In this guide, you will learn the exact steps for running A/B tests on WordPress for free using Elementor and Google Optimize.

From landing pages to blogs, every type of website requires design decisions.
Sometimes, website owners go with their gut, thinking less about stats and more about what they assume users might enjoy. Although it sounds more romantic, this is not the way to go about improving your user experience and boosting your conversions.
Professionals use A/B testing for a reason. It allows for decision making with the use of cold, hard stats. There’s nothing questionable about it since you compare two variations of one webpage and see which performs the best.
Luckily, A/B testing is both free and relatively simple to set up with the help of Google Optimize. Not only that, but when you utilize Elementor, you can create landing pages in minutes on the fly and test them out without any problems.
What are the Benefits of A/B Testing
A/B Testing Landing Pages
A/B testing is frequently used with landing pages, since these pages are meant to get conversions. If you pay for Google Ads that lead to landing pages, you want to make sure that those pages are ready to convert click-throughs into customers.
What’s great is that landing pages don’t take long to create with a page builder like Elementor. Then, you simply change some elements and run the A/B test for a few weeks.
Newsletter Subscriptions
Newsletter subscriptions are often located on blogs, landing pages, and eCommerce sites. It’s amazing how minor changes to an email subscription form can significantly increase your subscribers.
Contact Forms
Many companies use contact forms to obtain customers. From lawyers to contractors, and hair salons to car dealerships, a contact form is a way for customers to get information before making a purchase. If the contact form isn’t tested and optimized, you might be missing out on valuable leads.
Downloads
As you may know, downloads are typically given away or sold by using buttons on a website. Therefore, an A/B test will help you discover the types of buttons to use, where to place them best; what size and color they should be. It’s all in the name of increasing those downloads and getting people to come back for more.
Important: Timing and Sample Size
One thing to remember when running an A/B test is that you can’t just have it going for a few days. A valuable test is one that runs for at least two weeks (preferably more) and accumulates enough clicks, site visits, or conversions to reveal which variation of your landing page or website is the best.
Landing Page A/B Testing In WordPress With Google Optimize
An easy and extremely powerful, way to create an A/B test for your website or landing page is to utilize the free Google Optimize tool. It has a bit of a learning curve, but it’s free and provides better results than many premium solutions you’d find online. Not only that, once you get it configured you can run an unlimited number of tests for all types of purposes.
For instance, you might want to change the color of a Call to Action button and see if that improves conversions. Or, you may want to compare different variations of a landing page and see how quickly people leave each one. Regardless of your goals, Google Optimize can help you achieve them.
So, start by going to the Google Optimize website and clicking on the Sign Up For Free button.



There are a handful of items you need to configure before launching your A/B test. First of all, set the timing for your test. Click on the Create Schedule button to do this.







Whether you’re making a new account or a property, the last step is to click on the Get Tracking ID button.


After rendering the tracking code, you’ll find a Tracking ID and Global Site Tag. The Global Site tag is what you want to copy to your clipboard. You must paste this code in the section of the webpage you want it to work on. Google explains how to find this tag on your website, and sometimes all you need to do is paste the code in your theme settings or in a Google Analytics plugin. There are several methods for that, so we won’t cover them all here.

Now that you’ve created a property in Google Analytics, go back to the Google Optimize dashboard. Locate the button that says Link Property. Once again, Google provides a few links in there to walk you through the entire process. But we’ll guide you through them here as well.

Since your Google Analytics code is pasted inside the website’s tag, and you’ve made a property inside that Google Analytics account, the Google Optimize account should pull the property into the account.
Click on the dropdown that reads Select a Property. It gives you a list of the properties you currently have. Scroll down to find the one linked to your website in question.

I’m creating a landing page with the Elementor page builder. Therefore, I’d like to test out different layouts to see how many bounces I get with each layout. It’s possible that users become less interested when I start to explain a product, or maybe they like to learn about a product before seeing a Call to Action button. Therefore, I’m figuring out whether I should have the Call to Action right at the top or below some information.
When you find the right property, click on the Link button.






This part is for specifying the type of data you want to collect from this Google Analytics account. So, click on the dropdown to select a view and choose All Web Site Data.

Creating the Landing Pages You Want to A/B Test
An A/B test would be nothing without two similar, yet slightly different, variations of one webpage. For instance, you might change the location or color of a Call to Action button.
As mentioned, I’m using the Elementor free landing page builder to construct a landing page, and I’d like to see if the Call to Action button location affects my conversion rates.
With Elementor, you can Add a New Template directly from the WordPress dashboard.




Once you create and click on one of the variants, it lets you edit them in Google Optimize.
For instance, in the screenshot below you can see that I moved the product information to the top of the landing page. The Call to Action buttons are out of the frame but they are located below the product information.



This is where you specify what you’d like to measure with the test. Google Optimize has a few default objectives that you can choose from (like comparing page visits). I’m measuring the number of bounced visitors for each layout, since I want to see if having product information before the Call to Action is more likely to keep users around longer.





The Next Level of WordPress A/B Testing
A/B testing is an essential part of figuring out which elements on your website are working the best. It takes the guesswork out of converting more customers and ensures that you’re making the right decisions in the future.
I like combining Google Optimize with Elementor, since you’re able to launch a landing page within minutes, then see which variants of that landing page are most likely to get the best results.
If you have any questions about running an A/B test or creating a landing page, let us know in the comments section below.