The practice of using dynamic page titles and meta descriptions & keywords throughout a website is common practice among very large websites. It simplifies the process of giving each page unique titles and descriptions.
For example, let’s say a website sells clothing. It may have a standard page title that says something like:
“[clothing article] available from Widget Clothing”
It may then have a dynamic meta description along the lines of:
View pricing and info for [clothing article] and see what sizes and colors are available to ship for free from Widget Clothing.
All of that is fine and dandy…if all of it is true.
Now let’s look at a popular website that incorrectly uses dynamic titles and descriptions that mislead potential customers with blatant false advertising.
Netflix.
I was looking for an old cartoon I use to watch as a kid (Talespin) to show my son since he likes airplanes and such. I looked to see if it was available to stream online from the more popular websites including Netflix, Amazon Instant, etc. I came to this landing page on Netflix:
https://signup.netflix.com/Movie/Talespin-Vol.-1/70051959 (not an affiliate link…I don’t affiliate with companies that lie to customers)
The page title is “Netflix – Watch Talespin: Vol. 1 Online”.
The meta description is “Watch Talespin: Vol. 1 Streaming Instantly right to Your PC, Mac or TV with Netflix. Unlimited Movies & TV Shows. Only $7.99 a month. Free Trial.”
Sounds fair enough, right? I signed up and then tried to “Watch Talespin: Vol. 1 Online” and guess what? I couldn’t. It’s DVD only.
I looked at other landing pages for other DVD-only movies and saw the exact same page title and description format:
Page Title = “Netflix – Watch [movie/show] Online”
Meta Description = “Watch [movie/show] Streaming Instantly right to Your PC, Mac or TV with Netflix. Unlimited Movies & TV Shows. Only $7.99 a month. Free Trial.”
Blatant. False. Advertising. Period.
This does nothing but frustrate and alienate potential customers. It also causes some people (cough, me) to blog about it and reveal how a company such as Netflix is ignorantly (I’d hate to think purposefully) using lazy, dynamic code to mislead people. It would be extremely easy for them to pull variables into the titles and descriptions to show whether the show was available for streaming, DVD, or both to be truthful and provide a better user experience that would make the sales funnel much more clear. Heck, if they wanted to be truthful at all they would say whether the title was streaming, DVD, or both on the actual landing page. How hard would that be??? (That’s a rhetorical question…)
The bottom line is this, if you are using or plan to use dynamic titles and descriptions throughout a website, make sure they are factual and provide the best user/customer experience. Do not mislead and lie. It’s bad for the user and bad for business. Netflix is a prime example of what not to do in this case.
Oh and Netflix, you disappointed my son too. It’s hard to explain false page titles and descriptions to a four year old. Though it was a good lesson for me to teach him what not to do. Lie.
Stay Genuine.
I was recently very annoyed by Netflix. I went to their site and browsed their selections. I wanted to watch American Horror Story. When I typed it in the title came up. It gave a description of the show and that was all. It didn’t state only available on DVD or will not be available until such and such a date. So, I sign up thinking I will be able to watch it. Nope, they don’t have it available at all. When I called to question they stated that It was a series they hoped to acquire in the future. WHAT, you advertise it on your site and then when people sign up you don’t actually have it. This has to be considered a scam.
Exactly, Laura. It’s a terrible customer experience and just a part of the reason they are struggling right now. However, it serves as a great “what not to do” case study! haha (They’ve had a bunch of those lately….)
I signed up with Netfix March 15, 2012 after checking to see if they had West Wing , Alias, La Femme Nikita, Smallville and Lois and Clark episodes listed. They were all listed as available.
The experience I had was somewhat different. The titles were not there at all under any category and were completely unavailable. I called Netflix and was told the titles are left up even when unavailable because there are gaps in the contracts at times but they are updated daily. I said I would call back in a month to get an update.
Unfortunately, nothing changed during the next 2 months and Netflix left the titles up even after I called them again and told them this was false advertising.
I think of that as bait. I guess everybody does. I’m really tired of big companies being dishonest with me and getting away with it.
Netflix investors are suing them partially due to this. It’s mentioned in the suit as reason for increasing false worth. But apparently there isn’t any class action suit against them for false advertising by customers yet. I’m not one for suing. I sure wish I had a better answer. They have certainly been taking some bad advice lately.
As of today, June 1, 2012, I no longer see the fake titles I signed up to watch and Netflix has changed their search format for new customers. I imagine that is in response to the recent litigation. They should have listened to my first phone call.
Same happened to me, I searched for a specific movie online, Netflix claimed it had it and I just needed to sign up, okay so I signed up and now Netflix tells me they haven’t actually got the movie! RAGE!! You wouldn’t accept going in to a barbers for coffe, paying for a coffe, then be told you’ve wasted your time as they’re actually a shoe shop, so I don’t se why Netflix should get away with it. Glad I found this thread, I’m not alone then, what can we do? Google is full of scams like this, they all need t be stopped. Rant over Thankyou.
And they are still lying about it….
Watch Mary Poppins Movie – Netflix.com
http://www.netflix.com/
56 reviews for netflix.com
Mary Poppins Full Length Movie. 1 Month Free Trial. Play Instantly!
Netflix on PS3 – Netflix on Xbox – 1 Month Free Trial – Netflix $7.99/mo
DVD only once you go to the site. These people need to be sued BIG time!