| LED Digest 2673: Conversion is the Crux |
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The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom http://www.AudetteMedia.com : the LED's Publisher The Internet Marketing Boutique: SEO, SEM, Social Media http://www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. July 1, 2008 Issue no. 2673 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Internet Marketing ==-- ~ Pete Storey "...petrol's been well over $7-8 a (US) gallon for several years now..." ~ Tom Anson "If David Spahr needs more imagination, I need people like David to suggest..." --== Measuring SEO Results ==-- ~ Barrett J. Rossie "I'd be interested in knowing if and how competitive analysis is used in SEO projects." ~ Reg Charie "Conversion is the crux of the matter." ~ Michael Motherwell "...it hardly seems fair for me to comment without full details." ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Pete Storey Subject: Internet marketing > What I'm wondering is how other small > businesses are dealing with this fuel > crisis. I just spent $90 at the pump and my > tank wasn't even 3/4 empty. Pah, you guys have it easy! I have to spend £85 (about $170) every time I fill up the car. But then petrol's been well over $7-8 a (US) gallon for several years now so I suppose I'm used to it. Pete Storey -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Tom Anson Subject: Internet marketing Hi everyone, I think I'd tend to agree with some of the posts of late: that we need to be talking about things other than SEO. One of the things I think I've noticed is that we talk about SEO -- what it is and what it is not -- and about search -- is it SERPs-driven or site usability -- but spend precious little time talking about how to accomplish the task. As a little guy, in over my head, I'd like to hear about things that people are doing, what works and what doesn't -- and why. And how can I apply any of this to my situation. If David Spahr needs more imagination, I need people like David to suggest what I need to imagine about. (So, David, just because I don't respond to your post, it doesn't mean I don't value your contribution. I'm just waiting for someone to fill in enough blanks to kick my imagination into gear.) Now, over the years, I've been so focused on getting my websites actually built (just basic stuff -- I'll take care of optimization later) that I haven't had the time to consider much what other things I should be doing with SEM -- or anything else related to ecommerce. (That's not as stupid as it sounds, really.) But, I'm getting to a place (finally) where the discussion of these other topics would benefit me. So, I'd be glad to give talking about SEO -- as opposed to talking about how to do SEO -- a rest and explore other matters. On a totally different tack, I have a problem that I'd appreciate some help with. As I'm building a new website (www.doterra-aromatics.com), I've encountered something that perplexes me. I hope you can help. Looking at www.doterra-aromatics.com/products/singles/frankincense.html, for example, I have a table floating to the right that contains the image of my franincense oil, the price, quantity box and "Add to Cart" button. You will also see a little "tick" above and to the right of the image. That is supposed to be a horizontal line below the image and above the price. The code is (shortened up, a bit, for you): ----------------------- <table style="" > <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center"> <img xsrc="" alt="" height="" width="" border=""> <hr /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" nowrap="nowrap"> <strong>Price: </strong> </td> <td class="label2" align="left" nowrap="nowrap"> $92.95 </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right"> <strong>Qty: </strong> <input type='text' name='quantity' size='7' maxlength='7' value=''> </td> <td align="left"> <input type='submit' value='Add to Cart'> </td> </tr> </table> ----------------------- It's essentially the same code I have at http://www.therapeutic-grade.com/products/singles/frankincense.html, where it works. I can't figure out what the problem is here. Any ideas what I'm missing? Thanks. Tom Anson, IPC | doTerra Aromatics.com Certified pure therapeutic-grade essential oils -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Barrett Rossie Subject: SEO results I want to add to Nathan Holley's post (http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2085/190/): > I've always been a fan of the creative > brief. What we included in this document > was the following... Here's are a couple of the "some more things" that I would imagine are pretty useful: - A detailed evaluation of the current situation would help all parties begin on the same page and provide a baseline for measuring progress. - An evaluation of competition Actually, I'd be interested in knowing if and how competitive analysis is used in SEO projects. Barrett J. Rossie Communication Strategy http://barrettrossie.com/ -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Reg Charie Subject: SEO results > Before the expert was involved, we could > put in our chosen key phrases and come up > near the top in Google. The problem is, > that the key words and phrases that relate > to our site content are not heavily > searched terms. So, no matter how high we > place on Google, the traffic is not coming > in droves to our site. Unique visitors are > in the thousands per month, but not the 6 > digit values wished for. - Sandra Combs, LED 2672 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2087/190/ Sandra, let me start with saying that without a link to the site it very hard to make relevant suggestions. If you were getting top results with your chosen keywords you were doing things right. > Their keyword research came up with phrases > that have only a vague relationship with > our content and would disappoint users if > they came looking for that information. My > thought was that getting authoritative > links to our site might have been the best > place to start, but the expert said no. Traffic, by itself is not the end all be all. Qualified traffic is the objective. If not enough people are searching for your keywords and the keywords you are using are well targeted, and cover the full spectrum of what is offered on the site then you have two choices. 1) Do as the "expert" suggests and include non-relevant terms. Of course, this will only increase traffic and bandwidth without doing much for the non-profit. 2) Add more and different content to cover a different range of keywords. Not all traffic comes from search engines. Getting more authoritative links will help build traffic stats. > First phase: the SEO expert had us change > the colors, the banner, the sequence of > items in the menu. They had us remove most > of the content on the home page, leaving > just short teasers to the real content. > Second phase: they are now in the process > of "optimizing" the content - promising we > will see amazing results by August. I don't see what the colors have to do with SEO. The banner, possibly, and the sequence of the nav items, definitely. Setting up teasers gives better keyword frequency due to less text and you will be able to present more information "above the fold". I would say this is a good change. > The only measurement statistics we are > interested in are number of unique visitors > and length of time on site and the number > of visitors taking some action such as > signing up for our newsletter or emailing > one of our articles to a friend. Watch these metrics when the new site is live. Conversion is the crux of the matter. If you have 100,000 visitors and 30 convert vs. having 10,000 and 40 conversions will not do you much good. > Bottom line: Is this SEO's approach the > commonly advised one or have we wasted our > money? Only time will tell. They seem to be doing most things right. Not sure about the colors but I didn't see the site. It could have been "instant headache" when opened. The vague keyword phrases are a bit worrisome. It might work if the current top listings are kept. After all, there is an outside chance of converting the random visitor. Did the SEO expert do any usage studies (E.G. The www.CrazyEgg.com heatmap tracker), before making changes? Hope this helps. Reg Charie www.DotCom-Productions.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Motherwell Subject: SEO results > Bottom line: Is this SEO's approach the > commonly advised one or have we wasted our > money? Well, I'd say: > So far, after 4 months, there has been no > increase in traffic or the rate of > newsletter subscriptions or other activity Answers that! As for methodology, nothing you have said sounds, to me, like SEO per se. Changing colours is not SEO, certainly, and the teaser content is not what I'd probably advise, but then, without actual details, I can't really comment, because there may have been SEO reasons for those changes. I can't think of any, but it hardly seems fair for me to comment without full details. If you post the website, and it is a not for profit, I'd be happy to do a backj of a cigarette carton review. Michael Motherwell (c) Copyright 1995-2008 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer." - Denis Waitley |
