This was going to happen sooner rather than later. Google algorithmic updates have all focused on helping visitors find high quality websites, and the latest update is a step in the same direction. This one is going to have a marked effect on the layout of the web page.  Google has acted on user’s complaints about difficulty in coming across content on a particular website if it is packed to the brim with advertisements and design elements.

Users aren’t too happy about scrolling down a webpage to look at the content that they are interested in seeing. For them, this is a waste of time and Google, in a bid to ensuring that website visitors are promised the best user experience design that allows them to find the actual content easily as soon as they land on the website, has come up with an update. According to this update, if a website doesn’t have sufficient amount of content "above the fold" on the website, its ranking might be affected.

What this means is that if the space "above the fold" is populated by a slew of ads, it does not make for very good user experience and this is what Google wants to make right. The phrase "above the fold" refers to the upper half of the web page, or to put it more specifically, that part of the web page that a user can easily access without scrolling.

Now, placing advertisements "above the fold" is a common occurrence on most websites, this is because a website owners’ prime concern is to make their sites more profitable, and ads placed in prominent positions encourage monetization. But, excessive placement of such ads means the real content of the website is difficult to find. This update will have no impact on those websites that place ads "above the fold" in normal amounts.  This is the kind of amount that does not push the website content "below the fold".

This update will only impact those websites that display so many ads "above the fold" that they push the content down, so much so that visitors will have to scroll the page in order to have a look at it. Google estimated that less than 1% of searches will be impacted by this change. If a website’s rankings have been affected by this change, webmasters can relook their layout and make the necessary changes on the necessary webpage to ensure that the content on the page can be found immediately. Any change made, will be automatically reflected in the results on the search page. But, it’s important to remember that any layout update or its reorder will take some time to reflect on the SERPs and is dependent on various factors including the amount of webpages updated and also the crawlability of the content.

So, a great idea would be to fashion a website that gives a lot of importance to user experience so that this update doesn’t affect your website’s rankings adversely. Good user experience results in better conversions and reduces bounce rates and this is reason enough to focus on it.

A word of advice – Google has made no bones about the fact that its focus of attention is always on ensuring a better experience for website visitors. So, instead of making changes to your website, whenever Google comes up with an update in its algorithm, it is always better to give due importance to enhancing the user experience of your website, as much as possible.

Has your ecommerce website witnessed an explosion in sales this holiday season? Why are we asking this question? Well, according to experts, compared to 2010, online sales, this holiday season, went up by more than 15%. If your website hasn’t been at the receiving end of the online shopper largesse this year, then maybe, just maybe, there is something wrong with it.

There must be something wrong with the design of your ecommerce website, which might be interfering with its potential to generate sales. Let’s take a look at how you can improve the sales of your ecommerce website.

Design Should Allow Shoppers to Find the Product

No, it’s not that shoppers find your products expensive, or don’t like the visual appeal or design of your website or that they don’t really want to buy your products in the first place that is the reason behind your website’s failure. You will be surprised to note that, one of the primary reasons why shoppers don’t purchase a product from a particular ecommerce website is that they are unable to find the product that they want. Does your website conveniently guide users to their desired products? Be honest with yourself.

If it doesn’t, you need to improve it. A simple, clear, and convenient navigation should be able to do the trick.

Design Should Cater to Different Kinds of Shoppers

Believe it or not, there are different types of shoppers that your ecommerce website design must cater to; it must be the one size fits all, kind of design. It must cater to the requirements of the power shopper, the recreational shopper and also the reluctant shopper. Let’s take the case of power shoppers first, the kind of shoppers who know what they want and don’t want to waste any time when they shop. For them, an intuitive search bar is a great idea as it will keep providing suggestions as they type. All, in all, for them, the design must be able to make shopping quick and convenient.

Now for the recreational shopper who has all the time in the world when it comes to shopping and has a tendency towards impulse buying. So, a series of featured products, great products visuals, and unbeatable discounts will go a long way in vowing them. And now for the most difficult kind of shoppers; the ones that are reluctant to buy anything only, because of various concerns. Your website design has a better chance of converting them into customers if their fears regarding privacy, security, customer services and trustworthiness of the products are dispelled.

