• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 7, 2010

TagMan has developed a method to speed Web page load times and secure content by moving ad tags and tracking pixels from Web pages to servers. The company, which created a method to compress all tags and tracking pixels in one container, plans to announce the launch this week, TagMan cofounder Jon Baron tells MediaPost.

Servers will support the ad targeting and retargeting platform, rather than the advertiser's Web site pages. Some companies have up to 50 ad tags on a Web page. Even in a "perfect broadband world," tags can slow down the experience, causing people to abandon searches.

Tags can take up to a quarter of a second to load. If a company has between 12 and 20 tags on a Web page, it can take that page several seconds to load. About 10% of people who come to the Web site drop off per every second delay. After 10 seconds, most disappear, according to recent latency results that TagMan published. The study suggests that each additional tag call, which transmits instructions from the page to the ad network, can cause 1% of consumers to abandon the site.

The rate that people abandon slow-serving Web pages reinforces the need to ensure that pages load as quickly as possible. Google admits that page load time impacts landing page quality, and impacts quality scores. Google's Matt Cutts, who heads the Web spam team for the search engine, says load times will become one of the more than 200 factors that influence ranking.

Removing tags from the Web page and putting them into a bundle on a server eliminates the lag time when loading pages, but it also can tighten security and privacy to protect information.

ServerTags moves ad tags and pixels off Web site pages to TagMan's server where they perform call functions, but do not impede pages from loading.

There are reasons that banks and financial institutions don't put JavaScript tags on Web pages. "Bank of America or other big investment groups don't put third-party tags on their Web site because they're worried about people stealing sensitive data," Baron says. "Every time you put an ad server tag or ad network tag on a Web page, if it uses JavaScript, hackers can read what's going on in the page and theoretically hack the page."

Baron believes technology companies that support targeting and retargeting ad applications should become self-policing. So Tagman has developed a method that allows consumers to make a choice. The company's Web site offers a tool that lets consumers opt-out of being tracked and targeted, from Google Analytics to other targeting software. Opting out prevents companies from "pixeling" or dropping a cookie in a consumer's browser.

Baron says TagMan has been testing the application with a handful of companies. The company hopes to sign on Subaru of America, which recently revealed that it has tapped TagMan to help manage and track its online marketing and ad campaigns across its 500 dealer network Web sites nationwide. The U.S. division was also one of the first to consider emerging and global positioning technologies to track and replenish inventory through its supply chain.