About the Landing Page Optimizer (LPO)

Landing Page Optimizer (LPO) is used to test different variations of a web page. The method is established on the market as A/B testing, which is based on three landing pagesThe original web page or any of the unpublished variation pages on which the visitor first reaches in an LPO test., one published original pageThe published version of a web page that is used in an LPO test. and two unpublished variations of the original page. The test is performed against a conversion pageThe page that is the target page for which you want the visitor to proceed to a desired action. It is shown when the visitor has completed the desired action, for example, a “thank you” page after the visitor posted a form., which is the target pageThe page that defines the end goal of a conversion path. of a desired action, for example, a message that is shown to the user after posting a web form. The impressionsThe number of visitors to a landing page in an LPO test. are the number of visitors that have entered one of the landing pages.

During an LPO test, visitors to the website will either see the original page or a variation of the page, and performance will be measured to determine which variation of the page that result in most people taking the desired action. It is possible to limit the percentage of visitors that will be included in the test, be aware of that fewer visitors will require longer test period to give meaningful results, see Adding an LPO Test.

LPO calculates the effectiveness of each page to meet the goal in different test results. The goal of LPO is to find the “best” page, which leads to more people taking the desired action to reach the conversion page. After the test has been completed and a winner has been selected, the “winning” page will be published for all visitors and the other variations of the page disabled.

Testing Web Pages Created in EPiServer CMS

As EPiServer CMO is a module to EPiServer CMS, all of the pages involved in the LPO testing must first be created in EPiServer CMS Edit mode.

Recommendations for Usage

An LPO test is not intended to last for longer periods of time. Keep the test period as short as possible, from a few days to a maximum of four weeks depending on the application. You can also finalize the test earlier by selecting a winner as soon as test results have been presented and the probable winner can be appointed.

Consider the following when you start an LPO test:

• Use an original page, two variations of the original page, and a conversion page in an LPO test.
• Ensure that the original page is the version that has status Published Version in EPiServer CMS.
• Ensure that the variations offer the same action as the original page. The variations can contain different text content and layout than the original page. The variations can have status Not Ready (Checked Out) or Ready to Publish (Checked In) in EPiServer CMS.
• Use the conversion page to be shown when the visitorSomeone who visits a website using a web browser. In most cases visitors can use public functions and services, but cannot create content and will have limited access to community content. In SEO it means the number of visits to a URL through channels (external referrers), direct arrivals and internal links. See also visitor groups. In EPiServer CMO a visitor represents the user's IP address. has carried out the desired action. Ensure that the conversion page is not visible in the navigation menu of your website. Only users included in the test are supposed to reach it from any of the landing pages.

How an LPO Test Is Shown in EPiServer CMS

When a page is included in an active LPO test, the tab Used by CMO will appear in Edit mode for that page.

When the original page and its variations has been included in an LPO test, do not change or remove them in Edit mode during the test! If you do, it cannot be undone. The test will “break” and you will need to start over with the test.

LPO Test Status

LPO tests can have the following statuses:

• Active. Tests that are currently running. If you create a test with start date set to today’s date, it will automatically be given the status Active when you click Save settings.
• Not started. Tests with status not started have a start date in the future.
• Stopped. A stopped test has been temporarily stopped for some reason, either stopped manually or reached the end date. Statistics are no longer collected. See Changing an LPO test.
• Finalized. Tests with status finalized have an expired end date.

Version: EPiServer CMO 2 R2 | Last updated: 2011-09-21 | Copyright © EPiServer AB | Send feedback to us