SERP Conversion Rates Explained

The main goal of search engine optimization is to make your website rank 1 on SERP or search engine results page. This is also called organic searches. It is making your website appear on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. It will answer to searches made by users when they are they are querying for the information they needed especially when it is about products or services. On the other hand, what do conversion rates mean? By definition, it means the proportion of visitors of a website corresponding to their actions that can go beyond website viewing and elicit responses requested by marketers or advertisers.

SERP-Conversion-Rates

Forrester recently made a survey showing that 54% of users found websites through organic searches. Also, 79% of internet users clicked on Google organic search results while 80% of users occasionally/rarely /never clicked on paid search results. This is evident because organic search visitors convert around 30% higher than sponsored search results. This is a significant statistic where we can see how much trust users put into organic searches.

Why you need to be on the top ranks?

Getting a higher spot in SERP provides chances for getting higher conversion rates. In Google SERP, 62% of users clicked on the first page while only 28% of them click through the remaining pages. Also, it is important to get the top 3 spots because 42%, 12% and 9% of users click the websites with rank 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The remaining percentages are spread over the other pages.

Does the rank guarantee conversion rates?

The chance is high but sad to say, the conversion rate will depend on many factors. It can include the website contents, the brand, the company image, the products being the sold, reviews and experiences of other users. That is why getting the ranks may be the first and major step. But to support your SERP chance of getting a customer, you must also boost your authority and credibility through other internet platforms such as social media.

What are the indications that your website is getting the conversion rates?

Sales isn’t the sole basis for conversion rates because it can be driven by other marketing campaigns. The first thing to look at is the traffic of your website. There are instances when keywords optimized for the website is ranked in the top 3 spots yet it does not give visitors on your website. Also, check on the website’s bounce rates (the proportion by which the visitors urgently leave your website). If traffic is high and bounce rates are high as well, therefore conversion rates should not be expected.

On the other hand, you can check on social networking sites. If there are positive recommendations towards your website, that is already considered a conversion rate. You are getting your desired responses from your target market. When this kind of scenario happens, check on your sales after your SEO was implemented and it has been backed up by social media.

As you can see you can gain and measure your conversion rate through generating online and offline results. Start it with landing on top 1 and let your social connections spread the word about your website.

Lastly, as a business or an entrepreneur, you must understand that organic searches are tools in promoting your business, but longevity of operation as well as achieving customer loyalty will still depend on the satisfaction you brought to your consumers. The secret of success remains to be fulfilling what you have promised and delivering the customer’s expectations. This is because even with online competition, customer’s still the king.

About The Author:

Al Gomez is the administrator and the SEO expert of Dlinkers, a SEO Firm located at Iloilo City, Philippines. Since 2007, Al has helped many kinds of websites including e-commerce, wedding and law sites to rank organically in major search engines. Follow Al on Twitter @alseoblog.

Tagged With: , , ,

Creating a Great Title to Attract a Broader Audience

Have you ever read a title on the Internet and found yourself clicking through to the actual post or website just because the title grabbed your attention? Of course you have! Even if you find the website or post isn’t of interest when you arrive at the site, you were still drawn to checking it out. And who knows? Maybe you would have been interested. But bloggers need to remember that when they make a title for a blog or even just a post on their blog, they need to do so with audience in mind.

The title is the first thing a reader will see when he comes to your site, and often sees even earlier than that. A good title will draw readers in and intrigue them so much they need to look at your blog. It’s easy to dismiss the importance of a title because the content in the body of a post should be more important than the heading—but it’s crucial to remember that without a great title, no one will take the time to get to the body of a post.

I used to run a psychology blog, back when I was studying Psych in college. I was trying to stay professional, to not sound to Pop-Psychology—I wanted to be taken seriously. Yet I quickly learned that it was only a very niche community that wanted to read about “Modern Methods of Psychoanalytic Techniques—A Survey of the Past Century’s Progress.” That was a fine title for my professors, sure, but it just didn’t fit a Tumblr or Blogspot account. We are forever judging books by their covers, but blogs don’t have that kind of PR. You won’t know what a blog looks like until you’re on the actual site, and before anyone goes on a website they have to click on a link. I found that for that same college paper, I could change the title around to something like “Where Are We Now?: Psychology Since Freud” will get significantly more web traffic.

Always stick with something short and catchy, and never convoluted, to get the attention of more readers. It’s those readers who stumble onto your blog and find that it’s just exactly what they were looking who will become your loyal audience.  Bloggers need to remember this at all times and create blog post titles which draw people in, even those who may not have a deep interest in the blog as a whole. How do you go about creating great titles when blogging, ones which will lead to more hits?

