Just because you are a blog owner, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) or conversion goals for your site. As a matter of fact, if you envision your blog dominating a specific niche, its a good idea to set up some conversion goals and work to improve them over time.

#1 Monitor your Twitter conversions

If you are a big Twitter user, than you know that building a list of legitimate followers can only help your blog grow and give you an opportunity to interact with your readers. Plus, Google and other search engines actively use the data from Twitter to rank Websites.

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Your Website is comprised of several different sections. Each section has a purpose and is looked for by users who need a specific need met. The most important section of your site, is the active window. It is where user’s spend the most time.

The content in the active Window will determine the success or failure of your Web property

Anatomy of a Website:

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Imagine that your customer is a ravenous beast, or better yet, a moderately hungry bear. He catches a scent and starts down a path hoping to find some dinner.

“Humans track information in a similar fashion to the way animals follow a scent…

They begin at the center, and they follow a trail based on its information scent…if the scent is sufficiently strong, the surfer will continue to go on that trail. But if the trail is weak, they go back to the hub. People repeat this process until they are satisfied”

Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer (pg 95)

The amount of hunger and the food supply directly impact how committed the bear is to following a scent. For example, the Alaskan grizzly bear will kill and eat up to six caribou calves a day before hibernating. When there is an abundance of Caribou, the bear is less motivated to follow a weak scent. But when he encounters a strong scent, he begins to hunt.

People behave very much the same way when searching for products or services. There is such an abundance of online resources that so if they do not detect a strong scent on a Web site they jump off of the trail. This usually manifests as a back button click.

That is why it is important to string together digital marketing ads with your content to ensure that the scent is not loss when the users clicks through to your site.

“…in the tasks where users successfully found their target content, the description words appeared on the home page 72% of the time. When users were unsuccessful, their words only appeared an average of 6% of the time on the home page”.

Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer (pg 99)

If a user has already performed a search they have shown some sort of intent. What are they trying to accomplish? Are you giving them the impression that you can solve their problem on your Website?

Georgia SEO Ad

I was browsing the Web earlier and I saw this ad while searching for SEO. Someone else in Georgia, I could not help but check them out. Here is their ad:

This ad offers three distinct benefits:

1. Local Georgia Company (many prefer to work with local companies)
2. Low prices with only a $495 setup and $295 monthly
3. A free offer to sweeten the deal

The ad points directly to the home page of the site. This is the screen shot of what I saw upon entering the page:

The landing page fails to deliver on the promise of the ad. At first glance, the word “SEO” is not seen. My first reaction was to hit the back button (this was before I was writing this post by the way). Keep in mind, I am not criticizing the layout or graphics of the site. The scent is simply lost between the ad and the home page.

1. There is nothing obvious on the page to indicate that the company is local. The only possible indicator would be the phone numbers that are buried inside of the header and bottom of the content.
2. The ad also mentions a low priced package. No where on the landing page is that package discussed or is the user given an opportunity to act upon purchasing that specific service.
3. There is an invitation for a free Web site analysis and consultation, but that is buried deep in the page below the fold and I did not notice it until I decided to analyze it for this post.

The site owner does a good job of making the headline prominent with white space and it was the first thing that I read when I hit the page. The problem is that I could not find the scent of the ad on the page. It made me wonder if I was in the right place. “Does your Website have the Blahs?” does not support the local, low priced and free selling points in the ad.

If I were a small business owner shopping for a local company to conduct my SEO for less than $500 per month, I would have most certainly clicked on this well written ad, but as soon as the page failed to deliver, I would have clicked the back button and been on my way to the next listing.

Some suggestions for improvement

• Write a headline for the page that incorporates the offer and the service. Such as “Get a free SEO analysis from our top Georgia SEO Experts”
• Have a header image created that features a call to action for the free SEO analysis. I like to use Odesk.com for high quality graphics at a fraction of the cost.
• Make sure the copy matches the ad as well. Writing about results with a strong call to action for the free analysis would be ideal.

Ebrandz SEO Ad

Ebrandz.com has an ad competing for low cost SEO services:

The add creates a scent trail that contains the following:

1. 1st page placement
2. Free analysis
3. Tried and liked by other business owners, including 91 glowing Google reviews

Upon entering the landing page, all four areas are addressed immediately. Click to see full size.

Ebrandz continues the scent path for clickers and provides a clear way for them to act on their service.

1. They use a clear headline featuring the name of the service so visitors know they are in the right place
2. If you only skim the copy you may believe that they have serviced 845 trusted brands because of their use of bold. It is effective for conversions, but I personally think that particular line borders on dishonesty. Still, their use of bold does highlight strong points from the ad.
3. The promised price is featured on the page, no bait and switch here. They feature a testimonial confirming that their buyers are happy.
4. Finally, the free SEO analysis is featured on the page with an arrow pointing to the form

There is still some room for improvement

1. A stronger call to action should be used, instead of simply relying on the user to follow the arrow or notice the form
2. The color red is psychologically associated with stop. They should probably test different color variations and see if red is impeding their conversions at all.
3. If everything contrasts, then it doesn’t contrast at all. The page is easy to read, but they use a strong color (red) to draw the eye to certain elements. However, because it is used repeatedly nothing really stands out.

Testing, Testing, Testing

The key to any conversion rate optimization, is testing. By creating multiple versions of ads and landing pages, you can find out what actually works in the real world, instead of theorizing in the office.

Always test your…

• Calls to action
• Headline
• First paragraph

Even, if you only test those three areas, you should see a nice increase in ROI for your PPC campaigns.

Photo by garlandcannon