Plugin Distributing Traffic Unequally

  • Resolved Smoker4

    (@smoker4)


    9 years, 2 months ago

    Hello everyone,
    I started using simple page tester not long ago and I’ve made some A/B tests with it for quite some time.

    But there’s seem to be some problem with it.

    I always test two variations at a time and I split the traffic so that each variation gets 50% of the traffic.

    The problem is that from some reason the plugin always seems to send more traffic to the variation page over the master page.

    When viewing the statistics of the split test I see that instead of splitting it 50/50 I get something more like 65/35 and it’s always in favor of the variation page and not the master page.

    This is currently my master page http://www.basketballworkouttips.com/jump-manual-review/ and no matter what I do the plugin always seems to distribute the traffic unequally.

    I even tried ticking the option to “Force Users To View The Same Variation During A Browsing Session” but it didn’t help.

    Is anyone else experiencing this problem, if so how do we fix it?

    https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-page-tester/

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Plugin Author Josh Kohlbach

    (@jkohlbach)

    9 years, 2 months ago

    Hi Smoker4,

    Can you let me know a few things:

    1. Do you have any caching on? What kind? ie. WP plugin or server based
    2. What version of SPT are you using? Is it the latest version? If not, please upgrade as there were several issues ironed out where this kind of thing could happen in edge case server setups.

    Thanks,
    Josh

    Thread Starter Smoker4

    (@smoker4)

    9 years, 2 months ago

    Hey there,
    1. Yes, I use w3 Total Cache enabled for page cache and the server might be caching other things such as css/js and database etc…

    2. I use the latest version 1.3.4

    Plugin Author Josh Kohlbach

    (@jkohlbach)

    9 years, 2 months ago

    Hi Smoker4,

    To get a more accurate idea of the split I would suggest leaving the Force Users To View Same Variation off, resetting the stats and letting the split occur at 50/50.

    Keep in mind it’s completely random, so sometimes this can swing more towards one variation than the other (in my testing on your landing page it was going towards the master more funnily enough).

    Another tip is if you are testing it yourself to test by using a fresh Incognito window (or Private Browsing window) and shutting down your Incognito session (including any other incognito windows you have over) between refreshes. This will give you a more accurate idea of what it’s doing for brand new fresh visitors.

    As far as the code goes, we don’t favour any one variation over the other, it’s quite random so unless there is a bug in the PHP version you’re using (which should be 5.4+ preferably) then I’m not quite sure where the problem would be coming from, it could any number of places including conflicts from other plugins, server environment factors or other.

    Thread Starter Smoker4

    (@smoker4)

    9 years, 2 months ago

    My server PHP version is 5.3.29 could this affect the plugin performance and cause the deviation?

    Plugin Author Josh Kohlbach

    (@jkohlbach)

    9 years, 2 months ago

    Hi Smoker4,

    Could be a factor but it should technically work. I would still recommend upgrading if that is possible.

    Cheers,
    Josh

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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