5 Simple Tips For Converting Search Traffic
Over the past few months I've ran a number of workshops for both the National B2B Centre and the Women's Business Development Agency around the subjects of Website Planning and Search Engine Optimisation.
During the sessions we talk a lot about the basics of Search Engine Optimisation (well I do anyway), which I won't go into here. One area we touch on is the usage of Landing Pages, whether this is from a Pay Per Click Campaign or the organic listings in the search engines (left hand side of a Google search results page).
Now I'm not talking about the old idea of Landing Pages where we stuff a page on the website full of the same keyword phrases, or a Splash Landing Page.
Splash Landing Pages are no longer used – if they are then take them away as your stopping users from getting into the website, its adding 1 more click to get to your interesting content. It's typically a graphic or even worse a Flash Movie before the user gets into your homepage. Keyword Stuffed landing pages will typically get you bad rankings inside the search engines, most people who have attended National B2B Centre Events will have heard me talk about this with regards BMW being stripped of PageRank and position in the Google index for carrying out such tactics.
Well back onto topic.....
It still surprises me how so many people miss the basic points in making sure that the client converts when landing on the website. It is true that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) specialists can drive traffic to a website, however the art of a good SEO expert is one who can craft the page on which the visitor lands to ensure they convert. If you wish to read more about this check out Tim Ash of SiteTuners. (www.sitetuners.com)
So often it is the case that little thought is put into the actual page on which the user lands, very often the definition held in the search engine index is weak, not encouraging the end user to click through – hence the need to write good page titles and convincing page descriptions, that encourage, the user to click through. These should be 2 aspects of the page which we as website users can control.
So often I see this mistake in Pay Per Click adverts but if we actually perform the same techniques on both content and Pay Per Click Campaigns we would probably get even more conversions form both organic and paid traffic.
Here are a number of tips to help:
1. Make sure the page / website looks professional, nothing can be worse than convincing the client to click through to your website, then for him to land on a badly designed, poor looking website. It takes a lot to convince the person to buy. Ask your clients their honest opinion on your website, prepare yourself for some feedback – whether good or not. Some recent clients at events have expressed that when they went to an SEO specialist – they recommended they spend money bringing the site up to date – making them look more modern. I suppose he could have just taken the money and carried out SEO for them, with lots of traffic but very little conversions would have been the result.
2. Craft the text in such away that you are trying to get the user to do something. Ensure your 'Calls to Action' is very clear to the user when landing on the page. If it's a Pay Per Click advert he's clicked to purchase your product, make sure he can buy it – or click straight through to get it.
3. Don't out barriers in the way of people to trying / buying your product. In a recent workshop the client was providing free trials of software – so convinced that the user – if he understood – how the software benefited would take up the offer. The only problem was in order to test / demo the software you had to provide you contact details first – a straight put off. Let your product do the sale, not a phone call from a sales men trying to convince you because you've filled a form in that you're doing the right thing.
4. If you Mention something in your Organic Page Title / Description or the Pay Per Click advert make sure it appears on the page on which the client lands. Typically I've seen the following mistakes here
- Offer 'Free Postage' or 'Discounted 25% Off' on PPC Advert – no mention on the landing page
- Offer a specific range of product by a designer brand – only to link into a section of the website which is showing everything you have in that product range – this means the user then has to navigate to locate the offer you've advertised on the PPC Advert.
- Linking back to the homepage of the site – well unless you have a big graphic to click through to the offer or an extremely good search then the client has to dig around to find what your doing. – the client will just hit the back button and go elsewhere.
5. Craft specific landing pages for PPC Campaigns, that relate directly to the advert you've placed and paid for. Make sure you keep them short and simple – minimise clutter and text detail. Place only the information that the client will need to know on the page – include images and a 'buy now' button or a 'request more information' button. If it's an offer make sure its on there and easy to find.
Landing the client on a useful page will probably do wonders for your conversion rates, think about it – don't just rush in and do second best. In the current climate ensuring that clients can effectively purchase on-line is vitally important.
The last piece of advice is to ensure you have analytics active on all pages of the site and if your selling on-line, make sure your e-commerce codes are working correctly and the Adwords and analytics accounts are tied together as you will need to ensure your optimising the site and pages correctly to get maximum return.
The last piece of advice, test everything. Look at using additional tools like website optimiser to change Images and colours to see the effect on conversions from the site.