How to Use Google Optimiser with Actinic

[john@stinkyink.]

We have been using Google Optimiser since the middle of last summer, and Rob has just written up instructions for using it with Actinic. If anybody is interested please follow the link here Split Testing using Website Optimiser.

If this is useful please link back to the article - Thanks

[kakshaks]

Hi John
So glad I found this and read your link. I have only attempted one experiment so far and that was for one product and therefore on a section page. Because of this, Actinic/Optimiser didnt seem to need the changes made to their code that they supplied and all is now being tracked and delivered beautifully.
I would strongly recommend Actinicers utilise this Google facility as it really does help identify what works and what doesnt work.

[john@stinkyink.]

Hi Kev,

Just a word of caution for anyone using Optimiser, we have found you need a lot of traffic and to have the changes up for some time to actually have statistically relevant results. So what we do is find our top landing page in analytics and play with that, but be cautious - if I believed everything that it tells me I'd be sat on a beach in the Bahamas now, and believe me I'm not!

[robmob]

Really pleased that I found this post. Thanks to John and Rob. I do have one question - I am aiming to test the position of the Bookmark button at the top of the right hand column, both on effect on book marking but more importantly on the use of the onsite search.

As this is controlled by a layout defined as External Design - presumably as well as copying the home page I will also have to copy the External Design - make the changes to this and then apply this design in the layout tab of the copied home page? Is it as simple as that or would there be anything else that needs to be done in addition to the guide Rob has put together?

Thanks

[robmob]

I've had a go with this but think I must be doing something very basically wrong but can't for the life of me see how to correct. I have tried both to copy the External Design and also to create one using Based on External Design. Either way when I make a change via the Design Library to the new or copy layout the change also appears in the original External Design layout.

Please can anyone let me know how to break the link between them.

Thanks

[robmob]

A further update on this. Having sent a snapshot to Actinic Support they have advised what appears to be a bug - in that either on copying or creating "based on" a link seems to establish itself back to the original layout and any changes made to the copies automatically gets reproduced in original.

The work-around fro this was to create a new blank layout and copy/paste the code from the original layout.

Having done this and then pasted in the Control and Tracking scripts Google is showing validations for the Variation page and the Receipt Page but error on the Original page.

Unfortunateley the code now provided by Google for the Control and tracking for the original page is a little different to that show on Robs guide from last year.

This is how it now appears:

<!-- Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->
<script>
function utmx_section(){}function utmx(){}
(function(){var k='2594915647',d=document,l=d.location,c=d.cookie;function f(n){
if(c){var i=c.indexOf(n+'=');if(i>-1){var j=c.indexOf(';',i);return escape(c.substring(i+n.
length+1,j<0?c.length:j))}}}var x=f('__utmx'),xx=f('__utmxx'),h=l.hash;
d.write('<sc'+'ript src="'+
'http'+(l.protocol=='https:'?'s://ssl':'://www')+'.google-analytics.com'
+'/siteopt.js?v=1&utmxkey='+k+'&utmx='+(x?x:'')+'&utmxx='+(xx?xx:'')+'&utmxtime='
+new Date().valueOf()+(h?'&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+
'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></sc'+'ript>')})();
</script><script>utmx("url",'A/B');</script>
<!-- End of Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->
<!-- Google Website Optimizer Tracking Script -->
<script type="text/javascript">
  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['gwo._setAccount', 'UA-169573-5']);
  _gaq.push(['gwo._trackPageview', '/2594915647/test']);
  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();
</script>
<!-- End of Google Website Optimizer Tracking Script -->

and this is my amended:

<!-- Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->
<script>
function utmx_section(){}function utmx(){}
(function(){var k='2594915647',d=document,l=d.location,c=d.cookie;function f(n){
if(c){var i=c.indexOf(n+'=');if(i>-1){var j=c.indexOf(';',i);return escape(c.substring(i+n.
length+1,j<0?c.length:j))}}}var x=f('__utmx'),xx=f('__utmxx'),h=l.hash;
d.write('<sc'+'ript src="'+
'http://www.google-analytics.com'
+'/siteopt.js?v=1&utmxkey='+k+'&utmx='+(x?x:'')+'&utmxx='+(xx?xx:'')+'&utmxtime='
+new Date().valueOf()+(h?'&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+
'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></sc'+'ript>')})();
</script><script>utmx("url",'A/B');</script>
<!-- End of Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->
<!-- Google Website Optimizer Tracking Script -->
<script type="text/javascript">
  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['gwo._setAccount', 'UA-169573-5']);
  _gaq.push(['gwo._trackPageview', '/2594915647/test']);
  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = 'http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();
</script>
<!-- End of Google Website Optimizer Tracking Script -->

When it comes to scripts I am working completely blind and haven't a clue where to start looking to try and correct it in order for it to validate correctly.

Any thoughts would be grately appreciated.

One other question is also running through my mind and that is do we have to hide the variation page - which is almost identical to the original home page - from google as it could register a duplicate content - how would this affect our SEO?

Thanks

[leehack]

The fact that it retains a link is perfectly acceptable on this, because the file you are playing with is the only one that exists as a 'real' file within your site folder. Externaldesign is your very outer template created by your designer, its not just a load of code in the database, its a specific file that if you adjust, your site will also adjust. That link should never be broken and thus if you copy an externallayout it should also copy that inherent link that also exists.

[robmob]

Thanks Lee - very much appreciate the input as always - although AS now think its a bug at least the work-around allowed a seperate page to be created for the A/B split test.

Now just to get the script code working so that GWO can validate it and I can make the test live.

[robmob]

Hi

Wondered if anyone had recently managed to get Google Website Optimizer working with V10 - we got most way through but could not get it to validate and I put it down to changes we had to make in the tracking code which may have changed since John's article.

Thanks