Conversion through Product Details Page

If and when, your website attracts the attention of shoppers, it needs to hold their interest. This can be done through many different ways. One of these ways is using high quality photography to showcase the products on the product details page. Something else you can do is sweetening the whole prospect of buying the products, for the prospective shopper. Some early bird discounts or reward points will definitely attract prospective buyers. It will also be a good idea to make your site more engaging by offering reviews and ratings; this also makes your ecommerce website achieve credibility and forge a solid reputation.  These are just some of the many ways that can help you showcase your products, in a way that is sure to captivate and convert.

But, It Doesn’t End Here

With the tips given above you have not just attracted prospective customers to your site, but the shopper centric ecommerce website design has ensured that they have added a whole list of products to their shopping carts. But don’t pop the champagne just yet. They still need to take the shopping cart through the checkout process. This is when the deal will be sealed. The payment process of the shopping cycle must be quick and painless and one of the ways of doing this is by offering one page checkouts. A long drawn out checkout process is never enjoyable, so cutting down on those pages makes perfect sense. Another great idea would be to do away with the need for registration, if the shopper wants to buy products on the site.

Tips are easier to read and very difficult to incorporate. When it comes to the website design of your ecommerce site, the tips given above are not going to be a cakewalk, but they aren’t impossible to implement, either. If you are looking for ecommerce success, it makes sense to put in some efforts in website design. The dividends will be fantastic.

 It was inevitable and something that was just waiting to happen. Adobe has announced that it is moving away from Flash software and is embracing HTML 5 for mobile devices. Industry watchers say that this was a move that was predestined; HTML 5 has emerged as the universal standard for displaying rich media on the World Wide Web, and Adobe was going to realize this fact sooner rather than later.

This is great news for those smartphone and tablet users, especially those using iPhone and iPads who couldn’t view Flash coded media on their devices.

Steve Jobs Proven Right

Back in April, 2011, Steve Jobs didn’t have nice things to say about Flash and said that it wasn’t a great choice for viewing rich content on mobile phones because it was closed, proprietary software and did not offer support for touch based mobile devices. He also said that the time of HTML5 had come and its time developers started to use this language instead of Flash as it was an open standard and allowed media content to be directly embedded, without need for middleware. Many experts dismissed this as rant, but it seems Adobe was taking notice.

HTML 5 for Mobile Devices

Adobe has abandoned developing Flash for mobile devices, and has woken up to the realization that it’s HTML 5 that is way ahead and not Flash when it comes to mobile platforms. All major mobile devices support HTML 5, which means that it has emerged as the definitive choice for the creation and deployment of content across multiple mobile platforms.

Adobe’s shift speaks a lot for HTML 5 as a universal standard for putting rich media content on mobile devices conveniently and efficiently and in a manner that ensures the highest standards or reliability. As more and more users are starting to access the internet through mobile devices, it makes perfect sense for development companies to start developing HTML 5 tools. This is why Adobe’s, move towards using HTML5 development tools such as Adobe Air etc. to build HTML 5 websites and applications for mobile devices isn’t surprising.

Flash Isn’t Dead

Adobe will continue to develop Flash for PC. Its aim is to use Flash for offering PC users advanced gaming experiences and premium video solutions, which also includes 3D graphics.  But, when it comes to mobile devices it’s shifted its attention to HTML 5. It realizes, as many other companies have realized that HTML5 is the future of mobile development and its increasingly getting difficult to justify the use of Flash for developing and deploying mobile compatible content. That’s not just working any more.

So, when it comes to mobile development, its goodbye Flash and Hello HTML 5.

Trawl through the World Wide Web and you will find that there are plenty of shopping carts that are not treading the beaten track. They are trying to grab the attention of the visitors and sell products by trying different things. The use of unique themes, creative navigation buttons and striking visuals styles are employed to ensure that a visitor, once in the website only leaves after buying something from it. But dig a little deeper and you will find that many of these ecommerce shopping cart solutions that look different at first glance are actually doing the tried and tested things albeit accomplishing them in a different manner.

What they are actually doing is using innovative yet highly effective best practices to ensure that they become a money making machine. Now, it’s important to understand that it is far easier to read about best practices then it is to put them into practice. Also, the journey from reading about such practices and actually implementing them into ecommerce solutions is filled with ups and downs, modifications, going back to the drawing boards, twists, turns and eventually success.

Let’s take a look at some best practices that have a huge impact on what the sales figures of any ecommerce shopping cart are going to look like.

