Your Search Advisor, LLC » Conversions

Measurable SEM Presentation Slides

Andrew Miller — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:02:01 +0000

I had a great time presenting to the AMA Richmond chapter this morning. Huge thanks to Studio Center for hosting and Mike Rose for organizing.

P.S. If you are looking to hire an experienced senior marketing exec, Mike is your man.

P.P.S. The picture on slide 3 is my son…you had to be there.

Measurable Search Engine Marketing

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Guest Posts Galore

Andrew Miller — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:15:33 +0000

I’ve been a little quiet on this blog lately, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped sharing my innermost thoughts on SEO and web analytics. Okay, maybe not innermost but certainly some detailed, juicy morsels of insight.

I would encourage you to read my latest entries, “Adding Phone Call Tracking to the Conversion Optimization Mix” and “SEO for Mid-Sized Businesses – All Aboard!”

I also want to thank Unbounce.com for the opportunity to share some call tracking knowledge with their incredibly passionate and forward-thinking audience of conversion optimization experts. And of course my friends and partners at Wax Custom Communications for allowing me to evangelize Search Engine Optimization to their diverse set of healthcare, insurance and corporate clients.

Happy reading!

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Call Tracking for Marketers Presentation

Andrew Miller — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 02:46:47 +0000

[Update: Slides posted]

Here are the slides from last night’s meeting. The crowd may have been small, but the vibe was enthusiastic. Most of the content was voiced over and the slides are sparsely worded. Hopefully the images and text convey enough meaning, otherwise you’ll never understand the references to the Dharma Initiative (and cake).

Phone Call Tracking for Marketers

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Wondering how to measure phone calls in addition to standard web metrics and online conversions? Are you in or near Richmond (or can be next Tuesday)?

I am presenting Phone Call Tracking for Marketers at Refresh Richmond‘s monthly meetup. I’ll come up with some interesting ways to cover the following topics:

What is phone call tracking?
Why track calls from your marketing campaigns? (hint: because your clients don’t know they need it yet)
Build or buy?
Merging call data with campaign data
Optimize, refine, repeat

Here are the details:

Date: Tuesday, January 18th
Time: 6:30 – 8:00 pm (after party at Popkin’s Tavern)
Location: INM United office, 201 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA

Hope to see you there!

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You’ve Optimized Your Site. Now What?

Andrew Miller — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:58:26 +0000

Are you running out of ideas to further optimize your site and online presence for search engines? Did a recent redesign or SEO campaign address ALL of the accessibility, relevance and credibility issues your site faced? Do your internal processes include SEO input and are all your customer-facing teams active contributing to your SEO success?

Congrats, my friend. You’ve reached SEO Nirvana. You should write a book!

In reality, SEO is never done. But for the sake of argument let’s assume you’ve maxed out your SEO potential and need something else to justify your salary and follow up on your “big win”. What do you do next to continue to improve your business?

Focus on Mobile

Mobile web usage grew 110% last year according to Quantcast. While it’s still only accounting for a small percentage of overall web use, some sites are seeing 15-20% of their visits from mobile devices (iPhone, Android, iPad, iPod Touch, Blackberries, etc.)

Click to enlarge

Most of these devices have fully-functioning web browsers built in and will display your website as it was intended. However, due to limited screen size your calls to action or conversion elements may be below the fold or not apparent.

Additionally, people that search the web on mobile devices search differently. They are more likely to be looking for information “on the go” and adjust their keyword queries accordingly. They don’t want to wade through a dense website to find what they need.

Mobile search results are ranked differently than desktop searches with a higher priority on geographic proximity and “mobile-friendly” site architecture.

Check your website from a variety of mobile devices. Better yet, watch other people who aren’t familiar with the site try to use it. Can they find the right content and take the desired actions? Create custom segments in Google Analytics to identify site usage and conversion trends and anomalies for mobile browsers.

You may not need a full mobile website, but it’s in your best interest to keep tabs on this rapidly-expanding segment of your market. A mobile landing page with all your vital info may be enough, but you won’t know unless you look.

