Keyword Density: What is it and how do I measure it?
May 28, 2008
So what is keyword density anyways?
Keyword Density applies to the written content of your page and is the specific density of a certain keyword or phrase on a particular page.
KWD = Number of times a keyword appears in a page/Total number of words on that web page
The sweet spot for developing keyword density is between 5% and 10% for this article (web page) I managed to score the following…
Keyword / phrase: keyword density
KWD = 6/123 = 4.9%
Web Usability Project: cTravel Flight Booking On-page Optimization
May 23, 2008

The Problem:
The problem faced in this project is that the Flight Booking form would redirect to the booking software page and not allow the use to stay on the company’s website
The Solution:
We created a pop-up so that when the “search flights” button is clicked by the user the user is able to use the booking software and continue to use the flight booking tool.
Observing Traffic Spikes in Google Analytics
May 15, 2008
Naturally anyone who runs a web presence and more importantly analyzes the data of their web presence may encounter Traffic Spikes that occur on a given day. I found myself observing some days where articles I publish caused traffic to increase the day that they were published. At first I thought “This seems out of the ordinary!” and then left me to wonder “Why and How did this happen?” and “How can I duplicate this effect again?”
Google Analytics is very good at reporting the data that visitors to your website leave behind and put it into simple and easy to use graphs and charts. So you have the ability to capture the data but the real goal is to understand the data and make actionable decisions using that data. For instance this spike that I saw in my Google Analytics account I singled out the traffic for that particular day by clicking on down arrow beside the date range and then selecting the specific day that this traffic spike occurred on and then I clicked “Apply”. From here, you can select all the reports that are specific to that day and funnel out some of the “noise”. If we go to the “Traffic Sources Overview” you’ll notice that the pattern in the traffic being delivered and from there you can gain insights into why and how your website received the traffic that it did.
Luc
Top 10 Reasons Why Customers Abandon Their Shopping Carts
May 13, 2008
I wrote a brief article about Multi-page checkouts versus Single or “One Page” checkouts the other day and I wanted to follow-up with some reasons that people such as the customers and potential customers on your websites right now abandon their shopping carts. It is probably the biggest problem faced by anyone running an e-commerce based company today. So what factors affect people from spending on your web site? Well…
- Cost of shipping too high and not shown until checkout
- Changed mind and discarded cart contents
- Comparison shopping or browsing
- Total cost of items is too high
- Saving items for later purchase
- Checkout process is too long
- Out of stock products at checkout time
- Checkout requires too much personal information
- Poor site navigation and long download times
- Lack of sufficient product or contact information
Source: SurveyPro
As you can see “Time is Money” as I stated in my original article and overall success in e-commerce weighs heavily on the cost of purchasing and the time in which is takes to do it. Just something to think about if you run an ecommerce business
Luc
Web Usability Project: Marriott Resort Vacations Landing Page Optimization
May 12, 2008

The Problem: The customer wants to be able to show different pages of content on the same page without reloading and make it a seamless experience for the user.
The Solution: Loading different pages of content using a javascript slider effect so that the page never needs to be reloaded and also making it a much smoother customer experience for users.
Live Site: http://www.ctravelhosting.com/marriott/


