Movie Website Design

Apture Review: Plugin, Search Bar to Lower a Website’s Bounce Rate

Apture is a website add-on that offers a related posts attribute and a search box with social networking installed, depending upon what you want from the service. Apture “allows publishers and bloggers to link and incorporate multimedia into a…layer above their pages.” Whether you place the Apture java script in the footer of your website or download the plugin determines how Apture will function on your website.

The pop-up technology

The pop-up attribute of Apture “is a Javascript plug-in for publishers that adds contextual information to links – via pop-ups which display when users hover over or click on them…it is a semantic contextual search service that you can use by highlighting any word or phrase.” This is one of the best aspects of the plugin.

AptureHere’s how it works: after a single line of java script is embedded on a site, Apture allows online users to bring up relevant text, video, audio or any other digital content in a pop-up window. As they move their mouse over an Apture-linked term, a box appears with a menu of related material chosen by the publisher, providing users with a cornucopia of in-depth related content. Clicking on any item in the menu opens a window where they can access that content — Wikipedia, Amazon and IMDb reference information; videos from YouTube, Google, Blip.TV, Metacafe, Veoh, ESPN, Comedy Central, Hulu, BigThink, Revver and Imeem; images from Flickr and Wikipedia Commons; music from Imeem; news from WashingtonPost.com; PDFs, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents via Scribd; Google Maps and MyMaps; podcasts, MP3s, you name it — without ever leaving the original page.

Vibrant offered a similar highlighting service in the past, which we spoke about here: Movie Website In-Text Advertising: Vibrant Review.

The Search Bar

Apture also has a search bar that searches your website content when queried that comes integrated with Facebook,  Twitter, and Email buttons. This search bar shows up when you scroll down the web page then disappears when you return to the top of the page.

The Good and The Bad

Advantages:

When the search bar option is activated, it along with a Twitter, a Facebook, and Email button are always present while scrolling  a web page, making it easier for someone to search your website without having to return to the top of the page, tweet, Facebook or email your content without having to search for those buttons. The Digg-Digg WordPress plugin offers a very similar Facebook and Twitter web page scrolling options as well, written about here: Starting a Movie Website: WordPress Plugins.

Apture’s services potentially keep inquisitive site visitors on your website instead of leaving it and searching for the same information in a search engine or other information service.

Apture emails you and lets you know how their service has been used on your website and gives you information on viewer engagement.

Apture lets you place your Amazon Affiliate code into it so that when an Amazon product is the result of a search, you are the benefactor.

Amazon Apture Screenshot

Other Apture advantages such as product placement, embedding multiple videos, etc. can be found in this video.

Disadvantages:

The search results for your website are not shown first, they are second and sometimes third. Wikipedia usually gets first billing. I found this extremely strange since the search was being conducted on my website. Before I send traffic off to other websites, it would be beneficial that the searcher see what I have to offer them via the search first.

The search results for any entered term are amended. Apture search results do not show all the search results from your website in their search results. They show partial results, then results from Google and other search engines.

Apture Sponsored text link ads appear at the bottom of search results boxes, ads that you do not share in the profits of.

Apture Search Bar Result Screenshot

If you use Google Search on your website with ads in the search results, that search engine will become utilized less and the profits you receive from having implemented the Google Search option on your site will decrease. Your search traffic will become split between Google Search and Apture.

If you have branded your Twitter button with custom java script code, that button may become used less in lieu of the Apture Twitter button. The bit.ly link shortening service will be used for the link in the tweet instead of your own custom link e.g. https://promovieblogger.com/?p=.

Improvements Needed

1.) The publisher needs the ability to choose which results show up first, second, third etc in the search bar results e.g. results for their website first or results for Wikipedia first.

2.) The publisher needs the ability to limit or unlimit what shows up in the search results on their site.

3.) Allow the publisher to share in the profits from the ad at the bottom of search results through an affiliate program.

In Conclusion

Apture makes your website seem marginally more professional which is a good thing both for your viewers and potential advertisers. Apture also makes your site seem more Web 3.0 but with no strenuous cortex work by the installer. Apture’s services are great for those that do not want to put hours of thought and time into showing related posts to their current content or providing third party content to their site visitors. Related post services like the WordPress Related Posts WordPress plugin, written about here: Starting a Movie Website: WordPress Plugins and the Linkwithin service, written about here: LinkWithin, Related Posts Plugin Combination. Choose One, not Both. are viable related posts options besides Apture but do not have the depth of Apture. Their benefits come in other forms. For me,  the current cons of Apture just out weigh the pros but that may change in time as feedback is received and their service is refined and fine-tuned. Are you currently using Apture? Would you in the future? What has been your experience with it?

Source: Readwriteweb, Apture

About the author

Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook, ProMovieBlogger, and TrendingAwards.

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