Website Visitor Conversion in a B2B Environment
Last month I had the good fortune of becoming ‘certified’ in Landing Page Optimization through MarketingExperiments out of Jacksonville Beach Florida. Several times a year, their team brings a hundred or so marketers through the 2-day workshop. The material is similar to that of their free Wednesday web clinics but in a much more intense, and hands-on workshop environment.
After attending the workshop I felt a renewed sense of purpose as a search engine marketer towards challenging my clients to focus on and improve their conversion rates, I wanted to provide some of the highlights in my next few columns. Conversion defined
Building a Profitable Web 2.0 Web Site
Competition for building a profitable Web site is quite fierce. Yet many of us have dreams of a unique concept that will attract viewers, followed soon thereafter by advertisers. I'm not sure what percentage of aspirants succeed in this quest, but I would venture to guess that it's a very low percentage.
With the evolution of the Web to the Web 2.0, the task becomes even a bit more challenging. For those who aren't familiar with the term Web 2.0, Wikipedia can help out: "Web 2.0 is a living term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and Web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the Web ..." The complete definition also mentions video sharing sites.
The Quality of SEO Matters
The quality of SEO matters now more than ever. With constant revisions to dated algorithms, search engines are savvier than ever in discovering sites that lack the proper quality to rank competitively.
In the not so distant past, obsession with the home page, tons of off-topic links bullied their way past search engine algorithms, now, those days are drawing to a close.
Search engines, like people have become fussy readers with a preference of what they consider as a top caliber website that offers educational or beneficial information based on co-citation and engagement.
No amount of SEO is going to pull the wool over the eyes of advanced artificial intelligence like search engine algorithms that look at link clusters (the time stamp and proximity or link velocity of inbound links), search volume click-through data as well as the quality of the sites referencing your own. To be clear and direct, quality is the cornerstone of a successful online presence.
We have known all along that relevant content strategically organized in a way that fundamentally supports information retrieval such as (theming and siloing), has strong internal links and has persuasive and compelling content and usability was the objective.
Qualified Impressions Translate Into Sales
Its not always the quantity, but the quality of visitor impressions that make the difference. Qualified impressions that translate into leads, sales or click through conversion are the true basis of SEO.
Out of every 100 visitors that visit your site, how many fill out a contact form, pick up the phone, download a special promotional? If you answered 15-25 visitors, then your pages are optimized for lead generation and conversion. Granted not every visitor that finds your site is going to want something from it, the idea is to set the stage for quality vs quantity and the right type of visitor who has a genuine need for your product.
The Importance of (KPIs) Key Performance Indicators for SEO
When it’s time to determine how effective an SEO, advertising or marketing campaign is, the need to establish KPIs (key performance indicators) as benchmarks to measure goal conversion, time lines and tactical objectives.
Performance benchmarks exist for a very specific purpose, to measure conversion and marketing objectives, but KPIs also allow us to extend beyond one-dimensional thinking and truly develop long-term strategic and pivotal advantages.
Landing Pages and Bounce Rates
Landing pages or how to create landing pages that convert is an intriguing and debatable topic. Depending on visitor expectations and the relevance to the topic covered can make your pages candidates for high bounce rates (higher than 50%) vs. a successful conversion rate of 5-15% for pages that hit their mark.
You can never tell ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Landing Pages and Bounce Rates", url: "http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/blog/seo/landing-pages-and-bounce-rates/" });
Does Your SEO Have a Game Plan?
Just like sports, with SEO having a solid game plan is integral for achieving your objective.
Unless occupying space below the fold or landing on the third or fourth page of search engines is your goal, then you will need a game plan to unify all of the facets of your internet marketing campaign to achieve ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Does Your SEO Have a Game Plan?", url: "http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/blog/internet-marketing/seo-game-plan/" });
