Do not run A/B tests until tracking, the offer, a single primary action, and the mobile path are honest.
I wrote the long version because teams keep treating this as a slogan instead of a sequence. The short version is still useful: decide what the page or site is actually for, then protect the URLs, the offer, and the HTML Google can fetch.
What this actually means
A CRO agency should fix tracking, offer, CTA competition, proof placement, and mobile completion before it sells you an A/B testing calendar.
Most of the damage I see is not a missing plugin. It is a missing owner. Someone redesigned the template, dropped a title, hid the copy behind a click, or launched without a redirect map. Then they asked why traffic moved.
The parts I would not skip
- Broken tracking makes every test fictional.
- Competing CTAs are a structure problem, not a variant problem.
- Month one should produce a do-not-test-yet list.
- Guaranteed lift percentages are a warning sign.
If you only do one thing, do the inventory first. Crawl the current site. Export Search Console. Write down the URLs that already earn clicks or conversations. Those pages are the contract. Everything else is decoration until that list is safe.
How I would use this
I treat this as a working note, not a manifesto. Use it before you hire, before you migrate, or before you open a new design file. If the current site already works, do not blow it up for a moodboard.
This is an adapted version of a longer guide. The full walkthrough, examples, and implementation notes live on my site.
Read the full article: What a Conversion Rate Optimization Agency Should Fix Before Running Tests
Top comments (0)