High traffic websites and AB Split Test

Often we get the question, “If AB Split test is fully self hosted, will that have an impact on my server?”

The answer is yes, every plugin has an impact on your server, including AB Split Test. But we’ve worked really hard to keep it light.

Here’s how we keep database calls to a minimum, and how to use AB Split Test on high traffic sites.

How we keep database calls to a minimum

In general, the less action your database gets, the faster your site will be.

That’s why we:

• Only log the most critical data needed for split testing.
• The customers first visit.
• The customers first conversion.

If you need more information beyond that, we recommend an analytics tool like Matomo or G Analytics.

So, assuming every one of your users converts (yay, but that is highly unlikely). You will have 2 database operations per website visitor.

With a site with a few thousand visits a month, that’s probably no problem. When you get to tens of thousands of visits, it can start to do a lot of server work. So, solution!

How to use AB Split Test on high traffic sites.

Traffic allocation is set per test, so you can throttle a busy page without touching the rest of your site.

1. Edit the test (AB Split Test > All Tests, then open the test).
2. On the Settings tab, open Traffic allocation.
3. In Percentage of eligible visitors, enter the share of traffic that should be entered into the test. Leave it blank or at 100 to test everyone.
4. High traffic sites should choose a small number like 10%.

Visitors who aren’t allocated to the test simply see your original page, and nothing is recorded for them.
Can you go too low?

The lower you go, the longer a test takes. So it does not really affect the quality of the results. So if you get a lot of traffic, we recommend slowing way down. You can always dial it back up in the middle of the test if you want 🙂