Support for Smart content on external websites (like Wordpress) just like smart CTA's w/ embed code

[marketautguy]

Smart CTA's can be added to any external website (for example Wordpress), by injecting the JavaScript embed code HubSpot can create for CTA's.

Similarly, it should be possibly to add smart content to websites hosted outside of HubSpot (in particular Wordpress), by embedding JavaScript code in the same way this already works for smart CTA's.

[Jose_Diaz]

That would be amazing! That is something my team and I have been looking for - creating a more personalized user experience through smart content even if the website is hosted on another CMS.

[rhosman]

Would very much welcome this feature. Since our CMS platforms demand more complex features than we can accomplish within Hubspot. Would be great to create personalized experiences in our External CMS systems.

[umair]

My team is also looking for such a feature, is there any update regarding this? 

[IVRCMO]

Same here. We really need this feature that is often available in other marketing automation suites. Hubspot really needs this in order for it to continue to be a viable tool for us.

[richardchan]

What is the update on Smart Content for external CMS like WordPress?

[IVRCMO]

This is sorely needed or we may need to move to a CRM that has better integration with our primary domain. With the latest AI analysis of how Google ranks search returns based in large part on user experience, subdomain/offsite landing pages are no longer a good idea. So we need to be able to define custom content on our website when we get a visitor who is in a sequence.

We tried the API to at least know if a website visitor is a Hubspot contact, and it worked, but the endpoint closed for us after the "error rate" (not-a-contact) exceeded 5%. Insane.

Hubspot -- we need this.

[umair]

@IVRCMO How did you do that? using the JS API? I plan to implement this as well.

[IVRCMO]

I was using server-side PHP to parse the JSON. The developer discussion is here: https://integrate.hubspot.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-tell-if-i-have-a-hubspot-contact-on-my-external-si...

[bradgerlach]

I am not sure why HubSpot doesn't already allow this. I have clients that will never be on HubSpot due to customized needs. This shouldn't be difficult considering this is a feature that Sharp Spring has on their platform. 

[raphaelarias]

That would be really great. Apparently no response from Hubspot though.

[bradgerlach]

Yeah, I believe with HS now having their stand alone CMS, this feature will never be available. That really **bleep** because Smart Content is feature Pro customers are paying for but can't use. If it is a CMS only feature, then it shouldn't be on the list of Marketing Hub features. 

What about you Shopify clients, they will never be on the CMS, but a pro or enterprise customer will never have access to this feature that could seriously help their marketing. 

[MFrankJohnson]

Not to be overly contradictory, but Smart Content is a Marketing Pro feature because it IS available on HubSpot Landing Pages (LPs) which Shopify users of HubSpot Pro can (and should) certainly use to market their products / services. Honestly, can't imagine anyone paying for HubSpot Marketing Pro and NOT using LPs. Wow ... who does that?

To your point that it's not really reasonable to expect HubSpot to totally implement smart content outside of the HubSpot ecosystem -- completely agree. Can't understand why HubSpot would ever even consider expending dev resources doing this since it flys in the face of the all-in-one methodology upon which HubSpot was built.

Just my opinion as a non-HubSpot employee.

[bradgerlach]

This thread is about using Smart Content the main website, not on LP's. I am not sure where you got that a Pro customer isn't using LP's. 

Smart Content would be SUPER useful on the main website as well.

I keep coming up with ideas for my Shopify client. I have another client on WP that is using smart content on landing pages, but it would be much better to deliver the smart content to the main website as well. Actually, if we had this option, I wouldn't have to use the one landing page. Since the content would be on the main site, it would be pretty much seamless, which would also be a better user experience. 

The OP was well before HS announced their move to a stand-alone CMS. Nonetheless, I raised this questions during Partner Day in May and was directed to the product manager of Smart Content. We had a good conversation about this and was told they are circling around to this feature now to fully develop it out. While HubSpot knew how they liked to use Smart Content internally, they never grasped exactly how their customers would. 

