Stepping Up Your Keyword Research

Stepping Up Your Keyword Research
Keywords, Conversions and Prioritizing your Efforts

Jon Payne
Ephricon Web Marketing
10.05.2011

Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com

Who am I
• Ephricon Web Marketing
– President & Founder

• In love with organic SEO
– au naturel, por favor

• Conversion-focused
– Show me the money!


Agenda
• Today I want to discuss…
– Evolution of SEO and Measuring its Impact
– “Re-Optimization”
– Conversion Focus to Keyword Research & Prioritization


Evaluating SEO Performance

1. RANKINGS
2001 2004 2006 2009 2011


The Problem with Rankings… (2000-2005)

But what is the business
value of ranking #1 for
that keyword?

Well the higher you
rank, the more visits
you’ll get. I think.


AOL Data Leak (2006)

45.0%
40.0%
35.0%
30.0%
25.0%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Image from SEOmoz - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/targeting-multiple-keywords-vs-singular-keyword-focus


Google Analytics Launches (Late 2005)

• Remember Log Files and WebTrends?
• Increases # of sites tracking traffic
• Marketers actually use it


Let’s Update Our CTR Averages (1/2)
• Optify study (12/2010)
– http://www.optify.net/wp-
content/uploads/2011/04/Changing-Face-
oof-SERPS-Organic-CTR.pdf


Let’s Update Our CTR Averages (2/2)

• From Neil Walker (2010)
– http://www.seomad.com/SEOBlog/google-organic-click-through-rate-ctr.html



1. RANKINGS
2001 2004 2006 2009 2011

2. TRAFFIC


The Problem with Traffic… (2006-2008)

But what is the business
value of all this traffic?

More traffic means
more leads and more
revenue. Usually…



1. RANKINGS 3. CONVERSIONS
2001 2004 2006 2009 2011

2. TRAFFIC


The Goal is CONVERSIONS!

“I’d rather get 100 clicks
and close 35,
than get a 1,000 clicks
and I only close 9.”

- SEO Rapper


A Lesson Learned as a Consultant
• The closer you are to
the money, the safer
your job.

• Nothing gets “buy-in”
like a spike in
conversions


Case Study: B2B IT Services

• Visits from SEO up 3.2x (220%) Sept 08 to Sept 11
• Leads from SEO up 2.2x (123%) Sept 08 to Sept 11
• Why didn’t conversions keep pace?


The Short Tail

• The short tail was driving traffic
• But it wasn’t converting


The Long Tail

• All of the conversions were coming from keywords with very low
search volume.
• How can we make any sense of a bunch of 1’s and 0’s?


1) Spend Time Reviewing Converting KW’s

• Many converting KW’s had a local component
• Or a vendor component


2) Test Some Hypotheses with Simple Filters


3) What We Learned
1. Conversion Rate by Groups
– Overall is 0.83%
– “Vendor” KW’s are 2.91%
– “Local” KW’s are 2.29%
– Without “Vendor” or “Local” its 0.48%
2. These 2 Groups:
– 19% of Visits
– 53% of Conversions


What to do about it?
• Focus more on Vendor pages
– Um… do we have all of your vendors on the site?
– Links from those vendors???
– Focus our blogger outreach, PR, article marketing, etc.
• Focus more on Local KW’s
– More effort on Places page
– Consider other sites (local directories, Yelp, etc.)
– Target each location with a separate page


Nugget: A Tip to Target Local KWs
• Kitchen Remodeling Landing Pages
– Kitchen remodeling in Charlotte, NC BAD
– Kitchen remodeling in Gastonia, NC
– Kitchen remodeling in Concord, NC

• Kitchen Remodeling Testimonials GOOD
– Mary Smith from Charlotte, NC
– The Stevenson Family from Gastonia, NC
– Joe and Becky Jones from Concord, NC


Case Study: Photo Industry
• Results
– Traffic up 19X from SEO
– Conversions up 22X from
SEO
• Why?
– We started with
conversion knowledge
• Organic KW data
• Google AdWords data


Takeaways
• Consider Conversions in Keyword Research
– Make use of existing data
– Test keywords in AdWords if possible
• Long Tail: Group, Filter & Segment
– Helps make sense of 0’s and 1’s
– Find patterns and run with them
– Brainstorm creative strategies to target long-tail


Thanks for your time!

Jon Payne
President
Ephricon Web Marketing
877.473.9230 ext. 1
jon@ephricon.com
www.ephricon.com


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