Most of us have met a doctor at some point in time. You would have noticed that a doctor does not start writing prescription as soon as you enter his/her office. It is quite obvious that they first need to know the symptoms, run a few tests if required, and based on the finding prescribe you medicines and/or therapy.
Similar is the case with your website. You would have to diagnose your website and run tests to figure out the shortcomings. You would then need to base the corrective measures (prescription) on the problem areas, to make your website healthy.
“You cannot make your website perform better unless you know what exactly is going wrong with it.”
To get a more accurate understanding, a little background is probably in order. Businesses use websites as instruments to convert visitors into customers, and thus fulfill their goals. This conversion process can be visualized in the form of a funnel – the website conversion funnel.
As evident from the funnel diagram, not every visitor performs the desired action – in short the goal is not accomplished. Although 100% conversion may be an impossible feat to achieve; increasing it is a definite possibility. In order to maximize goal conversion performance of your website, you need to play the role of a website doctor.
Doctors use instruments (stethoscope, CT scan, etc.) to identify problems. Similarly, you need to use web analytics to study and analyze the website and its visitors. Armed with this knowledge, you can cure most (if not all) of the website’s deficiencies. Caution: You cannot turn a ‘blind eye’ and pretend that everything is just fine. If you do so, you will be missing out on a huge opportunity to garner more business.
Web analytic tools have abundance of raw data that needs to be interpreted correctly into actionable information. It is also imperative that you clearly understand the correlation between each data set.
Since most of us use Google Analytics (it is free, simple and a powerful tool), I would confine my discussion to it. However most of it will also be applicable to other analytic tools. To get you off the mark, you need to define your goal(s) in analytics – one of the most important key metric or KPI (Key Performance Indicator).
You will need to constantly track this key metric along with other key metrics, some of which are mentioned below.
1. Visits and conversions: Check the number visitors over a predefined period of time (preferably a month) and the associated conversions. You would then have for yourself the numbers that go at the start and the end of the conversion funnel.
Armed with this basic knowledge you would know the rate at which visitors convert into customers, and can then strive to better it.
2. Bounce and Exit rate: The second step would be to analyze each webpage and the corresponding bounce rate.
Since every webpage/landing page acts as an entrance to the conversion funnel, it is imperative to identify pages that help visitors move further into the conversion process. At the same time it is also important to identify pages that trigger a high bounce (visitors who leave a webpage without navigating further) rate, which creates proliferation of visitors.
A more important task would be to check exit rate (not same as bounce rate) of the most important landing pages.
Once you have zeroed upon the ‘troublemakers’, you would have to make appropriate changes (based on your findings) and test them. Google website optimizer is a great tool to help you accomplish this.
This would greatly assist you in arresting any further conversion funnel abandonment.
3. Page Views and time on site: You can break down visits into page views/visit to study visitors’ behavior. This metric defines the ‘stickiness quotient’ of your website. The more the visitors stick the more are the chances of them converting into customers.
This data also tells you how you could possibly space you call to action elements. If the average page views per visit are less to 2 then it is imperative that the CTA element is resident on the next page, irrespective of where the visitors land. In essence, the visitors should be able to perform the predefined action within two clicks. At the same time you should work to better this figure to get more page views per visit.
Average time per visit is another metric that is worth your attention. Can you visitors find all the relevant information required to make a decision, in the given time frame?
In addition to this, studying the navigation pattern of the visitors, reverse goal paths, and funnel visualization, will give you the required insight into the performance of your website and visitors’ behavior. This actionable data can be effectively and efficiently used to not only enhance the performance of your website, but also maximize your business goals.
It may be a seemingly mammoth task and may deter many, but believe you me – it’s not. And even if it was a bit difficult and time consuming, it is definitely worth your time and attention.
Are you looking for ‘guaranteed SEO service’ – We offer…………………………
Guarantee – A word that grabs attention and instills a sense of security (monetary) in the minds of prospective customers. But can guarantee be given in the realm of SEO services?
We, as SEO service provider, have asked ourselves this question umpteen number of times. But that is not the intention of writing this post. The motive of writing this post is to challenge the legitimacy of such guarantees.
Many of our prospects have demanded ‘guaranteed SEO service’ in the past. They have gone to the extent of quoting guarantees offered by other vendors. ‘Organic ranking’ is what most vendors guarantee; it is a different story that closer scrutiny reveals a number of strings attached to any such guarantee.
Can anyone guarantee search engine rankings?
Let’s hear it from the horse’s mouth first
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Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings ….
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If this is not sufficient evidence to convince you; think of it yourself. Search engine ranking algorithms are one the best kept secrets in the world. The only way to guarantee ranking is to know exactly how the algorithm works, and nobody has that kind of knowledge except for a privileged few. Sure there are tried and tested methods but even they are susceptible to algorithmic change. Guaranteeing something, over which you don’t have total control, is not only unethical but misleading.
Our research took us from one service provider to another and we zeroed upon some of the most abused guarantee statements. Subsequent to which we decided to play the role of ‘Myth Buster’.
Myth #1 – Guaranteed top 10 rankings
Many SEO companies (we are not taking any names) give guarantee which reads something like this:
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We guarantee to optimize your website for up to 100 different keyword phrases.
