With the increased use of popups on sites - when you enter, when
you leave, while you are there - Popup killers (or stoppers) are
all the rage.
Companies use Popup killers as a marketing tool for frustrated
webusers - they kill the Popup, the webuser uses their service
be it as an ISP or Toolbar.
New ISP Disks, Toolbars, and Browsers all now come with some
form of Popup killer. While we all want to stop the frustration
of having several popups being delivered while surfing around
the web, to the webmaster a Popup killer can totally kill a
site's normal functionality.
** What do I mean?
If I said rename a Popup killer to a Javascript killer, (which
is how some Popup killers work), then you wil get the gist!
With some SEOs advocating hiding links that they don't want a
search engine to spider or to hide affiliate links within
Javascript functions, having a user visit your site with a Popup
killer enabled could kill more than that annoying Popup.
It could mean that when a user clicks on your apply button or
affiliate link, it won't work! The user can click on it as often
as they like. It won't work!
This could be costing you sales and applications.
** We tested it out!
We tested this on our Loans site (www.polarloans.co.uk). We
delivered 1,000 visits to the site where the application process
was a javascript function. We had 1 application.
We then switched the apply buttons and links to a normal HREF
link and sent another 1000 visits to it. We have a 10 fold
increase in applications.
The only on-page changes were the Apply button links and we
drove the visits via PPC spend.
** What can you do?
It maybe time you looked at the major links on your site to your
product sale pages on affiliate links. If they are running as
Javascript functions it may be wise to try switching them to
normal HREF links and test the results.
You can always change them back if you need to but consider the
potential revenue option.
It certainly has worked for us!
About the author:
Jason Hulott is Director of J2 Squared, leading specialists in
<a href="http://www.j2-squared.com">Internet consultancy </a>
whose specific aim is to drive more revenue to websites. Their
main area of focus are the insurance, finance, and automotive
industries