I am not expecting Smart Content to be available on 3rd party sites.  But I am hopeful that it will eventually because it has awesome potential. Otherwise, HubSpot's is hand-cuffing some customers that can't ever be on their CMS. 

[IVRCMO]

@MFrankJohnson
This has become an idea/request because of SEMrush's recent AI-powered analysis of Google search returns, and the revelation that "landing pages" off of your primary www.domain.com have been found to hurt rankings on SERP's. Google interprets content off your primary domain as a poor user experience, in addition to the type of content typical of "landing pages" (no navigation, short content, big form) also being a poor user experience. Usability and navigation are now far more important SEO strategies than keywords, etc. (keywords weren't in the top-10 most important SEO tactics in the study).

So, as we migrated our landing pages from HS to our primary domain, integration of smart content (in some way) has become an important question. For now, we solved it with iFrames, but that's not an ideal solution.

[bradgerlach]

1. This request has nothing to do with SEMRush's recent analysis. The OP is from April and SEMRush's recent analysis is from May or later. 
2. Google is on the record in saying that they treat subdomains the same as subfolder. Matt Cutts said this years ago in a video and SEJ has a post here: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/subdomains-vs-subfolders-seo/239795/. I don't agree with this because I have seen blogs and such moved to a subdomain and never regain the organic traffic and rankings they have before. 
3. Landing pages aren't really for SEO and traffic gen. They are for offers that you are directing visitors to from CTAs.

[IVRCMO]

@bradgerlach

What Matt said years ago, doesn't apply to today's RankBrain algorithm and Google's focus on usability factors.

Since we moved landing pages from a 3rd party CMS (HS) onto our primary domain (with site menu), our search performance and conversions have dramatically improved. Your mileage may vary.

[bradgerlach]

If you would have clicked that link, you would have seen that the post is from Feb 2018. The video in the post is John Mueller from Google in December 2017 saying the same thing that Matt Cutts......all after RankBrain was added to the algo. 

Google STILL claims they treat them the same. 

While my experiences aren't in line with their statement, you cannot say "Google interprets content off your primary domain as a poor user experience" when Google is publicly saying the exact opposite. 

[IVRCMO]

We're simply going to be disagreeing on the Google point. My direct experience and results are clearly different than what Google states.

edited to correct mis-read identitified in the response below

[bradgerlach]

@IVRCMO

I don't think you are reading my replies because I clearly said: "While my experiences aren't in line with their [Google] statement." Therefore, I 100% agree, through my own experiences, that Google ranks subdomains differently. 

However, those are only yours and my (and several others) experiences. I have spoken with others that have fabulous results using subdomains (including HubSpot). Since Google clearly and publically states the opposite of our experience, there is no way you can definitively say "Google interprets content off your primary domain as a poor user experience." You can say it is your experience and disagree with Google's statement (like I do), but you can't say it definitively. If you could, HubSpot's blog posts wouldn't be showing up in the top search results and no-one would ever use a subdomain. 

If I am working with a client that is a HubSpot customer and never had a blog, I would have no problem using HS's CMS on a subdomain (in fact, we are doing this now). However, I would not risk the move of a client's blog that is getting 100's or 1000's of organic sessions a day because of my experiences and not wanting to break anything (we do this most of the time). 

[bradgerlach]

You do realize that I am not disagreeing with your experiences and results, right? 

I am not sure how more clearly I could say it than I did in my last post,  "I 100% agree, through my own experiences, that Google ranks subdomains differently." I even have it in bold so you saw that I have the same experiences and results. 

What I am disagreeing with is your definitive statement that "Google interprets content off your primary domain as a poor user experience." That is an opinion that you formed from your experiences, which is fine. However, it can't be 100% true because some companies have great success with subdomains. If your experiences and results were definitively true, companies like HubSpot wouldn't have a successful blog on a subdomain.