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by blauwbilgorgel 5430 days ago
When confronted with the same problem - the taunting "coupon code" field - our solution was to use URL parameters in combination with the canonical hint.

Only users with a coupon code know this URL. The URL parameter won't show up in a Google search, because the canonical is in place. The coupon code works only for that session and will automatically show up on the checkout page.

Works very well for us.
3 comments
ScottWhigham 5430 days ago
No offense meant but who is "us"? I'd like to look at your site, compare it to my target market, and then decide if I think it's a technique we could use.

The big concern in implementing techniques like this is that the number of (a) abandoned carts rises due to people who have a coupon yet can't figure out how to use it (or didn't read the instructions in your email), and then (b) the number of support requests will rise. If "us" is a company with 1000 customers, I'm not sure that you've tested the scalability of it with promotional emails sent to, say, 50,000 people on a Tuesday morning. Support for shopping cart-related frustrations is one of those "You'd better provide a response ASAP or you will probably lose the sale" types of problems.

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rkalla 5430 days ago
Appreciate the tip as well and for anyone else that had no idea what "with the canonical hint" meant, I think it means using <link rel="canonical" href="..." /> in the <head> to point Googlebot at the preferred public landing page (without the coupon code box).

More info: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-y...

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rachelbaker 5430 days ago
That does sound like the most ideal solution. Thank you for sharing.
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