SEO’s Dirty Little Secret
A cautionary tale of winning top search engine rankings and losing salesBy Brenda Galloway
Jupiter Research predicts online ad spending will reach and exceed 18 billion dollars by 2010. But how much of that traffic actually converts to sales? First page Google ranking is the ultimate quest of Internet marketing, but converting visitors into buyers is the Holy Grail.
Heavy site traffic and top search engine rankings don’t guarantee equally impressive sales. Too often, SEO firms suck businesses into the mindless pursuit of being number one on Google. Claiming bragging rights to those coveted spots are seductive, but being at the top doesn’t pay the bills.
There’s a dirty little secret in the SEO industry right now and knowing what it is and how to avoid it means the difference between having customers who look and ones who buy.
Before you hire an SEO firm or perform any optimization yourself, discover SEO’s dirty little secret first.
A case study on the damage SEO can do to your sales
An attorney hires an SEO firm to generate leads from his web site. The contract term is for 3 months at $1400 per month. Services include pay-per-click ads and Google AdWords. First page search engine results are guaranteed. The attorney expects leads to come pouring in within the first 3 days. No SEO site
work or copywriting is performed or even suggested.
The first month netted ONE client out of 2,356 hits. Billing 5 hours at $200/hour resulted in a loss of $400 to get that one client. Click-through rates from the ads were respectable, but bounce rates were too. Statistics showed visitors spent less than 2 seconds on the landing page and rarely clicked further into the site. This trend continued throughout the 3 months.
$4200 goes down the drain. This case study is not unique in any way. There is no shortage of businesses spending thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on SEO firms and either don’t measure the ROI or are grossly disappointed in the results.
If a firm doesn’t divulge SEO’s dirty little secret, run- don’t walk, the other way
The SEO firm should have reviewed the web site copywriting and design before creating an SEO strategy, much less going full throttle with the campaign. Sure, the firm delivered in traffic, but failed miserably in the sales department. Sales are the bottom line for any business, not traffic. And here in lies the dirty little secret: SEO results only in traffic. But conversion optimization results in sales.
Business cannot live on traffic alone
Conversion optimization (CO) is the process by which your web site copy and site functionality removes barriers restricting visitors from completing your site’s goal- whether it’s purchasing, subscribing, filling out a contact form or downloading material. SEO brings visitors to your site, but CO compels them to act.
The attorney’s web site content was weak and bleak- a mere bullet point list of services. All that traffic hit the Internet highway in search of another attorney who proved he cared about their case, had the skills to win it and the experience to do so. This attorney quite possibly has these qualities and more, but visitors never gave him a chance.
Investing in a conversion optimization strategy first would have changed this case study drastically. After signing a $4200 SEO contract, the attorney opted to forego the extra expense. But in the end, a CO investment would have saved him thousands of dollars and who knows how many clients.
A bonus: conversion optimized web site copy would have improved his organic search results long after the PPC and AdWords campaigns ended.
4 steps to avoid the attorney’s fate
Step 1: Evaluate your web site’s analytics and statistics
Through your site host or a program like Google Analytics, you have access to everything visitor behavior-related. What page they land on, what page they leave from and how long they stay. This information tells exactly where to begin your conversion optimization strategy.
For example, a PPC ad delivers visitors to a landing page for a newsletter subscription. If the ad brings 100 visitors, 5 sign up and 95 click off in less than 2 seconds, you know exactly where to start- beef up the copywriting on the landing page. Bailing on the order form? Functionality is the issue.
Step 2: Think like a visitor, be the visitor
To optimize your site for conversions, you must see its usability from a visitor’s perspective and improve the functionality while streamlining the action process.
• Improve the navigation. The fewer clicks to get to the desired action, the better.
• Streamline the action process. Navigate the process regularly to check for error messages or snags.
• Test and double test the e-commerce system. Use a system that doesn’t bog down or scare away the buyer. Again, the fewer steps the better. And offer help along the way.
Step 3: Earn trust to earn business
Along with web site copy that doesn’t read like infomercial regurgitation, add other elements that promote and build trust.
• Use the latest secure encryption system and make certain your customers know you use it. Ordering pages must have https, not http. Simple icons and verbiage go a long way.
• Keep security certificates current. Many browsers display invalid/expired certificate warnings.
• Emphasize service guarantees and product warranties. Consider offering an extra protection layer that competitors don’t. Advertise this in PPC ads too.
• Review your content. Answer questions on-site that your CSRs typically field. FAQs work well for services. Offer spec sheets for products.
Step 4: Don’t ignore human nature
Impulse buys occur online just as they do in physical stores. Make it easy for customers to add on to a purchase. Amazon offers free shipping on orders over $25.00. Do people add an item to a $19.99 purchase to receive free shipping? You bet they do.
• Highlight other popular products, best sellers or “others who bought this product also purchased…”
• Introduce new products/services alongside established ones. “If you like this, you’ll love this.”
• Enhancements and other complementary products/services like batteries, cables, etc.
Conversion optimization is a journey, not a destination
Your site is consistently ranking in the top 10, sales are up 34% and your site is converting 4 out of every ten visitors into customers. Now that’s something to brag about.
Invest in a conversion optimization plan BEFORE an SEO strategy so that ranking at the top actually means something quantifiable to your business. Like SEO, conversion optimization is a continual process. Buyer behavior changes and web functionality evolves. All significantly impact your bottom line.