I can't preview my experiment

In some circumstances, you won't be able to use the preview feature to view the results of your experiment combinations. For example, if your test page is password protected, part of a checkout process or session-specific, Website Optimizer may not be able to access your test page for previewing.

However, you can still preview your page manually. Launch your browser and navigate to your test page, taking whatever steps are required to get to your actual test page URL (such as entering a password or going through a checkout process).

Once you're viewing the test page, you can modify the URL in the browser's address field to view a specific combination. Append the following string to the test page URL:

#utmxid=Experiment_ID;utmxpreview=Combination_number

You will need to substitute in your own experiment ID and the desired combination number. To find your experiment ID:

1. Open any Website Optimizer UI set up page for your experiment (including the preview page).

2. Look at the page URL.

3. The experiment ID is the alphanumeric string immediately following experiment=. For example, in the URL https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/mv_prepare_install?experiment=AgAAAIuElaplZk1wAusMbP0ZUYo&account=00000001, the experiment ID is AgAAAIuElaplZk1wAusMbP0ZUYo.

Your combination number is a sequence of numbers that relays what element variations to show. For example, if your experiment has three sections, the combination 2-0-1 specifies the second variation of the first section, the original content of the second section, and the first variation of the third section. (Variation order is determined by the order you entered them into the Website Optimizer UI.)

If we use the experiment ID from our example and want to see the original combinations of four elements being tested, we would append the following code:

#utmxid=AgAAAIuElaplZk1wAusMbP0ZUYo;utmxpreview=0-0-0-0

Once you've appended the preview string to your test page URL, you'll need to force a refresh your browser to fetch the requested variation. (The forced refresh is often necessary because the specified combination appears after a # symbol and is not considered part of the cacheable URL.)