(Your primary targeted phrase will appear on the first page of one or more major search engines.)
”
Sounds impressive and many prospective clients fall for it. They however fail to understand that such ranking guarantee is for keywords chosen by the vendor and not you - needless to say that these keywords would be obscure in nature. Ranking for non competitive terms or terms with low search volume will give little or no benefit.
A pizza parlor which has an online ordering website will derive no benefit by ranking for keywords like ‘pizza recipes’ (non-targeted) or mozzarella cheese (obscure) – ‘online pizza delivery’ is the more apt Keyword option.
In essence, this flavor of guaranteed SEO offers no real value.
Myth #2 – Top rankings for competitive key phrases
Here’s an example of one such guarantee statement”
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First page ranking or money back!
(We will guarantee top 10 rankings across the 15 search engines or don’t pay)
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The top three search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) command more that 93% of the total market share in US (comScore). The remainder is distributed amongst various other search engines. The picture is pretty much similar globally.
If you read the fine prints you would know that these 15 search engines do not include the top 3. Such guarantees are offered for search engines having insignificant market share and are mostly unheard off. Ranking on search engines like these will have no benefit whatsoever. Would you open a shop in a desolate locality?
Myth #3 Search engine placement guarantee
Many companies are lead to believe that the only factor that is holding back their website from being an online success is search engine placement. They have a new website but it has not been indexed by search engines.
Unscrupulous vendors claim to have ‘special relationship’ with search engines and promise priority submits. Well there is no such thing for sure. This is what big G has to say on this:
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Beware of SEOs…… allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google.
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There is only one way of submitting your website to search engines – the ‘add URL’ feature. If you have an optimized website which is linked from other web pages, you can even spare yourself the trouble of submitting it to search engines.
The Truth – Customized Assurance
Certain SEO companies will offer you guarantee/assurance derived from the analysis of your current traffic, the competitiveness of your business, and revenue of your site. You will ideally be offered this type of specialized guarantee from the beginning of your contract, and it will ensure that you will achieve meaningful results and maximum ROI. Fair enough.
However, most SEO companies cannot or should not give assurance that they would achieve something (especially the ones mentioned in this post) which is totally out of their control. We personally consider it as cheating a client. We commit on deliverables, something we can fully control, and execute it with professional integrity.
Don’t get us wrong, we by no means are trying to scare you. There are experienced legit people who can help your website perform to its potential. However, mention of the word ‘guarantee’ should set the alarm bells ringing.
Sounds like an oxymoron but is true nonetheless.
Businesses often build websites, with the intention to make money, without having carefully thought and planned the entire process. If you are in the process of building or rebuilding your website, this post is for you. For those of you who already have a website running, you could very well draw some inferences for making appropriate changes to your website or mark it for future reference.
Before jump starting your online business (or for that matter any business), you will have to define clear and concise goal(s); objectives that you wish to achieve via your website. Without a goal you are headed nowhere because you don’t know where you are going. It’s like hitting the road without actually knowing the destination. You can drive as much as your want but you would reach ‘nowhere’.
Your website goal could range from selling products/services to building your brand – whatever it is, you need to know for sure what you need to achieve. Once you are fixated on the goal(s) you want to achieve through your website, the job is half done (well begun is half done). You now need to ascertain the key performance indicators aka KPIs to measure your goal(s); the measurement part kicks in after the launch of website. The stage is all set – from here on you need to start working your way back.
It is essential that the website is designed to fulfill your goal(s). The website’s navigational structure should be designed to guide visitors to perform the desired action. It is imperative that every page is treated as a landing page - an entrance to the conversion process. If the entry doors are conspicuously absent, visitors would leave without fulfilling any of the goal(s). Please don’t expect that visitors would find these entry doors; you have to keep it wide open for them. Website content that urges visitors to perform the intended action(s) also plays a pivotal role in this entire process. Besides this, the website design should fulfill usability and readability parameters. Also, it is imperative to ensure that the website is not complex and/or cluttered – simple works fine.
If you are looking to promote your website using search engine optimization it is important that the on-page factors are incorporated during the design and development stage. Your SEO strategy will need to be ingrained into the website design. Search engine optimization should never be considered as an afterthought. If you do so you would duplicate efforts and end up redoing work (some if not all) done during the design and development cycle. It is therefore important that all these activities are carried out in tandem and are synchronized to achieve synergy. If you plan to hire an SEO agency, it is always a good idea to have them actively involved in the design and development of the website.
There are too many activities going on simultaneously and it is easy to lose sight of your goal. You would therefore need to carefully examine all activities to ensure that they are on track. Implement ‘course correction analysis’ to continuously monitor these activities and identify any deviation from the set objectives. I am not trying to scare you but it is crucial that all the pieces fit together perfectly when they are put together. It will decide whether your business is a success or a failure. ‘Going back to the drawing board’ is an option you should avoid at all costs.
In essence, every building block of your website should individually and commutatively work together to fulfill the goal. The only way of ensuring this is to work you way back to the smallest denominator with the ultimate goal in mind. Since each element will be built to fulfill the ultimate goal, the entity as a whole (website) will do exactly the same - help you achieve your goal.
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