Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Previewing Your Variations in Any URL

How to Preview Experiment Variations on Any URL with Convert

THIS ARTICLE WILL HELP YOU:

 How to test multi-page Experiments

With multi-page experiments, you can create a variation that can be applied to a set of pages with a similar HTML structure. This guide also explains how to avoid common previewing issues related to location-based experiments (e.g. /products/*) and how to resolve them.

Before putting live a multi-page experiment you may want to test your variations, not just on the web page that you included when creating the experiment, but on other pages included on it.

You can preview any variation of an experiment on any web page of that experiment. The only requirement is that the URL of that web page be included in the "Location" of the experiment that you are testing. Make sure the page URL is part of the "Location" of the experiment, or the variation will not load properly.

To perform the preview, you would have to add some parameters to the URL of the web page that you want to test the variation on. 

The parameters would be: "?convert_action=convert_vpreview&convert_e=experiment_id&convert_v=variation_id"

Where we need to replace the experiment_id with our experiment id, and variation_id with our actual variation id. You can find out how to find that id in this other article.

For example, We may want to create an experiment in which we change the same menu that is shared by the whole site. This is possible with Convert Experiments.

Let’s say, that we want to preview the variation on the URL http://mydomain.com/webpage.html.

So if our experiment id was XXXXX and our variation id was YYYYY, then the URL we would need to load to preview the experiment, would be:

http://mydomain.com/webpage.html?convert_action=convert_vpreview&convert_e=XXXXX&convert_v=YYYYY

Common Issue: Variations Not Appearing on Intended Pages

In some setups, when previewing experiments that target multiple pages (e.g. /products/*), the preview may incorrectly open on the homepage or another unrelated page. Additionally, the variation query parameters may be lost during navigation, resulting in the variation not being applied as expected.

Why This Happens:

This usually occurs when the "Experience URL"—which defines the entry point for both the Visual Editor and the preview link—is set to a generic page like the homepage. If this entry point does not reflect the actual page(s) being targeted by the experiment (e.g. a specific product page), the preview behavior may be inconsistent.

Solution:

Set the Experience URL to a specific page that falls within the experiment’s targeting rules. For example, if your location targets /products/*, ensure that the URL used in the Visual Editor and the preview reflects an actual product page within that path. This ensures:

  • The preview opens on the intended page

  • Query parameters are preserved

  • The variation is correctly applied and visible

Tips for Better Previewing

  • Always use a URL within the Site Area scope.
  • Ensure the full variation preview URL is copied and used.
  • For mobile previewing, log into your Convert account on your mobile device and paste the preview URL directly.
  • Be aware of screen overlays on mobile. The QA overlay may take up significant space.