Why is my test not showing?

Start here: five quick checks

1. Is the test running? Go to Optimize → Experiments. Only tests with the status Running are on your site.
2. Is it live? Open the test. If the Results card shows "dry run: visitors are split but the page is unchanged", nobody sees the changes yet. Each test has its own setting, so a dry run stays a dry run even when another test is live.
3. Is tracking on? Under your site name in the menu you see Collecting data or Paused: not collecting data. When paused, the snippet does nothing, so tests don't run either. Turn it on under Install → 3. Turn tracking on.
4. Are you on the right page? The header of the test says where it runs, for example "Runs on product pages (/products/…)" or "Runs on the whole site".
5. Did you accept cookies? Tests only run for visitors who accepted cookies in your cookie banner.

If all five are fine, you may simply be in the original group. Read on.

You see the original, not the variant

• You are not in the group that takes part. The Results card shows Who takes part, for example "Mobile only · new visitors · 50% of visitors". Visitors outside that group always see the original: on another device, as a returning visitor in a New visitors only test, from another traffic source, or outside the share of visitors. The share is fixed per browser, so reloading doesn't help; the preview link always shows the variant.
• You are in the original group. In an A/B test, half of your visitors see the original, and each browser keeps its version (Varly remembers it in a cookie for a year). To see the variant on purpose, use the preview link. To get a new random draw, open a private window and accept the cookies there.
• The test is in a dry run. Click Go live: show the new version to visitors on the test page. The count then starts again, so the results only include live visitors. See Launch, pause, resume and end a test.
• You haven't accepted cookies, or you declined them. Without consent, Varly doesn't run tests for that visitor, and they see your normal site. Check which consent tool Varly follows under Settings → Tracking & privacy → Consent banner. See Cookie consent.
• You excluded this browser. If you once opened the link from Exclude your own visits on this device, Varly does nothing in that browser, so tests don't run there either. Open your site with ?varly_exclude=off to undo it (Settings shows the exact link).

The test isn't running

• Ready to review: the test was built but never launched. Go through the launch checklist.
• Paused: someone clicked Pause. Click Resume test in the Results card.
• Completed: the test has ended and can't be restarted. If you need it again, create a new test from the idea.
• Building or Build failed: the variant isn't ready. See Create an A/B test.
• Just launched, paused or ended? It can take a minute or two before your site picks up the change. Wait, then reload the page.

Wrong page or targeting

• You're on a page outside the test. A test runs only on the page of its idea, or on all pages of that kind (for example all product pages count as one). To check how Varly counts an address, go to Settings → Group similar pages and type it under Test a URL.
• The idea had no page. Then the test runs on the whole site. It was built and previewed on your homepage.
• Groups changed after launch. If you changed your own groups under Group similar pages, a page can be counted in a different group and drop out of the test.
• The page is excluded. Tests never run on pages under Never track these pages, such as checkout.
• You're on another domain. Varly only works on the domains listed under Settings → Tracking & privacy → Domains and their subdomains.

The preview works, but the live test doesn't

The preview is made to work in situations where the live test does not:

• The preview works without cookie consent, and even in a browser you excluded. The live test needs both consent and a browser that isn't excluded.
• While a preview is active in a browser tab, live tests don't run in that tab. Click Exit in the preview bar, or add ?varly_preview=off to the address, and reload.

The variant shows only partly, or only on some pages

• The pages in the group differ. The AI built the changes on one page of the group. If another page doesn't have the same element, or has it more than once, Varly skips that change there.
• The element appears later. Varly waits up to 2.5 seconds for parts of the page that load later. Content that another script adds after that (such as a review widget, a slider or a pop-up that opens on a click) isn't changed, and the visitor sees the original there.
• A change failed during the build. Check Check before launch on the experiment page. Rebuild the test with clearer instructions, or choose a narrower page.

The page flickers

To keep your site fast, the snippet loads in the background. In a live test it hides only the parts of the page it is about to change, never the whole page, and shows them again as soon as the change is made (after 2.5 seconds at most). So normally visitors don't see the original flash by. If the snippet itself loads late, visitors can still see the original for a moment before the variant appears.

• Place the snippet as high as possible in the <head> of every page, directly in your theme. See Install the snippet.
• If a speed or caching plugin delays scripts until the visitor scrolls or clicks, the snippet starts late as well. Exclude the Varly script from that delay in the plugin's settings.

Still not working?

Check that the snippet works at all: see Check that Varly is working. If the Install page shows no data coming in, tests can't run either.

For developers

Open the browser console on the test page:

• Varly.state() returns { site, mode, started }. mode is observe when no tests run on the site; with dry_run or live, tests can run. Whether a test actually changes the page is set per test, so check the test's own page in Varly to see if it is a dry run. A mode of null means the snippet stopped before it began: during a preview, on a page under Never track these pages, or in an excluded browser. A mode with started: false usually means there is no cookie consent yet.
• If window.Varly doesn't exist, the snippet didn't load, or tracking is off (the script then only contains a comment).
• A data-mode="observe" attribute on the script tag forces observe mode, whatever the settings say. Remove it to let tests run.
• When a visitor is assigned, the snippet sends a POST to /api/exposure for each test on the page.
• The message [varly] paused for 24 hours after repeated errors means the snippet switched itself off in this browser after its own errors. It starts again by itself after 24 hours; to try sooner, clear the site data for your domain (local storage) and reload.