We’ve covered how Google handles A/B testing and that they are cool with it. But someone asked in a Google Hangout on Google+ how long is too long for an A/B test. John Mueller from Google wouldn’t give a specific time frame but he said don’t let it stick for too long.

This question came up at the 15:04 mark into the video:

I’m serving A/B tests to a big proportion of traffic using Adobe software. If these tests are served to a selection of UA but not Googlebot, is this considered cloaking and could it risk a penalty? What is the recommended duration of time for a A/B test?

John responded:

So he said don’t do it for an “extended period of time” but you can continue to A/B test different variations all the time, like Google does.

It is more about a cloaking issue that you should avoid.

Here is the video embed:

Forum discussion at a href=”https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c2vhkbnl9dnso7jacf2ncv7o098″>Google+.