Redirect experiments

A redirect experiment tests whole pages: visitors who match a path are sent to a different URL per variant. No component code is involved, so it works for a redesign, a new landing page, a different checkout flow, or two pages built in a no-code tool.

'landing': {
  kind: 'redirect',
  status: 'running',
  goal: 'signup',
  match: '/',
  variants: {
    control: { weight: 50, to: '/' },
    'new-landing': { weight: 50, to: '/start' },
  },
}

match is a path, exact or a prefix with a trailing * (/pricing*). to is the destination per variant; the control usually points at the matched page itself. Use same-site paths for Next.js middleware rewrites. The drop-in script and short links can navigate to absolute URLs on another host.

Three ways to serve it#

Where	How	Flash
Next.js	splithubMiddleware rewrites the request at the edge; the address bar keeps the original URL	none
Drop-in script	sh.js assigns and navigates; put <meta name="splithub-experiment" content="landing"> before the script	rendering held for up to 1,500 ms by default
Short links	a SplitHub link with two weighted destinations (no config needed)	a 302, like any short link

A draft redirect is served in development when the config has runDraftsInDev: true, by the middleware and by the script alike. ?sh_force=landing:new-landing previews one destination of a running experiment.

Creating one#

From the CLI: npx splithub create --kind redirect --id landing --variants control,new-landing --match / --to control=/ --to new-landing=/start --goal signup --yes.

From the dashboard: New experiment → Redirect. It asks for the page to test and the variant pages, and offers "create with a link" for the short-link variant. Experiments created there are cloud-only until npx splithub pull writes them into the file.

Goals on the destination pages#

The goal has to fire on the page the visitor lands on. A pageview goal with path: '/thanks' works everywhere. With the script, click goals bind on any page; event goals need splithub.track('…') on the destination. The visitor id is in the first-party cookie, so attribution crosses pages on the same site. Cookies are not shared across unrelated domains, and the SDK does not import visitor ids from ?sh_vid=. Cross-domain conversion attribution needs a custom identity integration; short-link click stats work independently.

Pitfalls#

• Caching: a CDN that caches the HTML of / for everyone cannot serve per-visitor redirects. The middleware route and the script both run per visitor; make sure the matched page is not fully static-cached, or use the script.
• Loops: do not match the destination path of a variant with the same experiment (match: '/start*' while to: '/start').
• Crawlers: assignment does not automatically force the control for bots. Configure crawler handling separately if a stable crawlable page is required.