Google Consolidates A/B Testing SEO Impact In Search Help Documentation

Sep 13, 2022 - 7:41 am 0 by

Google Site Testing

Just like with Google's consolidation of preventing spam on your site, Google did the same with its blog post on how to minimize A/B testing impact in Google Search. Google has repurposed that old blog post into an official help document in the Google Search developer docs.

Last week, it appears Google added a new help document named Minimize A/B testing impact in Google Search. If you look closely, it is pretty much the same advice and structure of the blog post from a decade a ago named Website testing and Google search. I spotted this via Rich Tatum on Twitter.

Google has been working more on its Google Search Central documentation and they also added a new top level hierarchy named "SEO fundamentals" to keep things more organized.

In any event, this A/B Testing SEO Impact document is broken down as follows:

  • A/B Testing Overview
  • Multivariant Testing Overview
  • Best Practices When Testing
  • Don't Cloak
  • Use rel canonical links
  • Use 302 redirects, not 301 redirects
  • Run the experiment only as long as necessary and not longer
  • and more links

So if you do a lot of testing on your site and it has been some time since you read Google's doc on this, here is an updated version.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

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