Search & Conversion helps website owners and search marketers guide the searcher from search engine results pages – both organic listings and search ads – to relevant landing pages and complete a desired conversion action, whether that means an e-commerce transaction, engage in a phone call, an email newsletter sign-up or filling out a lead gen form. Columnists provide tips for taking searcher intent through to the finish – with landing page testing and tuning tips, techniques for moving searchers through the conversion funnel and how to feed valuable conversion data back into search campaigns.

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Working The Funnel: Finding Value In Non-Converting Events

Feb 1, 2012 at 12:02pm ET by Benny Blum

As performance marketers, it’s our job to find the valuable clicks and filter out the crap. By tracking specific events through cookies and pixels, we attribute revenue to clicks and keywords. Newer tools like conversion funnels allow us to further identify which clicks lead to subsequent clicks which in turn lead to conversions. Generally speaking, we use conversion funnels to show the value of early consumer touch points such as display ads, Facebook ads, or generic paid search. So, for example, even if clicks from Facebook don’t lead to many conversions, we can determine that ther [...]

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When A/B Testing Prices, Proceed With Caution

Jan 25, 2012 at 9:06am ET by Scott Brinker

I had an interesting A/B testing experience over the holidays. This time, it wasn't an A/B test that I was running, but rather an A/B test in which I was an (initially) unsuspecting participant. It reminded me of the negative side effects that certain kinds of tests can have on customers — sometimes your best customers — and the steps that marketers should consider to mitigate those risks. This is a cautionary tale, but I don't want to lambast the the company running the test. They ultimately handled the situation fairly. So I will refer to them anonymously as a business software pro [...]

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Four Things You Can Do With Inconclusive Split Tests

Jan 11, 2012 at 11:46am ET by Brian Massey

[caption id="attachment_106732" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Sometimes, our visitors don't care enough to choose what they want."][/caption] There is a certain sound a teenager makes when confronted with a choice they aren't interested in making. It is a sonic mix of indecision, ambivalence, condescension and that sound your finger makes when you pet a frog. It is less committal than a shrug, less positive than a "Yes," less negative than a "No" and is designed to prevent any decision whatsoever from being reached. It comes out something like, "Meh" Parent: "Would y [...]

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Do Your 2012 Resolutions Include Increasing Conversion Rates?

Dec 28, 2011 at 12:16pm ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

That's a trick question. Of course the answer should always be yes. Hopefully your website conversions in 2011 have already resulted in a banner year. But if you feel like you have room to improve (and there always is), then it might be time to review what advice our conversion experts shared with readers throughout the year, and put these tactics on your agenda in 2012. Here's a recap of our most popular advice from 2011 on improving landing pages, testing and fine-tuning your website calls to action to improve conversion rates: The Big Picture: Conversion Considerations How Mark Zuck [...]

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The Infinite Funnel Of Search To Sale

Dec 21, 2011 at 11:51am ET by Byrne Hobart

"And there is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can't. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him? Now be relentless, that's it, I'm done." – Ben Affleck as Jim Young, Boiler Room You don't have to be a penny stock promoter to appreciate a good rallying speech about sales (you don't have to sell real estate, either). But this one hits close to home. No matter what your site does, every page closes a sale: It convinces someone to keep clicking on [...]

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