The Tests:
A/B testing is when you use two or more variants from the same page in an experiment. There needs to be a slight difference in A and B no matter what and sometimes B can even be completely changed. You can choose who and how many people see what and can capture that data, you can limit and tailor the tests just the way you want. Google Optimize can track the results so you can see how each one did. The picture below is a good example of the variant and how they are used.
MVT is similar but involves changing multiple variants and creating combinations to see which work the best. You can track and analyze these elements and combinations to figure out what works best.
Redirect tests allow you to have an identical URL but completely change the content or theme of the page. If you have two opinions about what would work best this will allow you to run both and see which is the correct way to go.
Create an A/b Test:
You need to start by identifying a problem and then creating a hypothesis on how to address that problem. Then we need to figure out what variants we want to test and in what way to change them so that we can figure out which is better. The link below will take you the rest of the way.
https://support.google.com/optimize/answer/6211930#create-a-hypothesis
The Hypothesis:
I want to test whether or not the links to “EXPLORE MAJORS”, “GRADUATE PROGRAMS”, “REQUEST INFO”, “VISIT CAMPUS”, and “HOW TO APPLY” would get more clicks if they were displayed right at the top of the screen rather than halfway down on the left side. A would be the original display and variant B would be those links prominently displayed at the top of the screen. We could test this for about a month and I think we would see a drastic up shift in clicks.