We are currently developing a new design for all WebAsyst applications. It will include a new navigational system, improved user-interface of all applications, and additional design options. Here’s a sample of how an application will look within your account (Contact Manager is shown on the picture):

The new navigational system
The new navigational system will function as the toolbar at the bottom of WebAsyst screen. It contains a collection of icons, with each icon representing a specific application. Clicking an icon will open its corresponding application. The new toolbar makes it much easier to navigate between applications and their functions replacing the current WebAsyst main layout, in which each application is represented by several menu items in the main window and you must open up more than one different windows to navigate thru them.

Additional design options
Users will find additional design options within their accounts: options for button and panel shapes (round or square shaped corners) and larger logo panel which will provide more space for icons and text.

Improved CSS-based design
The core of the improved WebAsyst design is a simpler version of CSS files. Their smaller sizes allow developers to easily manage color schemes of user-interface elements and provide users with additional control of the color palettes within their accounts. The overall benefits of this new design are faster page loading, easier upgrades and modifications, additional room for design development.

Don’t forget to check our blog for the WebAsyst release announcement!

Shop-Script PREMIUM stores are integrated with Google Analytics, a free Google tool designed to analyze website traffic, performance, usability by providing reports on site activity:

Whether you are just starting your e-commerce business, or your online store is already showing good results, the benefits of Google Analytics can be significant. It helps you target problem areas, get an insight on the preferences and choices of your customers’ community, improve page design and content, marketing campaign, and bring success to your business. Here are some of the benefits of Google Analytics and how they can work for your online store:

• You can review reports on site traffic for various periods of time. Depending on the nature of your business, you can analyze how your store reacts to seasonal changes, sale and discount time offers, or other introduced changes or even business non-related factors that could have influence your business in the past or the present.
• Google Analytics can pinpoint most common landing pages; i.e. pages in your store that customers are most interested in. That is especially useful for a new store: this lets you see customer’s perspective on resources, services, and products that are offered on your site.
• A feature quite useful for e-commerce that covers many locations is geographical reports. It is often very helpful to see which products are more popular in various areas in South America compared to Europe, US, or Canada. You can review your business in different parts of the world and adjust your offers and sales accordingly.
• You can track “paths” that your customers and store visitors took to get to your store’s home and product pages. Did they come to your site from by clicking an advertisement link placed on another page? Did they find it in search results? How do visitors navigate your site? Do they use products and categories browsing or prefer to search for products? Answers to these and many other questions can help you analyze your marketing and advertisement campaign and get an insight on your site content, design and navigation logic.
• The feature referred by Google Analytics as funnel visualization. It can help you analyze, for example, checkout process in your store. You can see what percentage of customers have completed checkout process, and at what steps others dropped out. Many online merchants try to make checkout process simple and appealing to customers. Funnel visualization can point out problem areas that should be redesigned.

You can get the full list of features and benefits on Google Analytics web site.

How to integrate your Shop-Script store with Google Analytics
First thing you need is Google Analytics account (go to www.google.com/analytics to get one). When registering for an account, indicate that you are opening an account for an e-commerce site – this way Google Analytics will provide you with reports on customers orders. Once you’ve registered and received your account id, switch your Shop-Script store to administrative mode and enable Google Analytics integration: click Configuration -> Configuration -> Google Analytics, enable the feature, enter your account ID, and currency type. This will enable your order summaries, store visitors and other information to be sent to Google Analytics.

Now you can log in to Google Analytics and access reports on your online store. (Please note that Google Analytics updates and processes reports once every 24 hours.)

Shop-Script software design includes features that make online store optimized for search engines. Product names are automatically included in HTML tags of a page’s title, header and image captions and every product and category description page includes META tags field, where keywords and descriptions can be added.