Nothing Sells like Navigation

I know it’s an oft repeated best practice but there is no getting away from the fact that any listing of such practices absolutely must contain ‘navigation’. If you are selling something on a website, you need your customers to find that product or service and this isn’t possible without navigation. It’s as simple as that and that is why convenient and easy to understand navigation is crucial for experiencing improved sales figures.  You need to provide your visitors with a quick route to any section of your site especially its products’ details and purchase page. If you don’t, say goodbye to any chance of success.

Integration of Product Videos

Why product videos, when you have high resolution product images? Well, it’s because videos make a site more interactive. But this is not the end of it. By showing product videos you are actually telling your prospective customer two important things – 1. You are proud of showcasing your products’ functionalities 2. You want them to make an informed decision while buying the products. This will go a long way in establishing a credible and successful reputation for your business. And as we all know, when it comes to business, reputation is everything.

Implementing Customer Reviews and Ratings

Never fear customer reviews. Always give your customers the option of posting reviews and it’s advisable that you don’t tinker with them -if they are critical of your products and services let them be; and if they are positive about them, all the better for you. Also this is something that is going to make your shopping cart more engaging and help facilitate a better customer interaction. More importantly, it allows you to take cognizance of the reviews and ratings and ensures that this feedback encourages the improvement of your products and services.

Design that Facilitates Decision Making

The ecommerce store is not just a platform where your products and services are displayed and sold. It also acts as a means of ‘selection of the right product’. This will only happen if the design of your ecommerce shopping solution helps your prospective customers take the right decision regarding your products and services. Now let me twist things a bit. As an online store owner you will only be successful if your visitors buy what you want to sell. So, your design must be such that it focuses the attention of your visitors on certain products, this can be done through various ways and means including providing product recommendations, offering a best-selling products list etc.

Before I end, I want to offer a note of caution – Don’t think that these are the only best practices that ensure a profitable ecommerce shopping cart solution. A successful cart is a coming together of features that are a result of numerous best practices.

Some designers believe, and I want to emphasize ‘some’ in this sentence, that Flash can only be used to display animation or videos and to enhance the visual impression of the website. But, Flash is all that and much more. It can be used to offer a striking visual experience to website visitors but at the same time it can also be used to make the user experience more interactive. No doubt, when it comes to the matter of usability and even the accessibility of the website, Flash doesn’t get full marks, but the correct use of Flash will definitely go a long way in make the website improve its interactivity and make the design more engaging for its users.

But this post isn’t about the benefits of Flash; rather it’s about the mistakes some designers tend to make when it comes to using Flash optimally. This usually happens when a designer is unable to ensure that all Flash elements such as animation, sound, video and graphics come together in the right amounts; or it can also happen when designers are not able to follow the various usability guidelines of Flash that are a prerequisite for better user interaction.

Mistake 1- When Designers Try to Imitate

Imitation is definitely the best form of flattery but not in the case of Flash especially when designers try to imitate CSS or (X) HTML. They make a cardinal sin of trying to embed long texts in Flash movies etc. because it increasingly gets difficult to work with such long texts, especially if you want to offer better usability to website visitors. One of the biggest drawbacks of such imitation is that the website’s overall experience goes for a toss as users are not able to open new links in new windows and are also unable to select or copy text. While both problems might not look so serious on one hand, they take a whole lot away from the effectiveness of the website. Imagine if your site has an enviable design but does not score high on the usability factor; what is the use of such website design?

There is no point in imitating conventional web presentation when Flash can be used to showcase heightened visuals including motion graphics, videos and sounds, and all in all, offer users stunning but unusual visual solutions.

Mistake 2 – Unimaginative and Problematic Navigation

A navigation menu plays a crucial role in the user experience of a website. Flash, if used incorrectly, can play the spoilsport when it comes to the usability of the navigation menus. Let’s first take a look at what works when it comes to flash menus.  First, they need to be intuitive, second, they need to be easy to understand and use and thirdly, they should be problem free. Many a times, designers get carried away by their own creativity and seemingly endless knowledge of Flash and built a Flash based navigation menu that is actually not navigable at all. It is completely unintuitive and instead of making things easier for visitors, makes things confusing and even disturbing.

It’s important to understand that you as a designer might want to offer your website visitors an unusual navigational menu, but not all of them will appreciate or understand it. Most website visitors won’t take time out to explore a complex Flash design. They love simplicity and your creativity must not infringe upon their ‘right to simplicity’.

Taking note of these designs will definitely help save your Flash website design from being called ineffective. It makes no sense to make all the effort to create an enviable design but lose the plot when it comes to the basics of applying Flash design.