Search marketing is complicated. There are a lot of moving parts, and the web is overwhelmed by suggestions and ideas. It’s hard to figure out if you’re doing things right. But what if you’re doing something terribly wrong? Here are conversion killers you may be committing.
1. Driving traffic to your homepage
This is a very common mistake. After all, why shouldn’t you send visitors to your homepage – it’s the hub of all the action. A visitor can go anywhere from there!
That’s exactly the problem. To increase conversions, you need to send a searcher exactly where he expects to go. Send him to a product page, or a page with a download or form to complete. Make it easy for your customers to complete the transaction and your conversion rate will improve.
2. Trust your gut
When you design your paid search campaign, remember that your customers won’t think exactly like you do. This means you won’t be able to predict what kinds of keywords will bring you the most conversions. Only data generated over time can give you a clue.
So what do you do? Steal ideas from your competitors! Try a keyword tool like Spyfu or Raven to research which keywords your competitors are using. Use this information to brainstorm a list of long-tail keywords for your own campaign. Then, get your friends and colleagues involved: diversity of thinking will give you and edge.
3. Fighting for first position
Of course, we all want to win. And if you structure your paid search campaign well and optimize it over time, you’ll likely see yourself ranking in the first position for some of your keywords.
But wasting energy and money trying to rank first for all of your terms is a mistake. Why? The first position may not convert as well as positions 2-4, and clicks will be more expensive. Check your ego at the door and leave position 1 to your competitor.
4. Targeting a wide area
Geotargeting is a simple but powerful tool that allows your to dictate where, geographically, your ads are served. You can target countries, regions, states, and cities, and you can even use a custom polygon to focus on areas of almost any size or shape. Failing to use this tool could generate volumes of irrelevant clicks – sure to drive down your conversion rate.
5. Using single, broad-match keywords
If you’re selling shoes, you’d like to be able to sell to someone who types in the word “shoes,” right? Sure, but the search term “shoes” could come from someone looking for many things that don’t have anything with your product: shoes for horses, shoe repair, brake shoes… or even just a brand that you don’t carry. Save your money for clicks that will drive targeted traffic to your website by using exact and phrase match keywords, and focusing on phrases that contain 3 or more words (long-tail keywords). This is a guaranteed way to boost your conversion rate.
6. Not using all 70 characters
Google and the Yahoo/Bing Search Alliance have very strict rules on how many characters you can use on each line of your search ad, as well as editorial guidelines detailing use of capitalization and punctuation.
This is intended to give users a relevant and pleasant experience when perusing search results. It also levels the playing field, so that an ad that is written clearly and makes a good offer will attract the most attention. Use all the space given to you for the best results.
Stay tuned for Part 2! Coming Wednesday!
Photo courtesy of Flickr user photomatt28
Now that you’ve improved your conversion rate, learn how to beef up your landing pages!
