How long should a test last?

[nathangdavidson]

Hi,


I wondered how long people suggest a test should last - for example changing the primary Category on GMB?

Does anyone have any evidence of how quickly Google might adjust their rankings to take into account changes like this?

I'm currently monitoring a clients organic traffic and rankings daily since making a change two weeks ago. I don't think there's been conclusive evidence to suggest whether or not this change has made a positive or negative impact - so want to leave the test running another couple of weeks. But am thinking I might need to carry it on for another 2 weeks after this period.

It would just be good to gauge general thoughts.

Many thanks,
Nathan

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Nathan,

For changes like that, you usually see the impact within 48 hrs. That being said, there is a ton of shifting right now in the search results due to the core algorithm update and then also there appears to have been a local update on the 8th and possibly over the weekend. So that could be screwing up the results.

 

[nathangdavidson]

Many thanks Joy, I had no idea it might be as little as 48 hours.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

The problem with running tests for a lengthy amount of time is the increasing probability that an update may affect the result more than the actual thing you changed.

 

[nathangdavidson]

Yes, I can't argue with that.