to trust a pre/post test analysis.

15. It depends!

16. It depends!

17. Test it!

18. 2. Why did we start split testing at Trainline? 

19. 1. The SERPs are constantly evolving ​   ​ Google launches multiple changes to its algorithm every day SEOs during Google Algorithm updates

20. 1. The SERPs are constantly evolving ​   ​ Google launches multiple changes to its algorithm every day New Google products tested and launched more frequently ​ SEOs during Google Algorithm updates

21. 1. The SERPs are constantly evolving ​   ​ Google launches multiple changes to its algorithm every day New Google products tested and launched more frequently ​ Removal of some rich snippets SEOs during Google Algorithm updates

22. What we used to see a few month ago

23. What we used to see a few month ago

24. What we’re seeing in the SERPs today

25. girl, google’s so confusing sometimes

26. 2. Get ahead of the competition POV: you’re about to take on your competitors ​ Only 60% of companies with more than 100 employees conduct SEO tests* *2021 SEMrush survey

27. 3. Evidence SEO improvements to your stakeholders Sharing strong data from experiments = More buy-ins from the business

28. Bonus:

29. 3. So how does it work?

30. Control Variant % change XX% CTR XX% CTR If % change between control and variant is positive, roll changes at scale! ​

31. Results from a test we saw in the UK The hypothesis Adding dynamic prices to our meta titles will improve CTR to our pages

32. Results from a test we saw in the UK Control Variant

33. Results from a test we saw in the UK Control Variant 🙌🏆 Variant was the winner! ​

34. With a few learnings along the way…   Control Variant

35. With a few learnings along the way…   Control Variant Variant CTR was lower than Control

38. 4. Split testing best practices

39. Test on pages which share the same template

40. Use pages with significant amount of traffic

41. 5. What can we test?

42. Schema mark-up Meta titles Breadcrumbs Alt-tags

43. 6. Handy tips before we jump into our tests

44. We run ideation sessions with our team

45. We had to get good at hypothesis formulation Adding ‘ official ’ to our meta titles will encourage users to click through to our pages to find the best prices for them​ ​

46. Get all our ducks in order with a  ✨ roadmap  ✨ ​

47. Identify which URL to use in our test ​

48. Have a s calable template developers can use ​ to scale wins

49. 7. Split testing: step-by-step

50. Step 1 - Talk with Data Science

51. Step 1 - Talk with Data Science Step 2 –Choose elements to test

52. Step 1 - Talk with Data Science Step 2 –Choose elements to test Step 3 –Monitor

53. Step 1 - Talk with Data Science Step 2 –Choose elements to test Step 3 –Monitor Step 4 –Outcome?

54. Step 1 - Talk with Data Science Step 2 –Choose elements to test Step 3 –Monitor Step 4 –Outcome? Step 5 – Scale or iterate

55. Continuous testing cycle

56. 8. Monitoring, analysing and roll-outs

57. 1. Create a data dashboard 2. Use an A/B test calculator 3. Analyse findings 🚀  To keep track of performance ​ 📈  We use an online tool to check significance ​ 🏅 Analyse outcome to see if our variant is winning over control ​

58. What do we do after measurements? Did we get a positive result? Nope Yes! Iterate test Keep testing Roll out Close

59. POV: you’re an SEO, and you test all year round Thank you!