If They Say This About Taguchi Testing Then Run Don’t Walk Away

OK, that title got your attention! What I am talking about? Well, some people promoting Taguchi methods of testing suggest that you can eliminate under performing test runs during the test. Here is a quote from the guy that runs StomperNet’s test software:

Lets say you are running a L18 — this has 18 different landing page recipies. While the test is running you will naturally see a couple of recipies that are doing significantly worse than the others. As this happens you can shut off these recipies. You can keep doing this until you are down to two recipies — i.e. - a split test which will confirm the results from the teguchi test.

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Your Awesome Web 2.0 Graphics Pack

Here is an awesome web 2.o graphics pack to give you a quick start in developing test factors. This is your’s to use as a user of our Taguchi Split Test software.

Here is a look at all of these graphics, giving you a break down of everything you get, along with full size samples… Read more

Installing Taguchi Split Test Software

One feature not mentioned in the video is that the code can be placed on a shopping cart page not on your domain and it will get tracked. This allows you to use the software on any site with an off site shopping cart. You do have to be able to place your code on the cart pages.

The setup loads files for your site in your site’s directory on our server operating in the Amazon EC2 Cloud. Using the Amazon EC2 Cloud allows for a highly reliable server and fast loading of the files by browsers. The number of sites on each of our Amazon EC2 servers is limited in order to maintain performance and allow for at least two years of data storage.

Another advantage of using Amazon EC2 is quick update of the system software as we add new features. It allows us to do the updates without any adverse impact on your site’s tracking and testing.

Test Report Tells You When Test Is Finished

In order to make it easy for you to know when the test is complete, the software will color the labels green to say it is ready, and red to say continue testing. This allows you to quickly review status of test and spot the best performing actions. You can also define different actions at any time because all actions on the page and site are being tracked at all times.

Something that was not pointed out in the video were the options in the right column. There you can filter results based on:

• Referrer Source
• Keywords
• Visitor Browser
• Operating System
• Time Period
  • All Days
  • Week Days
  • Week End
  • Each Day of Week

You can also see performance of page based on first visit and value of your defined actions. The best design for inducing the visitor to scroll on the page or spend more time on the page can also be obtained.

Use New Optimal Page As Control For New Test

Did you notice in that video that there was no cut and paste of HTML? That is one of the most beautiful features of this software. The new optimal page is immediately used as the site’s page when you clicked use this page. That feature accomplishes two important task.

First, since the changes are based on javascript updating the page, the search engines never see the new page. The rankings you have achieved with your site prior to testing are maintained. If you want to actually change the HTML code on the page file, you can.

As soon as you start using the new optimal page, you can begin a new test using that page. You do not have to cut and paste any code to use the new optimal page in a test. The software will get all your prior optimal designs and apply them prior to presenting the page for factor design in a new test.

These features make the software easy for anyone to use. It allows you to spend your time testing and optimizing your site and not in coding and updating files.