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.

Sign Up To Receive This Column Via Email:

5 Ways Conversion Takes Market Share Like Candy From A Baby

May 30, 2012 at 4:29pm ET by Brian Massey

They are out there, and they are not nice. They seek to take food from the mouths of your children and to put your career at risk. They are your online competitors, and they won't think twice about leaving you crying helplessly as they eat your ice cream cone. In every industry, at least one business is embracing conversion disciplines and dominating their marketplace online. Extra Space is doing it to Storage, Inc. and someone is making the move in your industry. Is it you? These stone cold sharks are refining the online formula that works best with their prospects -- and yours. They [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

New Exact & Phrase Matching Behavior: Early Findings

May 23, 2012 at 10:30am ET by Benjamin Vigneron

In a world where lots of search marketers are still reluctant to use broad match type due to its lack of relevance and control, Google has released two features to have more advertisers show their ads on all those very long tail queries: The broad modifier feature was rolled out in July 2010 in the U.S and was mostly aimed at scaling up those accounts not already using regular broad match type. Search marketers have to then build new broad keywords using "+" signs to effectively unlock the broad modifier feature. Because it requires some time and effort, not all advertisers have actually [...]

Early Stage Landing Pages At The Top Of The Funnel

May 16, 2012 at 9:12am ET by Scott Brinker

For many B2B and considered purchases, buyers go through several stages of evaluating the market and choosing a seller. Different stages naturally benefit from different kinds of landing pages and conversion strategies. Here, we'll take a look at the very top of the funnel, to see how three different companies are handling early-stage interest on the same keyword phrase: "big data." With all the talk about big data these days, you can picture many people searching on this topic. Even though they're probably not yet evaluating vendors at first, they may be open to educational materials pr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

10 Great Adwords Options For Boosting Conversions

May 9, 2012 at 2:53pm ET by Matties Otter

We all know that Adwords is the most used system in the world to drive paid traffic to websites. The Adwords system is an extensive system with a lot of complex options to optimize campaigns and increase conversions. Advanced PPC managers should already know all of these features, but beginners and intermediate level Adwords users can definitely get some new inspiration and ideas from this list to boost up performance. In this article, I will highlight 10 features that I love and frequently use. 1. Adwords Keyword Tool The Keyword Tool is a great starting point when starting a new Adwo [...]

Advanced Landing Page Techniques: Searcher Personas

May 2, 2012 at 10:32am ET by Brian Massey

There are a million rules for search landing page design. You have to optimize the content and decide whether more stuff is better or worse for conversion. But it’s all moot unless your focus is on getting into the head of your customers. Searcher personas are the tool that delivers clarity as you develop ads and landing pages. Personas are different from demographics. Demographics tell you valuable things about ages and income brackets that you may or may not be able to influence on your campaigns. But personas tell you about motivations and behaviors that anyone of any income, ethnicity [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

5 Colorful Sketches On Conversion Optimization

Apr 18, 2012 at 9:01am ET by Scott Brinker

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But are five sketches are worth approximately one column's worth? Doodling with a new drawing app on the iPad — 53's Paper, which is a real beauty — I took a pass at illustrating what I consider to be five important ideas in conversion optimization. The Conversion Funnel As marketers, we obsess with the prospect-to-customer funnel. Getting more people in at the top. Moving more of them through the middle faster. We talk about top-of-funnel (TOFU) tactics and middle-of-funnel (MOFU) tactics. All of which is good to a point. But the r [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Remarketing For Conversion: The Long Way Rocks!

Apr 11, 2012 at 1:19pm ET by Vincent Neve

We all try to send loads of search traffic to our websites. We invest loads of money in high rankings in the organic SERP's and we make sure we have some huge budget we spend, spend, spend on clicks. The result? Maybe 2 or 3 percent of this traffic makes it through your website's funnel and converts. It's why we get asked the following question a lot: How can we make all these investments in Search more effective? While it's not always easy, there are several existing options available. For example, we are focusing on capturing all traffic (including your valuable search traffic) in ve [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Hack Your Web Developer’s Questionnaire For Higher Conversion

Apr 4, 2012 at 12:35pm ET by Brian Massey

I was recently asked by a prospect to help them complete a website design questionnaire, the document utilized by design firms that drives the design of a website. The company doing the redesign of this site specializes in e-commerce sites, so I had expected their questionnaire to focus on conversion, business goals, etc. I was mistaken. Rather than be exasperated by this, I saw it as a teaching moment for my prospect and for you. If you are driving search traffic to an online store, online service, or subscription site, I recommend that you add some hacks to your website developer’ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Getting Organized: Paid Search, User Intent & The Search Funnel

