How to Improve SEO for flash-based websites
July 23, 2008
After spending a weekend hiring a photographer for our upcoming wedding, we were looking at his website and he asked me “How is flash handled by search engines and is there anything that you can do to improve SEO short of redesigning the website without flash?” Now I know that a lot of companies big and small out there use Flash, Applets and Movies to improve the look, feel and navigation of their site but few realize how much this can impact the SEO on their website. I am going to give away some free information about how you can improve SEO on your website when you use objects like Flash, Movies or Java Applets (Use at your own risk).
Using <NOEMBED> tags
Using <noembed> tags means that you can add written content in a way that search engines can read the page without it being seen as though you are trying to trick the search engine with hidden text.
<embed src=”html.swf” width=”50″ height=”100″ />
<noembed>
<H1>Web Flash Movie</H1>
<p>This is a movie about flash and how to use it.</p>
</noembed>
Because there are a lot of media websites out there optimizing pages, objects and movies for search engines presents a problem and a current possibility for solving this problem is by using the <noembed> tags for multimedia content on your website. Feel free to test out this code in your websites.
Luc
Using Google’s Website Optimizer for the First Time
July 11, 2008
I must say that I am an avid lover of Google’s tools from Google Analytics to Google Trends and even iGoogle. Recently I had a chance to play around with Google’s Website Optimizer tool which allows you to run “experiments” on your website to see which page has a higher conversion rate and then you have more “actionable” data to base your company’s decision making on rather then just guessing blindly in the dark.
In order to use Google Website Optimizer you will need to first sign up for an account by clicking here (http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer). Once you login you your Google Website Optimizer account you will see that you have the option of running an A/B Split test or a Multivariate Testing on your web site or landing page. For those of you who are unsure of what A/B split testing is please read the article.
How do I create an experiment using Google’s Website Optimizer?
- Login to Google Website Optimizer
- Click on the “Create another Experiment” link
- Select the option of creating an A/B Experiment or a Multivariate Experiment (The difference as Google defines it is that A/B Experiments are for few then 1000 views a week and Multivariate Experiments are for web pages that receive greater than 1000 views per week)
- For the purposes of this article we select “A/B Experiment” and click the “create >>” button
- Click the check box on the A/B Experiment Checklist and click continue once you have everything mentioned on that list ready to go (The page you want to test, created alternate versions of the page and identify the conversion page)
- On this next page you will need to name your experiment, Identify the original and variation web page URL s and enter the URL for the conversion web page and click “Continue >>” button at the bottom of the page.
- Lastly you will need to add the JavaScript code to the pages (Original web page, Variation web page and Conversion web page) and click “Preview” to see how your experiment will look like when it runs.
Google’s Website Optimizer is an awesome tool in providing actionable information about the design of a web page and how visitors user it. I hope you enjoyed the article as it has been a little while since i’ve written on the PureWebAnalytics blog.
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/
Multi-page Checkout vs. One Page Checkout – Time is money
May 7, 2008
In the e-commerce world, much like any other world, time is money. A great deal of e-commerce sites are built in such a way where you search for a product, click to “proceed to checkout” and then you enter the checkout process where you sometimes have to create a profile before you are able to buy the product you are interested in and then you have to enter your delivery information, what type of shipping you would like and then you credit card you would like to pay with and then lastly process the transaction.
Sounds tiring and I wonder if customers give up at certain points during the checkout. I can personally say that I have decided not to buy a product online before because they made it too hard to buy the product so what makes your customers so different? It’s just a little “food for thought” when you are viewing your sales funnels and cart abandonment rate and wondering why are customers dropping off at certain points in the online sales process. Check out the One Page checkout…
Luc