When creating a title, stop and think about your audience and what they are most likely to search for. This can help you come up with a title. Of course you should also take the content of the post into consideration. What came first, the title or the body? Some bloggers find it more helpful to write the post first while others create a title and then write the post to fit the title they came up with. This remains a matter of personal preference. Either way, don’t be afraid to tweak it—a title isn’t permanent until the post is published on your blog.

Make sure your posts contain one or two keywords that resonate with your audience. You want them to connect on a personal level with what you are writing so they will come back again. You’ll find that these keywords can be of great help in creating a title also. Make use of free tools available on the web when choosing your keywords for the post. If you have already written the post, you may want to go back and see if these keywords can be naturally inserted anywhere if they aren’t already included. Type your proposed title into these tools also as this will tell you if others are going to be interested in the post based on the title alone. If not, you can still change it. The key word here is “naturally”—you don’t want your blog to sound robotic or forced, make the process feel as organic as possible.

When choosing your keywords, look for those with low competition, high searches or longtail keywords. If possible, include these words in your title. If you can find a keyword that meets all three requirements, you have a title that is really going to attract attention. If you can’t find one that meets all three, aim for two. Make sure the title remains both relevant and concise though. Once you have the title, go back and read your post again. Make sure the two go together. If not, you may need to redo your post.

When you craft a great title, people will be attracted to your site and if they like what they see there they’ll keep coming back for more. Once you start gaining an audience, more people will keep coming back.  The importance of a great title should never be discounted.

Author Bio

Tara is an avid blogger—she has two Blogspot pages and a Twitter, but her heart truly lies in the Tumblr community. She usually posts about books and blogging, but has recently taken an interest in medical issues, especially relating to mesothelioma treatments. She lives in Park Slope with her basset hound, Watson.

The 5 Blogging Commandments

“Blogging is graffiti with punctuation” — Contagion

Fellow bloggers, if you’re like me, you probably didn’t have childhood dreams of growing up to write blogs. First of all, blogs (or even the Internet, for that matter) didn’t even exist when I was a kid. No sir, I grew up saying I want to be a writer. But here I am, and the transition from writing books to blogs was honestly a rough one for me.

I thought I was going to write best-selling novels and award-winning poetry. I believed deep down in my naive little heart that I was going to be the next great American author, spending my days lounging around my beach house effortlessly composing my next masterpiece.

Then I grew up. And got a clue. So here I am, and the transition from writing books to company blogs was honestly a rough one for me. Here are some blogging commandments I picked up along the way that my fellow creative writers turned bloggers must know.

Top 5 Blogging Commandments

1. You must know way more about computers than other writers

Do your poet friends know anything about HTML coding or Photoshop? I’ll bet you do! Bloggers need a repertoire of computer skills at their disposal. If you’re a blogger, you know that mishaps like connectivity issues and Internet bugs can be showstoppers when you’re trying to push out content. If you’re getting the “blogging is for lame-os” vibe from your poet friends, don’t worry, chances are they’ll come crying to YOU next time their hard drive crashes. Who’s the “lame-o” now?

2.  You must write more than other writers

I remember sitting in my creative writing class in college, thinking a 5-page story assignment was a lot of work. Ha! Good bloggers update their content almost every day, in addition to sending out pitches, and writing guest posts. All this content adds up to a ton of writing every single day. I can’t help but snicker at my friends who are stressing out because they only have three days to finish a poem. Three days is an eternity in the blogging world! Blogging is the best boot camp for fledgling writers. 2,500 words a day? No problem!

3.  You must be more versatile than other writers

Fiction writers and poets have the artistic freedom to explore themes and ideas, which veer off the beaten path. Bloggers have to think more like marketers instead of artists. If you’re a freelancer, you know that your writing has to be like a chameleon, instantly adjusting to different parameters and client specifications. Sometimes we have to be highly descriptive with lots of flowery language and extended metaphors. Other times, we have to be short, sweet, and to the point. I know a lot of writers (including myself) would refuse to revise a problematic piece because of “artistic integrity.” As a blogger, I quickly learned that I needed to hop on down off my high horse, and just write appealing content.

4.  You must have marketable skills

Bloggers have to learn SEO, know the difference between various publishing platforms like Tumblr, WordPress, and Blogger and understand how to incorporate effective social media marketing strategies. Being a successful blogger requires ninja-esque writing skills. But, my blogger friends, you should know that good writing isn’t enough. Great (and profitable) blogs are a masterful blend of content, design, and marketing. When you’re blogging solo, guess who is responsible for making that happen? YOU. Bloggers must juggle 16 different skill sets at the same time. This makes us awesome—and super employable.