Mar 28, 2012 at 1:01pm ET by Benjamin Vigneron

There is no shortage of literature covering: How to organize a paid search program to reflect your site map and product offerings How to maximize quality score How to categorize queries by user intent (informational, navigational, transactional) Yet, I have not found any literature addressing how to put those three concepts together. In a world where more and more campaign management solutions allow search marketers to allocate revenue across impressions and clicks involved in a conversion, it makes sense to organize a paid search program to fully leverage attribution modeling. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

6 Interview Questions For Conversion Optimization Hires

Mar 15, 2012 at 12:01pm ET by Scott Brinker

So you're looking to hire someone to do conversion optimization on your team? Here are six interview questions that you might consider asking. The answers aren't necessarily black-and-white, but these kinds of questions can help reveal how a candidate thinks about conversion optimization. 1. How would you approach deciding what to optimize first? For most businesses, the potential universe of optimization opportunities — from their high-level home page down through highly targeted campaigns that have yet to be conceived — is extremely large. How would the candidate decide what to p [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

How To Design Your Website For Dollars, Not Your Ego

Mar 7, 2012 at 12:36pm ET by Brian Massey

[caption id="attachment_113573" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Traditional design is different from designing for dollars."][/caption] My partner Joel Harvey is fond of saying, "My favorite part of a design is the money." He's been part of many a web design project. His perspective comes in response to the number of times he's heard things like: "I want the design to pop!" "I want my site’s design to be groundbreaking like nothing else out there!" "Let’s turn it up a notch on the design." "I want the site’s design to reflect the high value of our product." In an [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

The Conversion Chain In Paid Search: Beyond Traditional Key Performance Indicators

Feb 29, 2012 at 2:59pm ET by Benjamin Vigneron

A typical way of thinking of a SEM program is to look at multiple metrics individually, such as the average rank, cost per click, click through rate, conversion rate, cost per action, return on ad spend. Analyzing these metrics separately is a good start but does not allow search marketers to get the full picture. I like thinking of a SEM program as a whole, or more specifically as a chain. Just like a computer is as fast as its weakest component, a SEM program is as strong as its weakest link. This holistic approach is actually pretty straight-forward and originates from the user experienc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Want Quick Money? Improve Your Shopping Cart!

Feb 22, 2012 at 1:09pm ET by Vincent Neve

Conversion testing is the holy grail of ROI on the Internet. Every day, more of our customers start picking up their phones, asking what new test we are planning for their website. Or may that be a result of sales people "incidentally" dropping Conversion Optimization and in doing so, providing the big eye-opener to customers? For whatever reason you get asked, there’s always a test you can simply roll out: Optimize your shopping cart. Optimizing your Shopping Cart is a very nice and clean way of starting your conversion optimization process. It’s where the customer has done everythi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Landing Pages 3.0: How Content & Context Plays A More Meaningful Role

Feb 15, 2012 at 12:22pm ET by Scott Brinker

Landing pages have evolved a lot over the past five years. Back in 2007, landing pages were almost cliché — what I would call Landing Pages 1.0. Take this example from Google — yes, Google — with the prototypical structure: a headline, a short description or some bullets, a small image ("hero shot"), and a form. Most of the fields on the form were required. The "submit" button was still in vogue. And the payoff for filling out the form? A phone call from a sales rep. Okay, so this first generation of landing pages wasn't very good. But such pages were effective enough in le [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

The Neuroscience Of Search & Conversion

Feb 8, 2012 at 10:50am ET by Brian Massey

The one thing all of your search traffic brings with it is a human brain. [caption id="attachment_109951" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Photo courtesy FastCompany"][/caption] It's easy to think that our search visitors aren't coming with any brain at all. How can they possibly decide against what we have to offer? If they weren’t going to take action, why click on the ad? It turns out that they do have brains, and the people at NeuroFocus know. They use neuroscience to see these brains at work with amazing brainwave measuring devices. They've watched brainy humans as th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

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 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

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 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

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 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

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 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

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 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Get Our News, Everywhere!

Follow @sengineland

Got a tip? Tell us here!

Most Likes
Most Tweets
Comments

Our Stories Being Liked on Facebook

Search Engine Land Sponsors

Advertise With Us

Free Daily Search News Recap!

SearchCap is a once-per-day newsletter update - sign up below and get the news delivered to you!

Click to watch SMX conference video

Join us at an upcoming SMX event:

North America

SMX Advanced - June 11-12, 2013
SMX East - Oct. 1-3, 2013
SMX Social Media Marketing - Nov. 20-21, 2013
SMX West - March 11-13, 2014

EMEA

SMX Paris - June 6-7, 2013
SMX Stockholm - Oct. 14-15, 2013
SMX Milan - Nov. 7-8, 2013
SMX Israel - Jan. 2014
SMX Munich - March 25-26, 2014
SMX London - May 2014

APAC

SMX Sydney - April 2014

Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.