Effective Search Engine Marketing – Part 2
By Rod Jacka
In our previous article, we explained the importance of selecting the right keywords to use in your marketing campaign. We’re talking about the keywords that will not only bring people to your website, but also maximise your chances of making sales.
Time on site
It’s easy to use a basic statistics program to put a figure on website visits, but that’s not enough to tell you how relevant a keyword is. You also want to know if a keyword is bringing the right kind of visitor, and the best way is by looking at how long each person stays on the site.
If it’s less than 10 seconds, chances are they weren’t a qualified lead. If they stick around for a matter of minutes, they probably were. It’s a fair assumption that if they choose to take the time to look at your site in some detail, it’s an indication that you have something they are genuinely interested in.
Pages viewed
The number of pages a visitor views is also a good indicator of a keyword’s effectiveness. Low-interest visitors typically don’t go beyond the landing page.
Some analytics software enables you to track a visitor from where they arrive to where they leave. It’s called ‘funnelling’ because the idea is to set a target of where you want your visitors to end up – for example, the purchase or download page.
If you bring visitors to your site intending to sell them something, you need to be able to determine exactly where they lose interest. If a large number of people visit but never make a purchase, you have everything to gain by working out why.
Refining your campaign
Looking at Pages Viewed and time spent onsite may reveal that certain keywords are bringing a lot of traffic, but not the right kind. There are many possible reasons including:
- Ad copy does not accurately describe the product
- Keywords not relevant for your specific product
- Website navigation not user-friendly
Click fraud
We’ll cover click fraud in detail later, but it’s worth mentioning here. It occurs when people click on your ads for dubious reasons. It may be a competitor trying to make sure you exceed your daily budget, or a site owner trying to maximise the apparent profitability of ads on their own website.
Click fraud is a major problem worldwide. The good news is that sophisticated website analysis software such as ClickTracks can detect this kind of activity. If we are managing your ad campaign, we can detect click fraud when it happens and prepare all the documentation you need to get a refund from Yahoo or Google.
Get more articles like this. Join our newsletter.
Get your advertising and Google Analytics working correctly from as little as $200 with our Google Analytics tune up.
Web Analytics Association