I just stumbled across a new tool from Google -
Google Website Optimiser. Released publicly on April 4, 2007, I feel like I've been living under a rock or something not to have heard about this. I'm not yet sure on it's full features, but as I've explored it, it allows you to create split A/B and multivariate testing of your website content. The point? Testing to see which pages, and which content is going to deliver you the best conversion and ROI.
According to the Google press release:
"As part of our continued commitment to help advertisers make smart business decisions, we are happy to announce that the Google Website Optimizer™ application is now available to AdWords advertisers worldwide. Google Website Optimizer is designed to help website owners increase conversions such as sales, sign-ups or downloads. This multivariate landing page optimization tool enables marketers to test different ideas for web page content such as different headlines, promotional copy, or images. The application provides easy-to-read reports that enable advertisers to see which variation resonated best with their site visitor. It is a self-service application that enables website owners to set-up and run multivariate landing page experiments."Press release dated 4th April 2007
If a website has any sort of website statistics installed on it, this sort of activity is nothing new, a day to day part of online marketing, conversion and optimisation. It will be interesting to see if Google has broken this down for those of a less geeky vein, and what it offers that Analytics doesn't.
Either way, for anyone serious about success on the web, when Google talks, listen!
I'll keep you posted on my experiments...