Convert More Visitors to Customers

This sounds easy, but there’s an entire industry building up around Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). In layman’s terms, CRO aims to squeeze more conversions from the same amount of traffic. Instead of spending more money to drive more traffic to your site, optimize the elements on your site to convert a greater percent of visitors to customers.

It starts with gathering the right data. Web analytics tools like Google Analytics, Piwik, and Omniture can provide conversion funnel analysis. Integrating phone call tracking closes the loop on transactions or conversions that take place over the phone instead of online.

Once the key metrics are identified and being recorded, semi-automated tools like Unbounce.com and Google Website Optimizer can simplify A/B and multivariate testing to identify combinations of landing page elements (images, text, buttons, layout) that result in higher conversion rates.

Build Email Relationships

Using email marketing solely to push marketing messages on customers is still effective, but increasingly marketers are using email campaigns to nurture a relationship with a customer by supplying helpful content rather than a salesy message.

People’s inboxes are crowded and a major source of frustration and stress at work and at home. Lighten the burden by giving people something to look forward to and a reason to open and share. Plus, past customers are easier to “convert” than new prospects. Reward your loyal customers with special offers and content that makes their lives or jobs easier.

Finally, use a full-featured email marketing program to measure response and hone in on the messages that your recipients value. I use and recommend MailChimp although there are dozens out there to choose from.

Solicit Feedback

Customer feedback can help you identify gaps in your marketing plans or product or service offerings. There are many, many ways to gather feedback, but I’ll focus on the two most important here:

1. Use survey tools on your site to get feedback on your performance. Similar to a Suggestion Box in your office, online survey tools like KISSinsights or Kampyle can aggregate the data into useful analytics with simple additions to your site’s code.

2. Encourage your customers to create honest reviews on your business listings on local search engines, social networks and reviews sites. Some good starting points are Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Maps and Yelp. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these sites so make it a point to target the most important ones for your industry and spread your customers’ love around by periodically mixing up the sites you send them to.

Once you have some positive feedback, highlight testimonials in appropriate places on your site and other marketing materials to provide social proof and 3rd party validation to prospective customers.

Test Bold PPC Changes

Go big or go home. Small changes to PPC campaigns can result in small improvements, but big changes can help get you on the path to better ROI faster. Don’t be afraid to test a new bidding strategy, ad text or targeting method to see what works. If you can fail, “fail quickly” and go back to what works briefly before testing something new. When you find something that works better, stick with it and test yet another bold change.

Use AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE) to test large-scale or bold changes to bids, ad text, landing pages or keyword lists without sacrificing your current performance.

Create Compelling Content

Do something unique. Provide value. “Value” is an intentionally vague (and over-used) term, but by value I mean something that is educational, newsworthy, humorous or insightful. People value their time, so keep it short and easily digestible.

Look outside your industry for content ideas that your competitors haven’t used yet. Then, promote your content across your social media and email platforms for even greater reach. Don’t overdo it on social media or email. Remember what your grandmother said, “Everything in moderation.”

Get Fast(er)

Users demand and reward faster websites. Google now factors site load times into their constantly-changing ranking algorithms.

Load times can even affect your site’s ability to convert visitors into buyers. Tests at Amazon.com revealed that every 100 ms increase in load time on their site decreased sales by 1%. Imagine the negative impact of a page that takes 5-10 seconds to load!

Take advantage of caching, Content Delivery Networks (CDN) or private servers to speed up your site and improve user experience. If you don’t know how to do this yourself, ask your nearest friendly web geek to assist. The payoff will be well worth the effort required.

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5 Steps to More Efficient Online Marketing

Andrew Miller — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:37:41 +0000

With all due respect to the great marketing master Ron Popeil, online marketing is not as simple as “set it and forget it”.

In order to stay ahead of the competition, achieve profitability and maximize the return on your marketing investment, you must continually refine and optimize your advertising and website content to turn more visitors into customers.

