Defining A/B testing

At its most fundamental level, A/B testing just involves creating two different versions of a web page. Sometimes, the changes are major redesigns of the site or the user experience, but usually, the changes are as simple as changing the text on a button. Then, for a short period of time, new visitors are randomly shown one of the two versions of the page. The site tracks their behavior, and the experiment determines whether one version or the other increases the users' interaction with the site. This may mean more click-through, more purchases, or any other measurable behavior.

This is similar to other methods in other domains that use different names. The basic framework randomly tests two or more groups simultaneously and is sometimes called random-controlled experiments or online-controlled experiments. It's also sometimes referred to as split testing, as the participants are split into two groups.

These are all examples of between-subjects experiment design. Experiments...