Comments on: Google Website Optimizer = Epic Failure

By: Christian Little

Christian Little — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:40:49 +0000

A few years ago I was a guest blogger on a few other marketing blogs yes, but it was mostly for SEO as that’s what I was focused on back in the day. I haven’t done guest blogging in over two years though.

By: How to Get Six Pack Fast

How to Get Six Pack Fast — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:38:09 +0000

The style of writing is very familiar . Did you write guest posts for other bloggers?

By: Erik Vold

Erik Vold — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:47:40 +0000

Hey Christian,

This is a tragic story man, and I agree that GWO solution for cross domain tests is pretty confusing at first. I work for a WOAC and do most of the GWO implementations, and I know from experience that it was tough at first. There are two documented methods that I am aware of too, the first is the tagging links from domain A to domain B with an onClick event which triggers the conversion, and the second is modifying the control, tracking, and conversion script, which also requires tagging the links from domain A to domain B. Both can be confusing at first I do admit, but I will say that after a little time it’s not so bad at all.

This type of situation is also why I recommend a testing phase of some kind for GWO a while back http://erikvold.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/10/31/google-website-optimizer-feature-idea-testing-phase

By: Timmothy

Timmothy — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:28:38 +0000

This was such an informative, relevant answer. It was exactly what I was looking for. I’m so happy to know I’ll be getting something out of you posts.

By: Vertster.com is a Kickass Testing Platform | Christian Little

Vertster.com is a Kickass Testing Platform | Christian Little — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:54:46 +0000

[...] Where it all fell apart [...]

By: Christian Little

Christian Little — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:57:30 +0000

We thought about that, but that’s not a really good test. We know that about 30% of the people that get into the cart in the first place convert into a sale, but we wanted to know if the changes made to the site would affect that rate as well.

The even sadder part to this story is that I was contacted by somebody at Google shortly after announcing this test and they offered me some information to try and help. So they did go the extra mile, but in the end their software failed.

By: Casey

Casey — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:46:12 +0000

Wow, that sounded painful! I know what you mean. I don’t bother with trying to cross domains. It’s easier to make the conversion event the last click on the first domain (e.g. add to cart onclick).