MVT: Test, Analyse and Optimise Your Search Experience

At empathy.co, we’ve gathered years of experience and loads of know-how on the search experience and analytics. And, we know that setting up and maintaining the best search experience for your customers can sometimes seem like a daunting task: How do I optimise the different parameters? How do I make sure that any change will positively impact the performance of the search engine?

That’s why we’ve created and incorporated the new Multivariate Testing tool (MVT) within the Empathy Playboard. By testing different search configurations and analysing key performance metrics across them, you can now fine tune the performance of your site search and make sure that any changes are bringing an enhanced experience for your users.

Define your test scope

MVT is the definitive tool to help you determine and decide the best overall search configurations, which products to highlight for certain queries, or, for navigation pages, and how to rank catalogue categories.

Allowing for multiple variations to be explored at the same time, you can easily define the best approach for product promotions or page results sorting. You just need to set a clear goal for each test and choose the search metrics you want to improve or test: Findability, CTR, Add to Cart. You can also define the traffic split that you want to dedicate to the test and your sensitivity threshold i.e. how good you want your results to be to declare it a success. Then you’re good to go.

Analyse your test results

Once each test has reached its completion date, the results will be available and displayed across insightful graphs within the test details. Metrics are computed only for relevant interactions depending on the test case and the statistical validity of the results after rigorous testing.

Clear, informative displays guide you through your test results. In addition, other KPIs are also available, to have a more complete picture that includes other aspects that can affect a certain search configuration.

Optimise your search experience

A statistically unbiased result will give you peace of mind when interpreting the results, enabling you to act on them with the confidence of having the best available information at your fingertips. This means you can now make the right decisions to enhance the search experience for particular products, categories or queries.

As test results are automatically saved and available at any moment, you can always go back and review past decisions in light of the new data available. And, if needed, you can always define and run a new test in your quest to provide your customers with the best possible search experience!

To know more about how the new MVT tool works and our recommendations when performing an MVT test, consult our MVT Overview