SEO Split Test Result: Would Removing Social Media Icons Improve Clicks To The Website?

1 year ago 60
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Before you start: what bash you cognize astir SEO split-testing? If you’re unfamiliar with the principles of statistical SEO split-testing and however SplitSignal works, we suggest you commencement here oregon request a demo


First, we asked our Twitter followers to vote:

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Here's what different SEO professionals person to stock astir this test:

Mike Friedman, SEO Consultant | TheSEOPub.com

Anytime you are removing links connected pages site-wide, you are perchance strengthening the different interior links connected the pages. Because of that, I would expect this experimentation to amusement a boost successful rankings astatine the disbursal of societal activity.

Kevin Maguire, SEO specializer at OnMark

It's not truthful overmuch astir "icons", but alternatively the OBL (outbound link) number that would beryllium reduced tract wide. Removal of those links, should people summation the PageRank value of the remaining leafage links. So yes, with the consolidation of PR, things should improve.
It is intolerable to cipher however overmuch of a important interaction removing them whitethorn person without knowing the % of immoderate fixed pages OBL they represent. Also, the widgets and plugins that request to load tin importantly interaction leafage speed. It whitethorn perchance amended load times and supply a amended idiosyncratic experience. If visitors bash not usage it, suffer it.

Craig Lawson, SEO specializer at ClickReady Marketing

Lower connected the leafage adjacent the footer. Goal is to get postulation to your site. Social media should beryllium a feeder successful essence to your site. Blogs often person precocious bounce rates to statesman with. Really privation to support radical connected your tract and hopefully nonstop them possibly to a income leafage connected your site. So determination them little would beryllium my vote.

Find retired if our followers were close by speechmaking the implicit investigation of this test.

The Case Study

Happy time to each of you SEO pros retired there; I’m excited astir the results of this test, and I anticipation you’ll find it arsenic absorbing arsenic me!

For today’s split-testing results review, we person a well-known SaaS programming languages runtime website. 

As is common, successful their cosmopolitan footer are societal media icons linked to their societal media profiles.

Hypothesis

We hypothesized, by removing the societal media icons, and immoderate associated JavaScript, we could amended clicks to the customers website.

It seems simple, what bash you deliberation the extremity effect volition be? Read connected and let’s find out!

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The Test

The SEO experimentation was acceptable up and configured utilizing our SEO investigating tool, SplitSignal. This isn’t a ample website (although it has precocious traffic) truthful we selected 262 for the trial control, and 266 arsenic the trial variant, for a full of 528 typical pages. 

On each 266 trial pages, we dynamically removed the aforementioned societal media icons and immoderate related JavaScript. The trial ran for 21 days with a assurance level of 99% with 63% of the trial pages being recrawled by Googlebot during the clip play for testing).

The Results

After the twenty-one-day period, we observed a statistically significant, POSITIVE effect for the pages with the societal media icons removed. ð¤¯

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We asked you earlier what you thought would happen. The endeavor SEOs astatine LOCOMOTIVE Agency person formed an esteemed sentiment we’ll stock below, but we’d emotion to perceive your sentiment successful the comments of what you primitively thought, and whether you deliberation it could beryllium thing different?.

Overall, the trial pages received 4.4% much clicks during the trial period, a summation of 785 clicks.

LOCOMOTIVE Agency Analysis

It’s getting harder to astonishment us, and arsenic long-time method SEOs, this effect was 1 we would person anticipated for 1 of 2 imaginable reasons.

The archetypal crushed that astir apt had a correlative add-on impact is reasonably elemental and straightforward. By removing the societal icons successful the cosmopolitan footer, it reduced the wide fig of on-page links allowing much authorization from incoming links to beryllium passed to the present smaller fig of links, giving a spot of a boost. However, this boost could person besides impacted the power radical successful the aforesaid way, truthful portion it astir apt did interaction the results, it whitethorn person been canceled retired by a akin emergence successful the power group.

The second, and apt astir probable rationale for the observed effect is by removing value from the leafage successful the signifier of tiny images and associated JavaScript, the wide full bytes of the leafage were reduced, and determination were knock-on impacts to different elements of emblematic web leafage measurements similar wide load times, contentful paints, and perchance others similar full blocking time.

Because the show successful these areas would’ve improved successful isolation for each trial page, this is the astir apt origin of the observable effect we see.

What intentional oregon vestigial elements wrong your papers entity exemplary could you region successful the adjacent fewer weeks for a akin improvement? Iterate for the win!


Have your adjacent SEO split-test analyzed by the method SEO experts astatine LOCOMOTIVE Agency.