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In 2023 we will be seeing the end of Google Optimise, with Google ‘sunsetting’ the feature in September.
Google ‘sunsetting’ refers to when Google calls time on one of its features or tools.
Google Optimise is a platform introduced by Google that allows you to test different variants of a web page, seeing how they objectively perform. Optimise then monitors the results of your web page ‘experiment’ and shows you which one comes out on top.
In simple terms, you could make design changes to your website and Optimise would direct a percentage of your users to this newly optimised site, and a different percentage to the older version of your site, effectively making this a form of A/B testing.
Google Optimise works alongside Google Analytics, allowing you to measure conversion rates and time spent on each page to see which variation of the page is working better and bringing in more conversions to your website.
Whilst Google Optimise was by no means the perfect tool, it was reliable and easy to use for A/B testing.
Google has announced that Optimise is set to sunset in September, after over five years of free A/B testing.
Google has stated that whilst Google Optimise has enabled businesses to improve their user experience across their websites thanks to the A/B testing tool, Optimise does not have enough features or services required by users for effective A/B testing experiments. Due to this, they have chosen to ‘sunset’ the tool and focus more on developing the mercurial Google Analytics 4.
Optimise remains available to users until September 30th 2023, allowing you to finish up any remaining experiments before its end. Any active experiments remaining after that date will be automatically ended by Google.
A/B testing is a popular practice for businesses and brands that are looking to optimise their website content and design to appeal to a wider audience. Google Optimise is free to use, which has made it a popular choice amongst digital marketers and web developers despite missing some key features.
Testing your pages against each other will help you to see conversions and discover the best version of your website through A/B testing, testing ‘Page A’ against ‘Page B’ and seeing which one comes out on top.
Optimising your conversion rate helps to identify valuable customer and client preferences that can help to boost your sales and services.
Whilst Google Optimise will no longer be available for A/B testing opportunities, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the practice altogether.
Continue to test and experiment on your website with some newer A/B testing tools available online.
Before choosing your new A/B optimisation tool, take a look at Google Optimise and try to note which features the tool might be missing, this will help you to find the right tool for your business.
Optimizely
Looking to continue testing your website with A/B experiments? Optimizely is a platform made to do just that.
The perfect platform for getting started, Optimizely was created to serve a variety of audiences with its easy-to-use editor. Set up campaigns and experiments smoothly, using a selection of ready-to-use features that help you to make, target and check how your changes to design and new content are impacting your audience’s experience with different variations of your website.
Optimizely, like Google Optimise, is able to run experiments on webpages. However, Optimizely has a wider set of capabilities for their Web Experimentation tool.
Orchestrate, experiment or monetise with Optimizely’s range of resources available to marketers.
HubSpot’s A/B Testing Kit
Test two versions of your page with HubSpot’s A/B Testing Kit for HubSpot users. HubSpot allows you to test two pages with the same URL at the same time, seeing which one has the best performance before committing to an idea for your website.
A free A/B testing tool, HubSpot’s tracking template is a quick and easy-to-follow how-to-guide that comes with a statistical significance calculator that will help you to understand whether your experiments were a success, or if you need to rethink and try again for optimised web pages across your site.
VWO
Visual Website Optimizer does just what it says on the tin. Unlike Google’s Optimise, VWO is not a free testing tool but is a firm favourite among marketers.
VWO offers a more intuitive interface with colour coding, as well as faster updates, goal set-up features that are easy to use and an easy-to-download data system that makes tracking the conversions of your experiments even easier.
Since Google announced their ‘sunsetting’ of Optimise, VWO has started to show their prices on their website, making them readily available for the influx of users sure to come from the fall of Google Optimise.
With Google Optimise heading off into the sunset, now is the time to start exploring your options for A/B testing tools and features that will be the right fit for you and your business.
Take advantage of free trials and demos across a selection of tools, whether free or paid and look for the features that you find important. At Peaky Digital we are a team of qualified digital marketers with experience in optimising your website and web content to raise conversions.
