Troubleshoot experiments

Common issues

• A metric is not tracking correctly – If you see few or no conversions, check the Results page. See, Metrics do not track correctly.
• Your page loads slowly, or you see flashing or flickering – If your original content appears for a moment before the variation, see how to Fix the flashing or flickering variation content.
• Your variation content does not appear on your live site – If you are not seeing the changes you expect, see Cannot see the variation.
• You are not seeing a variation that you expect – Use the JavaScript API to check the variation into which you are bucketed or the log to see whether you qualify for the audience.
• See also Experiment not activating and No traffic in the experiment.

Tools for testing

If things do not look right, the following resources can help you diagnose the issue:

• Preview tool – Helps you check the functionality of your experiments and campaigns, including how visual changes look for different audiences and when events fire.
• JavaScript API – Helps you verify what live experiments and campaigns are running on a page and which variation into which you are bucketed.
• Network console – Helps you verify whether events in a live experiment or campaign are firing correctly. Use it to check that metrics are tracked correctly on your Results page.
• Optimizely Web Experimentation log – Helps you diagnose more difficult issues in a live experiment or campaign. It tells you whether an experiment or campaign activates on the page, whether you qualify for an audience condition, and whether changes on a page are applied.
• Optimizely Web Experimentation's cookies and localStorage – Uniquely identify visitors, track their actions, and deliver consistent experiences across page loads.