This week in e-commerce news, Google launched a site providing e-tailers tips for the holiday season while Amazon unveils a newly redesigned Associates Central Web site. Plus, an expert on landing page optimization shares tips for testing landing pages to determine how they're performing.
Google's new Web site is a centralized location for helpful information on how to best utilize Product Search, AdWords, Checkout and Google Analytics. For more information visit the holiday strategy site.
Amazon Associates Gets a Makeover
Meanwhile, Amazon introduced its new Associates Central Web site that integrates with the main site and has improved linking capabilities.
Key features of the new design are as follows according to the company:
- Site Stripe:
With the introduction of the Associates Site Stripe feature on Amazon.com, creating links to your favorite products and pages on the Amazon.com site is easier than ever. Site Stripe lets you build Associates links directly from the Amazon.com Web site so you can update your Web site more frequently, with fewer clicks and less time. Next time you go to Amazon.com you will see the Site Stripe at the top of any Amazon.com page you visit. You can visit our Site Stripe page to learn more.
- Linking to Amazon.com: Explore a variety of link and widget options with a new user-friendly design that helps you discover products to advertise that work best for your Web site and your customers, including product links and banners.
- A new look: The improved Web site design makes it easier for you to navigate through the Associates Central Web site to find the information you need with fewer clicks. Check out the Get Started Tour to get a quick overview of the new site.
In an e-mail to associates Amazon says it will send a series of e-mails over the next month that will provide additional detail on some of the new site features, followed by a survey to collect feedback about the changes.
Landing Page Optimization
In other news, if you're looking for ways to optimize your landing page, Tim Ash recently wrote about his experience as a landing page tester in an article posted at SearchEngineWatch.com
Ash is SiteTuners.com CEO and author of "Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions." He says tools that can help your company determine how a landing page is performing include statistical analysis that allows you to find better landing pages, Web analytics software that accurately tracks user interactions and technology that enables you to easily modify content.
He writes, "The key to landing page optimization is using all available sources of ideas for what to test. Don't trust the opinions of experts alone. It's much better to explore among many design alternatives than to trust the opinions of one individual. After all, all that matters is what your audience responds to, not the credentials or backgrounds of the people who came up with the ideas for the new landing page elements to test." "
For more information and to get information on a Webinar on this topic, read his entire post at Search Engine Watch here.
Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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