Jon Payne lobbies for an increased focus on conversion when prioritizing keywords in your SEO campaign. Also provides a background on the history of evaluating SEO efforts. Presented at Search Exchange 2011 in Charlotte, NC.
1. 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
2. Who am I
• Ephricon Web Marketing
– President & Founder
• In love with organic SEO
– au naturel, por favor
• Conversion-focused
– Show me the money!
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
3. Agenda
• Today I want to discuss…
– Evolution of SEO and Measuring its Impact
– “Re-Optimization”
– Conversion Focus to Keyword Research & Prioritization
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
5. 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.
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
11. 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…
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
13. 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
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
14. 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
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
15. 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?
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
16. The Short Tail
• The short tail was driving traffic
• But it wasn’t converting
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
17. 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?
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
18. 1) Spend Time Reviewing Converting KW’s
• Many converting KW’s had a local component
• Or a vendor component
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
19. 2) Test Some Hypotheses with Simple Filters
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
20. 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
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
21. 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
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
22. 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
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
23. 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
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
24. 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
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com
25. Thanks for your time!
Jon Payne
President
Ephricon Web Marketing
877.473.9230 ext. 1
jon@ephricon.com
www.ephricon.com
Ephricon Web Marketing LLC
w: www.ephricon.com p: 877.473.9230 e: info@ephricon.com