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URL redirection split tests are only available in the Graphic editor and Code editor—they aren’t available in PBX.
Unlike a classic A/B experiment, an A/B experiment with URL redirection implies that you develop and host the tested page’s different versions on your web server, making the versions available to visitors directly via your website. Let’s take the following example: you have two subscription pages you would like to test. These are their URLs: http://mywebsite.com/SubscriptionA.html http://mywebsite.com/SubscriptionB.html The pages are accessible via your website. With Kameleoon, you can A/B test these two pages and analyze their performance and results.

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Simple URL redirection

Launch the Kameleoon Graphic editor or Code editor as usual, then set up URL redirection for a variation:
  • In the Graphic editor, add a new variation, or select an existing one, then click the three dots next to the variation’s name and select Redirection URL from the dropdown menu.
  • In the Code editor, click the chevron next to Add variation and select URL redirection.
You can then configure two types of redirection: Global redirection and Redirection by parameter.
Kameleoon Web Experimentation performs redirections using JavaScript. If you prefer to perform URL redirection with the HTTP response status code 302, use Kameleoon’s Feature Experimentation solution and an SDK.
When setting up a redirection experiment, Kameleoon automatically handles the self-redirection for the original variation and recommends keeping this default behavior for the following reasons:
  • Consistency in user experience: Redirecting the original variation ensures that all users experience the same treatment, whether they see the control or a variant. Without this redirection, users in the original variation may experience slight delays or differences due to how Kameleoon serves variations, which could introduce bias into the test results. See section 9 of this article for more information.
  • Accurate data collection: In redirection-based tests, failing to redirect to the original variation could cause discrepancies in how Kameleoon measures interactions. For example, visitors to the original page may not experience the same tracking and reporting systems as those on the redirected variation, leading to incomplete or skewed data (see section on SRM).

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Global redirection

Global redirection is a simple URL redirection without further parameters.
You need to type a complete URL (and not just a fragment of the URL). For example, you can indicate a global redirection from: http://www.website/page1 to: http://www.website/page2 You can also choose to include any query parameters in the redirect. For example, if you redirect users from https://www.example.com/products?category=shoes to https://www.example2.com/products, Kameleoon passes the query parameter category=shoes along to the redirection URL (https://www.example2.com/products?category=shoes).

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Redirection by parameter

If you want to use the same URL but with extra parameters, select Redirection by parameter. Indicate the parameters to add at the end of the URL. This option can be useful if you want to change the default sorting of results on a product page, for instance. Repeat this operation for every variation you want to test, indicating which URL each variation should redirect visitors to.
In the case of a split URL A/B experiment, it’s important to correctly target your experiment. You should not use the Presence of an element on the page targeting option because it significantly increases the flickering effect: Kameleoon has to wait until the page loads to check for the targeted element’s presence, then redirect visitors to a variation. For this kind of experiment, use the other targeting options (URL or advanced JavaScript condition). Likewise, if you use JavaScript code for complex redirection, keep the box Load this JavaScript code after page has finished loading (at DOMReady) unchecked. Also, it’s not necessary to indicate in your experiment’s targeting that both pages (A and B) are relevant: page A is sufficient.

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URL redirection on several pages

When a split URL A/B experiment runs on several pages (for example, every product information page), you need more features than the Redirection URL panel offers. You often must manage the redirection with custom JavaScript code. Say, for instance, you want to redirect every visitor accessing the following pages: http://mywebsite.com/product/sheet/technology,product,id.aspx to these pages: http://mywebsite.com/product_AB/sheet/technology,product,id.aspx The technology, product, and ID parameters change according to the product information page displayed. To run this test, you must write JavaScript code to account for every possible case. Here is an example:
Once you’ve written the JavaScript code, carefully define the target. If you want to target via a URL, you need to restrict the test to URLs containing the following fragment: http://mywebsite.com/product/sheet/
Running a split URL A/B experiment on several pages implies that you don’t manage elements of identification as parameters, but directly in the URL. The page type is not category.php?product= but /category/product.html.
For more information, see Kameleoon’s developer documentation on URL redirection. When Kameleoon performs a redirection, it temporarily stores certain data (such as the variation ID) in the visitor’s browser to ensure proper tracking after the redirection completes. However, you can’t store data before a visitor provides consent, so run redirect experiments only for users who have given their consent, using the following JavaScript targeting condition in your experiment’s configuration: return Kameleoon.API.Visitor.experimentLegalConsent || false;
If you choose to run the experiment for users who have not provided their consent, Kameleoon temporarily stores the variation ID in session storage to maintain the initial allocation when the user reloads the page.
More about consent policy

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URL redirection and third-party analytics tools

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Impact on custom analytics integrations

When using a custom analytics integration in a redirection experiment, Kameleoon doesn’t send data when it initially targets the visitor, since the analytics tool may not have enough time to load before the redirection occurs. To ensure accurate tracking, Kameleoon stores the data in the browser before redirection, then sends the data after redirection (on the variation page), which ensures analytics tools receive the correct information while still allowing redirects to occur smoothly (without flickering).

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Impact on referrer tracking

When Kameleoon performs a redirection, third-party analytics tools lose access to the original referrer document.referrer. For example, if a visitor arrives at your website via a paid Facebook campaign but Kameleoon immediately redirects them to a variation, the referrer recorded is the original page (before redirection), not the Facebook campaign. Facebook campaign → original page (before redirection) → variation page (after redirection) As a result, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) always records the page’s original version as the referrer when Kameleoon redirects visitors to a variation. To retrieve the correct referrer, you can either check the data in Kameleoon or use Kameleoon.Gatherer.Referrer.obtain() on the variation page and save the value in a custom variable on your side to ensure you capture the correct referrer (Facebook campaign, for example).

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URL redirection and Sample Ratio Mismatch

Even though Kameleoon automatically redirects the original variation, conducting experiments involving URL redirects increases the likelihood of encountering an SRM. SRM occurs when visitors redirected to variant B fail to see the page or when data collection only takes place after page B loads. SRM results in a certain amount of data loss in variant B that would not be present on the original page. To address SRM, follow the SRM guidelines.
When configuring your experiment with a traffic allocation of original 0%, control 50%, and redirection 50%, ensure you define the new control as the reference in the Results page.

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How to QA URL redirection experiments

To QA split URL experiments, open an incognito tab in your browser and follow these steps:
  1. Go to your page, including the UTM parameters: https://www.site.com?utm_param
  2. Open a new tab with the simulation.
  3. Refresh the tab; the experiment then targets you.
  4. Switch to your variation.
Kameleoon then performs the redirection. Kameleoon tracks conversions for targeted visitors upon initial exposure and for all subsequent return visits within the attribution window. The attribution window determines the period during which Kameleoon attributes visitor conversions and transactions to a specific variation. Kameleoon only counts visitor conversions in an experiment if the experiment targeted the visit or if it falls within the attribution window. For more information, see how Kameleoon counts conversions.

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URL redirection and SEO impact

If you’re worried about the potential impact of redirection experiments on your website’s SEO, or if search engines have de-indexed your webpages since you started your experiments, see this article.