A/B Testing and Duplicate Content

Question

Now that Google can crawl/index content from JavaScript, how are page variants treated by Google by serving a slightly different versions when A/B testing?

Is it advisable to add references to the JavaScript files that are generated by Obtimizely or Visual Website Optimizer in Robots.txt?

Neil

Answer 1

I think this article has some helpful information:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-analytics-adds-split-testing-feature-google-website-optimizer-to-be-discontinued/44398/

• Use rel=”canonical” to tell Google which of the test pages is the main page that should be indexed.

• Once the test is complete, use 301 redirects to redirect users and Google to the main/final page. (There could be links or bookmarks
  pointing to one of the variations.)