Here are 5 of the most basic principles to retain and convert visitors to your website more effectively and efficiently without resorting to infomercial-style gimmicks:

1. Measure Visitor Activity

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” ~Peter Drucker

It sounds basic, right? Yet I’m surprised how often I hear of mid-sized companies that have no clue how many visitors their website gets, where they come from, or how many turn into customers.

At the bare minimum, sites should be running one of the free website analytics packages. Some of my favorites are:

With any of these tools, you will get a basic set of metrics for site visits, content usage, and traffic referral sources. Advanced capabilities include conversion tracking (how many visitors took a desired action?) and ad campaign tracking (how well are my ads working?).

Not sure how to set them up? Check with a qualified website analytics consultant to get started (hello!).

2. Remove Distractions

Web users have short attention spans. They don’t give you long to get to the point and you only have a short time to get them to take action on your site. Think about all of the obstacles and distractions on your site that are preventing them from converting or finding the right content…and get rid of it!

Less truly is more, and your visitors will appreciate being able to complete their desired actions quickly and easily.

3. Test Everything!

And I mean EVERYTHING! Designing and running simple A/B tests is usually free (except for development time) but can uncover invaluable insights in a short amount of time.

Okay, so testing everything can be a bit overwhelming. Start with the basics:

Ad text, banner ad images
Landing page headlines and body copy (hint: they should reinforce your ad text!)
Images and buttons
Forms (less is more)
Contact info placement
Calls to action
Special offers and promotions

Ready to jump in with the big fish? Try the Google Website Optimizer to test multiple combinations at once.

4. Give Visitors What They Ask For

Whether you use banner ads or pay per click advertising, don’t just drop visitors on your home page. If you mention a specific offer in your ad, your landing page better reinforce that message! Otherwise you run the risk of losing hard-won (and costly) visitors that can’t find what they were promised.

Looking for more customization? Mine your site search logs or search engine data to find out what people are searching for, then create content around common themes.

5. Be Ruthless

Don’t be afraid to cut any part of your marketing plan that does not provide a demonstrable return. Social media, email marketing, pay per click advertising, skywriting and FourSquare may be fun, but don’t waste your own valuable time or money on these channels if you aren’t sure whether or not they are working.

It’s okay to hit the “pause” button on any marketing initiative while you re-assess your capabilities to track the results. After all, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

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How Much More Traffic Will I Get From SEO?

Andrew Miller — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:58:36 +0000

Note: This is the first in a series of “Free Advice” posts that I will start publishing in response to Twitter requests. Want your SEO or PPC question answered? Ask me on Twitter.

“How much more traffic will I get to my website if I optimize it for keyword X?”

It’s a very common question from prospective clients and was posed by Rick Whittington on Twitter. The answer should help build value for the SEO engagement by demonstrating the potential gains and how to measure them. In this example, we’ll focus on ACME, Inc., a Richmond-based widget reseller with operations throughout Virginia.

Step 1: Determine Your Current Search Traffic Segments

Segmentation is the key to deriving value from your website analytics package. In this case, I am talking about segments of keywords related to a particular theme. For ACME, the keyword segments can be defined as:

“Branded” – Company name, brand names, etc. (including common misspellings)
“Virginia” – Containing “VA” or “Virginia”
“Richmond” – Containing “Richmond” and surrounding towns
“Widgets” – Containing “widget” or “widgets”, i.e. “blue widgets” or “widget for sale”
“Doo Dads” – Other names for widgets and keywords consumers are also likely to use

In your Google Analytics Keywords Report, select only the keywords from each segment. For example, to select only “Virginia” OR “VA” keywords, use the | separator in the Filter Keyword box at the bottom:

Do this for each segment, noting the total traffic volume and number of unique keywords for non-paid search traffic:

Plot all of your keyword segments on a chart and you’ll end up with something like this:

Now we know how many unique keywords we have and much traffic we are getting from each segment. Hold on to this chart for a minute.

