Edit elements that appear site-wide in Optimizely Web Experimentation

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This topic describes how to run experiments that change the same element across multiple pages in Optimizely Web Experimentation.

You can use pages to test variations on a single element that is on every page of your site or on multiple pages, like a navigation bar or a footer. Visitors navigating across your site will continue to see the same variation of the element.

This topic shows how to change elements that appear on multiple pages of your site.

Before you start, make sure the element has a unique ID in your code. This ensures that the correct element is modified, regardless of the page layout.
element-site.png

  1. Create an experiment on one page that contains the element you want to change. You use this page as a template, so you do not need to load the other pages that contain the element.

  2. Use the Visual Editor to make changes to the element.
    change-hero-title.png

  3. Set up a page you will use to target the element side-wide. Enter a name for the page. Set the rest of the options according to the match type you want to use--the substring match usually works well.
    create-new-page-homepage.png
     

  4. Confirm that the Optimizely Web Experimentation snippet is on all the pages you list. Otherwise, the experiment will not run.

  5. Click Create Page.

You edited a site-wide element and ensured that visitors will see it consistently.

Adding multiple pages to an experiment will not affect your unique visitor count because Optimizely Web Experimentation measures unique visitors, not page views.