Filed under: Search Marketing
As I write this post, I think about the many times I have had meetings internally about what a conversion rate is. However, I did not think to tell them actually how to calculate this.
Your conversion rate is nothing more than the sum of the thousands of efforts and paths that prospects take through your site. Please Beware of averages. There is no such thing as an average person. That is why your average conversion rate is a rough indicator but virtually worthless as a way to focus your conversion optimization. Also note there is no “industry standard” either. I probably get this question at least two times a week. You can look at Hitwise, Compete and Comscore for good information. But realize if you are looking at a specific sub-directory, i.e. www.mycompany.com/store, you won’t likely see your e commerce area, but rather your actual www.mycompany.com domain being compared to your competition – not a good comparison at all.
Looking at your conversion rate is certainly not the first thing one should do to evaluate the immediate success of your brand new campaign, but eventually you should take a good look at really understanding your conversion rate – by reading the what is your true conversion rate written by Bryan Eisenberg, well known for good analytics learnings.
Next time your asked “what’s our conversion rate?”, be sure your actually tracking conversions. I had the unfortunate task to work with an agency last year, who is no longer with us and has since been bought out, and when I asked them about our conversion tags, they replied with “we don’t use any, what do you mean?” That’s a red flag right there my friends! In learning more and more about PPC, my first rule for any PPC campaign, especially ecommerce, don’t ever launch the campaign until and unless your conversion tags are in place and have been completely tested. If you chose not to apply or wait to include the tags, your wasting your daily/monthly spend on “visits” – you will never know how many of those visits ever converted to a sale, which I hope, is why you activated a PPC campaign in the first place.
Peace out – enjoy and convert!
September 19, 2009
I want to forewarn anyone reading this, this is strictly my opinion and I feel the need to share it. I attended just the first day of SES NYC, this is my third time attending this conference now. I have to say that really not much has changed and I was pretty disappointed. I do realize it’s a very heavy prospecting and networking event. If you have never been, buckle up! This is really not a place where the advanced SEO person can go in sit in on a session and walk away feeling like they learned something new. (more…)
March 25, 2009
My primary role as SEO Manager involves overseeing numerous sub domains, corporate sites and international sites. I have the fortunate opportunity to “manage” or assist in managing an SEM campaign for one of our sites.
It certainly helps to have a basic comprehension of what PPC is, there are a lot of similarities with SEO. Chosing keywords and deciding that landing pages they land on certainly a critical and important aspect of any PPC campaign.
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July 23, 2008
As an SEO Specialist within an interactive marketing agency and as a consultant, I see various SEO contracts for SEO services. I am still amazed at the lazy or less than par things being offered by other agencies and vendors.
There are some basic practices that should just part of the program like solid link building utilizing link baiting techniques, social media where applicable, and here’s one building a plan with an SEO strategy. Crazy I know.
I must admit it drives me nuts when I see in 2008 claims that “we will get all your must have keywords in the top 5 rankings in Google” – are you kidding me? Hello, 1995? Doesn’t anyone know what solid conversions are, ever hear of ROI? This is what a real SEO program includes.
Well, one day when colleges offer Internet Marketing as part of their undergrad programs, and SEO 101, 102, etc are offered, there will be more educated and sophisticated SEO programs out there to really compete with. (by the way – anyone who might think SEO is going by the wayside – doesn’t realize marketing has been around since the stone ages, and as long as business lives on the web – so to will internet marketing including SEO – just my two cents worth).
February 21, 2008
Ever thought what direction you should take your SEO career? Work directly for a marketing agency or for yourself as a consultant?
I’d like to share some ideas that you may or may not have thought of. While I have had experiences with both working for myself as an Internet Consultant with small to medium sized businesses and currently working within an interactive marketing agency – I have to say that both have their pros and cons.
There are several SEOs out there who think “why would you want to work for the man when you can bring in $10k a month for just one client?” Nice thought of course and it does happen, but my quick answer is “you like sales and virtually going door to door to find that 10K?” If you don’t have any professional contacts that’s exactly what your left to doing. You could join your local Business Networking International or Chamber of Commerce, but do you have any idea of the small business landscape out there? There are great small business owners who do the local community a tremendous service with what they offer, but sadly they don’t (I am speaking in general terms here) quite get the big internet marketing picture. This SEO stuff is very valuable to their websites (if indeed they even have one – and that’s another story for another time 
. I have literally gone within the tri-state (NY, NJ, PA) educating business owners on the fundamentals of a good solid SEO built site, regular marketing of it and how this could impact their bottom line tremendously.
Needless to say, I have met many good people, but couldn‘t quite grasp where to get the funds for this. I suppose paying $500 per month on billboards is still their way of thinking.
The plus side of consulting offers many flexible ways to grow your career such as attending any and all SEO related functions, directing my team of analysts to do the nitty gritty work while I further myself educationally and professionally. Of course the obvious – being my own boss.
Agency life has its positives such as getting a regular paycheck whether I found a client or not this week, benefits like a 401K that matches dollar for dollar, health care insurance (until we have national health care plan that will help our entrepreneurs they have nothing), working within a team of other intelligent and like minded SEOs, working with a variety of Fortune 500 clients is a huge advantage. I have learned a great deal over the course of my 18+ months at the agency I work for. While there are some out there simply reading online about what works and what doesn‘t or how to do xyz in SEO, or attending “seo classes” the only true way to learn is on the job.
The negatives – well like most agencies or other places you work, it can get very stressful and there can be bureaucratic things you have zero control over simply because there are executives or higher ups who don’t take what you actually do into consideration when the business planning takes place – largely because they don’t understand the complete picture – SEO process, etc.
All in all you have to do what’s right for you and your career. Working as both a consultant and within an agency are great experiences that can serve you no matter what direction you choose. Having both experiences certainly has made me a great deal more well rounded in my career than I had ever expected.
Good Luck in your SEO endeavors!
January 6, 2008
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