Step 2: Gather Search Volume Estimates

Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to calculate rough estimates of search volume for particular keywords. To find it, click on the “Opportunities” tab in AdWords, then “Keyword Tool” in the Tools section on the left.

Type in your keyword segment seed keywords and make a table of the estimate local (U.S.) search volume for Phrase Match to include all combinations of your keywords. DO NOT use Broad Match, it will give you the wrong results for this analysis. You’ll end up with something like this:

Step 3: Look for Patterns and Gaps

Notice the pattern in the search volume data? “widgets” keywords (and many of the most popular variations) are searched more frequently than the same variations of “doo dads”, by anywhere from 25-100%. Example: “virginia widgets” and “virginia doo dads”.

Now, look back at your chart from step 1. ACME’s site is drawing a fair amount of traffic from a wide variety of “widgets”-related keywords but almost no traffic from “doo dads” keywords.

This is certainly not in proportion to the search volume that we KNOW exists for “doo dads” keywords. Hence, a gap in the SEO strategy and an opportunity to optimize the site for “doo dads” keywords (without taking your eye off of the “widgets”) keywords.

Step 4: Take it One Step Further

Want to be a true analysis ninja and really impress the client? Perform the same analysis but instead of looking at JUST organic search visits in Step 1, substitute conversion rates or conversion counts (leads, sales, revenue, or whatever) by keyword segment and demonstrate a tangible benefit to their business.

But This Doesn’t Answer the Question!

Before you say that this analysis doesn’t tell the client exactly how many more visits their site will receive, keep in mind that that is an unknowable number and no legitimate SEO consultant will guarantee particular rankings or traffic volumes. Clients that are only focused on traffic volume are usually focused on the wrong metrics. It’s all about finding the RIGHT traffic, not just the MOST traffic.

It’s not a perfect answer, but it’s an honest, fact-based assessment of how to improve the client’s business by segmenting data and looking for patterns and gaps. That should make any client happy. I know mine are.

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Attention: The Most Finite Resource

Andrew Miller — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:17:17 +0000

Attention span may be the most endangered resource of the information age. Increasingly, web users seem unable to focus on any particular thought or task for more than a few short moments before being interrupted by an incoming message or other stimulus.

The Battle for Attention

Think about it. That is, if you can spare a few brain cells for more than a few seconds. We cannot create more attention. We cannot manufacture time. There is more competition than ever for eyeballs. The battles of the future will be fought over the brain cells that control thought and attention.

Thanks to the spread of technology, there are more ways to communicate than ever. There are also more people to communicate with. With social media sites and omnipresent mobile technology, you never have to lose touch with society.

Implications for Your Business

Whether it cost $300 or $3,000,000, your website is designed to attract and retain visitors until a desired action is completed.

Visitors and web users have many more external distractions that can take them away from your site in a split second. Unless you can capture and retain their attention, your website is likely losing a lot of potential business to other, more intrusive interactions.

Engage and Resonate

How do you reach and retain people that are just a click away from a competitor’s site? First, you have to engage your visitors. Give them a reason to stick around and navigate to your “money pages”. A compelling design, a unique interactive element, and valuable resources can go a long way towards keeping people interested.

Second, your message has to resonate with the visitor. This means it has to stand out in their mind amongst the thousands of other ads they’ve seen that day.

Measure and Refine

Data! Glorious Data!

Check to see if your website analytics package tracks pageviews, time on site, time on page, bounce rate, and other engagement metrics. If so, you’ve already got a lot of information about what people are doing on your site once they get there. Use Google Analytics’ Event Tracking capabilities, Time on Site or PageView goals to assess whether or not visitors are engaging with your content.

Do they stick around long enough to absorb your message? Do they click through past the landing page that brought them in? Pick an engagement metric and think of ways to improve it. For example, try to decrease your landing pages’ bounce rates. Depending on your business model, you may want to try to increase the number of pages viewed by your average visitor or decrease the number of obstacles that prohibit them from accomplishing a task.

Now You Know

What other ways can your website compete in a world with shorter attention spans and consumers with non-stop Oh look, a butterfly…

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