As soon as a visitor opens the webpage on which you are running a test, the VWO SmartCode loads the changes and makes them visible to the visitors, but at times with the async VWO SmartCode, the time-out occurs. This occurs whenever the upper limit of time allocated to VWO to run a test exceeds.
The time-out is typically a failsafe mechanism that ensures visitors on your website have a good experience even in extreme cases, for example, when VWO servers are down. As VWO async SmartCode runs in parallel to your website, it does not block your website's loading if VWO servers are down. This is an advantage of async code over the sync code.
The async code time-out thresholds are needed to control the maximum amount of time VWO attempts to load the A/B tests that you want to run on the page. If the tests take longer than the specified time, VWO stops loading and allows your website to load without VWO. This way, the experience of the visitors on your website is not impacted due to VWO.
The time-outs could be due to the following reasons:
- The changes in your variation are too heavy, which takes longer to load.
- You have weak internet access; it takes longer to load your webpage
- A visitor is unable to connect with VWO Servers
What Happens When VWO SmartCode Time-out?
When VWO SmartCode times out, the original content is displayed to the website visitors instead of the variations, i.e., the test doesn’t execute. This means visitors new to the test will not become part of the test, and VWO will re-attempt loading on the next page or next refresh. Likewise, for the visitors that are a part of the campaign, the variation they are a part of is not shown, and the original website loads. Also, the conversions and visits are not tracked when time-outs happen.
Does The Time-out Frequency of Preview and Live Website Differ?
In the Preview mode, since we have an overhead of preview-related things, there is a possibility that the time-out frequency in the preview mode and live website differs.
The easiest way to verify this is by making the test live for yourself or your team and try out the experience. (For this, you can use an IP filter or a specific cookie in your browser, or use a particular query parameter in your URL)
How to Resolve the VWO SmartCode Time-out Problem?
To solve the VWO time-out problem, you can increase the time-out threshold in the VWO SmartCode. To do this, configure the Settings timeout and Library timeout variables in the VWO SmartCode. To access the SmartCode customization settings menu:
- Navigate to Configurations > Websites and Apps
- Select your website
- Click the ellipsis icon from the SmartCode widget and select Settings.
By default, the timeout values for the Settings and Library timeout variables are 2000 and 2500 milliseconds, respectively. However, you can change the timeout interval using these variables to counter issues like slow Internet connections.
Another effective way to address this problem is to place the VWO code as high as possible in the <head> section of your campaign page.
Does VWO Track Visitors or Conversions if Time-out Happens?
No, VWO does not track any visitor or conversions if VWO SmartCode Timed-out.