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The SiteSpect approach is unique in that no changes are made to the actual website that is being tested. Instead, the SiteSpect Server makes all of the appropriate content changes (test variations) on the fly and shows them to the appropriate users (test subjects) who visit your site. All of the changes occur after the content leaves your web server and before it is delivered to the browser (see Figure 1). All of this is done without making any changes to your existing website or web server and without users knowing that they are being served test content.
How SiteSpect’s Non-Intrusive Approach Compares to the Alternatives Unlike the alternatives, SiteSpect does not require any changes to the HTML or programming code that drives your website.This approach eliminates the need for ongoing IT involvement before, during, and after running tests—allowing marketers to focus on achieving their website optimization goals as opposed to overcoming technical hurdles.
JavaScript-based testing solutions require you to make changes to the code that underlies your website.The code changes typically involve embedding JavaScript tags into each page that you want to test, which enables you to swap content into pre-defined slots within each web page.This approach is considered intrusive, because you are required to modify your website in order to set up or remove your test campaigns.
While implementing a server-side testing solution removes some of the issues that exist with JavaScriptbased testing solutions, it requires extensive changes to the systems and processes needed to create, manage, and publish content to your website. In addition to requiring significant IT involvement for the initial implementation of the solution, server-side testing software typically requires ongoing IT involvement with each test that is implemented. Contents Let’s look at the seven specific ways SiteSpect compares with different approaches.
Seven Advantages of SiteSpect’s Non-Intrusive Approach
Advantage #1: Tests can be created, run, and analyzed without any involvement from your IT staff or website development resources.
Tests that require significant time and costs to implement act as a deterrent to ongoing testing and can mean the difference between success and failure. In order to understand the total cost of your testing efforts, make sure that you consider the resources required for both the initial and ongoing implementation of the testing solution.
SiteSpect—All of your test variations are created within SiteSpect using its browser-based interface. Whether you are running simple A/B tests or complex multivariate analyses, SiteSpect’s wizard-driven campaign creation feature enables you to implement test campaigns quickly and cost effectively. Since no changes are made to the actual pages you are testing, you avoid the need for IT and QA resources. SiteSpect’s unique approach not only reduces time and costs, but it also empowers marketers to test and optimize websites without IT involvement.
JavaScript—JavaScript-based testing applications rely upon code that is placed on each page that you want to test and track. Because of this, IT and QA resources are typically required for implementing and validating the operation of each test campaign. Multiple cycles of review are often required to verify that there are no scripting errors before each test is launched.
Server-side—IT and QA resources are generally required, although their level of involvement varies, depending on the application.This approach requires software integration and development effort (not just HTML or “front-end”modifications), so the skill and cost of the engineering resources will be higher than with other testing solutions.
Advantage #2: Any content can be tested.
The increased use of dynamic content and interactive web applications multiplies the number of “moving parts” on a website and enhances the value of testing. In order to avoid missing potentially significant opportunities for optimization, it is important to make sure that your testing solution isn’t limited to testing only certain types of content. It is also important to understand whether your content will need to be reworked within the web server code in order to be testable.
SiteSpect—SiteSpect can test content variations on pages that are formatted using virtually any mark up language (e.g.HTML,WML), stylesheets (CSS), or scripting language (e.g. JavaScript). Within those pages, SiteSpect can test variations of virtually any type of content, whether it is static and/or dynamic, including audio and video files as well as Ajax and Flash-based applications.
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