To make the most out of Shop-Script search engine optimization features, here are several tips on entering information when adding a product to your online store:

1. Enter full product’s name, since it is added to the title, h1, and alt tags on a product’s page, which are checked by search engines. It is a good practice to include a keyword in a product’s name, which is most likely to be typed by an Internet user when searching for products. For example, adding “jeans” to “Levi’s 501” product name will raise the likelihood of your product appearing in “Levi’s Jeans” search, as well as “Levi’s”.
2. Include keywords in product descriptions. It is recommended to add phrases that contain the same keyword that was used in the product name. For example, your “Levi’s Jeans 501” product can have the following keywords in its description: “levi’s jeans”, “levi’s original jeans”, “levi’s jeans for men”, “levis 501”, etc. You should also make your keywords bold (levis jeans for men) – this makes it easier for search engines to point out keywords on a web page. On average, 3 – 5 phrases with your keyword should be enough for a small paragraph. Do not try to make you product description overloaded with keywords – this can make a search engine think the page is spam.
3. Add META keywords and descriptions. Again, it is useful to add the same keywords used in product’s name and description – in fact adding different keywords to META tags will make them irrelevant and will not have effect on page indexing. META description should also be relevant to your product description - it appears as summary in search engines results.
4. Add relevant keyword phrase to your store name. This will make your store name meaningful when it appears in search results. In Shop-Script store you can do it in a store’s backend area in Configuration -> General Configuration -> Store Name. For example, you jeans online store can have the following name: “The best jeans – Levi’s Original Jeans online store”, rather than simply “The best jeans”.

There is some general information available on optimizing your pages for search engines. You can find some useful tips on the subject at http://www.seoconsultants.com/seo/tips/.

We are glad to announce 20% discount offer for Shop-Script PREMIUM!

Discount applies for all orders for Shop-Script PREMIUM, including the purchase of additional Shop-Script PREMIUM licenses (which are fixed 50% off the base price; plus additional 20% now!) and Shop-Script PRO->PREMIUM upgrade (only $111.11 during this time limited offer).

This is a short-term time limited offer, which will be removed without an additional notice (there is no fixed expiration date).

Buy it today - there might not be discount tomorrow!

Buy Shop-Script PREMIUM now

Photo Depot is here! We have added this new powerful application to the WebAsyst suite. Photo Depot is your online tool to create, organize, and maintain photo albums. It includes a variety of features that make it quick and easy for users to upload, view, and share their albums with friends and family.

Here are some of the things you can do with Photo Depot:

• View slideshows. You can choose image size for your slideshow and use all standard control buttons; i.e. play/pause, skip backwards/forward, go to the beginning/end of the show, etc.

  

• Upload images in three different ways. You can browse for photos on your local computer, upload ZIP archive (which will be automatically uncompressed), or simply drag and drop you images on your album window:

  

• Share albums with friends and family. Just click “Share Slideshow”, indicate recipients, subject, type optional message, and your recipients will receive an invitation to view your album’s slideshow:

  

There is more: choosing your viewing size, easy copying/deleting/moving between albums, album access rights settings, e-mailing image attachments, and other fun features.

Learn more or sign up for a free account if you do not yet have one, in order to start exploring Photo Depot today! You can also buy and download Photo Depot source codes, which are now 50% off the regular price. This is a limited time offer, don’t lose your chance to enjoy Photo Depot at the discount price!

You can now set your time zone and local time when working with any of WebAsyst applications. The new feature is added to My WebAsyst -> Preferences window. “Your Local Time” field shows the current date and time, the way it is set on the server. To change your local time, click on the drop-down list by the “Time Zone” field and select your time zone from the list, which includes all world time zones based on GMT. You also have an option of enabling daylight saving time. With this option turned on, your local time will automatically be adjusted when daylight saving time is in effect in your time zone.

A time zone can be set for every user. This way, users who share the same account can each have their local time displayed when logged to an account. A user can set her local time zone in My WebAsyst -> Preferences window. Alternatively, adminstrator can set time zone for a user in Add/Edit User window.

For example, to set a time zone for a user who lives in Melbourne, Australia, an administrator opens a user properties window and selects “(GMT + 10.00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney” from the “Time Zone” drop-down list. The user’s local time is automatically updated to display the local time in Melbourne. The same window also shows the local time of an administrator, when the time setting was performed: