what exactly is multivariate testing? I have a job interview this afternoon for a place where they use it, they don’t expect me to know it already, but I want to familiarize myself w/it… all I know is it’s done with JavaScript…
I’m searching for “seo multivariate” but can’t find any sites where it shows how it works or how it’s done… most results are discussions on pros/cons, etc…
(would like to see some JS code at least… the mechanics of how it works… right now don’t have a clue… )
Multi-variate testing (also called “A/B testing”) is usually to do with usability rather than SEO. Essentially what you do is you have different versions of a page that you serve up randomly, where you try out different design features - eg, changing the colour of a box, different positioning, using different words in the call to action, etc - and track how successful each different design is at getting customers to reach their goal or complete a transaction. The idea is that by doing it live with real users, you can get more accurate data than if you sit a load of guinea pigs down in a room together and get them to run usability tests in a somewhat stilted and unnatural environment.
Multivariate testing is simply testing multiple variables on a web page (for example) swapping out Titles or, images blocks of copy, running different variations until you can come up with the optimal configuration.
I don’t know how you’d do it specifically in an SEO context, it’s more for testing pages and the traffic could be coming from anywhere.