You've got the tool. You've pasted the snippet. You're staring at your website trying to figure out what to test first.

This is where most people get stuck. Not because testing's complicated, but because there are too many options. You could test the headline, button colours, the hero image, the form length, the font, the layout. And the advice online doesn't help much: it usually says "test everything!" which is the same as saying nothing.

Here's a better starting point: test the thing your visitors see first that's most likely to change whether they do the thing you want them to do. For most small business websites, that narrows it down fast.

If you are still setting up the workflow, start with how SplitPea A/B testing works and come back here once the snippet is installed.

We've ranked these by a rough combination of how easy they are to set up and how likely they are to produce a noticeable result. Start at the top. Work down when you're ready.

Your main headline

This is hands down the best first test for almost any website. We're not hedging on this one.

Your headline's the first thing people read. It sets the frame for everything else on the page. And most small business headlines are either too vague ("Welcome to Our Website") or too clever ("Where Innovation Meets Excellence"). Neither of those tells a visitor what you do or why they should care.

The test is simple. Write a second version of your headline. Keep your current one as the control. Some angles to try:

  • If your current headline describes what you do, try one that describes the outcome. "We Clean Houses" versus "Come Home to a Clean House."
  • If your headline's generic, try one that's specific. "Professional Plumbing Services" versus "Same-Day Plumbing Repair in Brisbane."
  • If your headline's long, try a shorter one. Or the reverse.

The key is making the two versions meaningfully different. Don't test "Get Started Today" against "Get Started Now." That difference is too small to matter, and you'd need a huge amount of traffic to detect it.

Headlines are quick to test (a few minutes in our visual editor), they don't change the page structure, and they tend to produce clear results because they affect every visitor who lands on the page.

Your call-to-action button

Call-to-action buttons are where intent turns into action.

Small changes here can have a surprising effect - not because button colour is magic, but because the words on the button signal what's about to happen.

"Submit" is the worst CTA on the internet. Nobody wants to submit. It sounds like you're turning yourself in.

Try language that tells the visitor what they get:

  • "Get My Free Quote"
  • "Book a Call"
  • "See Pricing"

Beyond the text, test where the button sits. If your CTA's below the fold (meaning people have to scroll to find it), try adding one higher up. If you've got multiple CTAs competing for attention, try removing all but one. Clarity usually beats choice.

One thing to keep in mind: button colour tests are the most commonly cited A/B test example online, and they're also one of the least useful for small sites. The colour of your button rarely matters as much as what it says and where it is. Test those first.

Your hero image (or whether you need one at all)

A lot of small business websites have a big stock photo at the top of the page. A handshake. A skyline. A suspiciously attractive person in a hard hat. These images take up valuable space and say almost nothing about the business.

Worth testing: your current hero image versus a photo of your actual work, your actual team, or your actual product. Real photos tend to build trust faster than stock photography because they answer the question "is this a real business?"

Also worth testing: having a hero image at all versus removing it and leading with text. Some businesses convert better when the headline and CTA are front and center without a big image pushing them down the page. You won't know until you test it.

Form length

Every field in your form is a small barrier. A 10-field form looks like work. Some visitors see it and decide it's not worth the effort.

To test it, take your current form and strip it down. Aim for just three fields: name, email, and one more (phone number or a brief description of what they need). That's it. You can always ask for more information once they've made contact.

The benefit of shorter forms is that they get more submissions. That's the win. But there's a trade-off - the leads might be lower quality because less effort went into filling them out. That's fine. It's a numbers game.

To measure it, track two things:

  1. The number of submissions - you should see this go up.
  2. The quality of what comes through - are these still people you want to talk to? If you get 40% more leads and only a small drop in quality, you've won.

Social proof and trust signals

People look for evidence that other people have used your service and were happy about it. If you've got reviews, testimonials, or client logos, their placement on the page matters.

Test moving a testimonial higher up on the page, closer to your CTA. Or test adding a simple line like "Trusted by 200+ small businesses in Melbourne" near your headline. These additions are small but they answer the unspoken question every visitor has: "Can I trust this?"

If you don't have testimonials yet, test adding a different kind of trust signal. Options include:

  • A guarantee ("100% satisfaction or your money back")
  • A credential ("Licensed and insured")
  • A simple fact ("Serving the Northern Suburbs since 2019")

Something concrete that a skeptical visitor would find reassuring.

Your navigation

This one's less obvious, but your top navigation can quietly hurt conversions. If a visitor lands on your homepage and sees eight menu items, they have to decide where to go. That decision takes mental energy. Some people leave instead of choosing.

Test simplifying your navigation. If you've got links to pages that rarely get visited, consider removing them from the main menu. If your most important page (pricing, contact, book a call) is buried as the sixth item, try moving it to a prominent position.

You can also test whether adding a CTA button to your navigation bar helps. A persistent "Get a Quote" button that's always visible as people scroll can catch visitors at the moment they're ready to act.

Your pricing presentation

If you show pricing on your site, how you present it affects conversions. This is especially relevant for service businesses that list packages or tiers.

Some things worth testing:

  • Showing prices versus hiding them behind a "contact us" wall (for most small businesses, showing prices wins because it filters traffic and builds trust)
  • Presenting three options versus two
  • Leading with your most popular option versus your cheapest
  • Adding "most popular" or "best value" labels to a specific tier

If you're not sure whether to show prices at all, consider this: visitors who can't find your pricing often assume you're too expensive. Putting a clear price on the page tells them where you stand.

What to skip (for now)

Some tests aren't worth your time when you're starting out, even if they sound interesting:

  • Font changes. Unless your font's genuinely hard to read, swapping typefaces won't move your conversion rate in a way you can measure with small-business traffic.
  • Footer layout. Nobody's conversion depends on the footer. Save your testing energy for above-the-fold content.
  • Tiny wording differences. "Learn More" versus "Read More" isn't going to produce a detectable difference unless you've got tens of thousands of visitors per month. Test things that are meaningfully different.
  • Page-wide redesigns. If you change everything at once and conversions go up, you won't know what caused it. Test one thing at a time. It's slower but you actually learn something.

How to decide what to test first

If you're still stuck, ask yourself two questions.

  1. What's the one thing I want visitors to do on this page? (Call, fill out a form, buy something, book an appointment.)
  2. Then look at the path between landing on the page and doing that thing. Where's the friction? Where might someone hesitate or get confused? That's where your first test should be.

Most of the time, the answer's the headline. Start there.

Run the test for at least a couple of weeks so you get enough data. Read the results. Then pick the next thing on this list and do it again.

Testing isn't a one-time project. It's a habit.

But the first test's the hardest because you're choosing from a blank slate. If you want a step-by-step walkthrough, here's how to set one up in five minutes. Once you've done one, the next one's obvious.