5.  You must develop a strong online presence

Bloggers have to be online all day, everyday, and be well established on social media platforms so our readers can connect with us. Have you ever Googled yourself and saw nothing but news on other people with the same name as you? I have! Apparently there is a European actress with the same first and last name as me. Well she doesn’t know it, but the two of us have been in an SEO competition for over a year. As soon as I started blogging and guest posting, some of my stuff finally made it to Google’s page one search results. Take that doppelgänger!

Author

Jessica Ruane blogs and does content marketing for Instant Checkmate , a fast growing Internet startup that specializes in criminal background checks.

 

Tagged With:

How to Write Ad Copy for Split Testing Campaigns

The extremely underwhelming secrets to affiliate marketing are, spend a ton of money, lose a ton a of money, try and figure out why you lost a ton of money, split test like crazy, lose a little less money.

Basically it all comes down to split testing, folks. In order to make (serious) money from affiliate marketing, you have to identify the winning pages that will transform even the most skeptical browser into an optimistic customer. There is no simple, quick, easy, or cheap way to be successful as an affiliate marketer. The “secret” is hard work, and constant optimization through split testing data.

Since split testing is so important, you want to optimize your landing and registration pages the best you can. Obviously how they look, and how fast your load times are will have a huge impact in conversion rates, but the copy can make a big difference too. In many instances, people write their ad copy almost as an afterthought, with all their energy going towards design and development. The copy just kind of gets filled in at the last minute, usually very begrudgingly by a web designer who is kind of over it at that point.

If this sounds familiar folks, you should really show your copy some more love. Despite what people may think, it DOES make a difference in your conversion rates. I’m a copywriter for Instant Checkmate, an online background check company and we do A LOT of split testing. Here are the ad copy tips I’ve learned after writing copy for TONS of our landing and reg pages.

1) All your copy should be written at a 7th grade reading level

So, this was really hard for me to accept. Before I started doing corporate blogging and writing ad copy, I was a (eh ahem) creative writer. But, here you’re trying to appeal to the masses, so anything that sounds creative, smart, or witty might make you feel like a genius, but it will have a horrible conversion rate.

A tool that I always use to make sure my copy is readable is a Readability Calculator.

Look at my editing process. Here is an example of copy that I wrote for a pre-sale page, explaining what a background check is.

Draft 1:

“A background check gathers records from all kinds of public sources to create a complete picture of an individual’s history. A background check is made by comparing the person’s first and last name against information contained in public databases and registries. It includes basic information about someone that was found in public records.”

Draft 2:

“A background check compiles records. These records come from public sources. A background check will show basic information about someone, and give a complete picture of that person’s history. These checks compare a person’s first and last name against legal paperwork. Background checks get information about people that is available in public databases and registries. These documents are called public records.”

Still too long and complicated. So finally we have . . .

Draft 3:

“A background check will show some basic information about someone and give a complete picture of that person’s history.”

The winning copy isn’t the most educated, or sophisticated, or even accurate. It’s simply the shortest, and easiest to understand.

2) Throw everything you learned about grammar out the window

Basically fragments=good, and complete sentences=too long and boring. You want short, sound bite like sentences that will be easy to remember, and effectively communicate one idea. If you don’t already, start tweeting consistently. Composing a tweet is very similar to how you would approach writing copy. It’s good practice!

Also, when writing your reg pages, always write in second person “you” and “your”. Nobody cares about you or your company, so talk to the consumers directly, and keep your copy entirely relevant to what benefits them.

3) Sometimes it doesn’t even have to make sense. It only has to be seductive.

This applies more to PPC marketing, but it’s still an interesting tip nevertheless. For a long time, one of our media buyers had a winning headline that he couldn’t beat, and none of us could figure out why, because it made no sense. Our “winner” was “Arrest records: 2 Secrets” What? It makes no sense, but it sounds somewhat intriguing. People sure do love to click on it.

4) Give some technical details

Even though most people won’t always no know what it means, giving a little taste of technical details creates trust, and establishes you as an authority. On the reg page, show off some techie flair that will get them intrigued enough to let themselves be funneled into your reg page. Before they know it, they’ve gone and signed up. Score!

Technical details enhance your overall description, make you more credible, and

5) In the end, the headline is most important

If you do a lot of content marketing, you already know how important it is to have a winning headline. Creating “high energy” emotions in people is a great way to get them to take action. High energy emotions include anger, anxiety, awe, and of course, humor.

For a criminal background check service, a great headline for us would be “Did You Know There Could Be Sex Offenders in Your Neighborhood?” Avoid headlines that induce “low energy” emotions like sadness. You certainly don’t want to simply make people depressed. Get them fired up and passionate about your product.

About the author

Jessica Ruane is a copywriter for Instant Checkmate. Check them out on Google+ or Twitter to read more of her articles.

Tagged With: ,
Next Page»