Gaining top positions within search engines is no guarantee of traffic increases. Even if traffic does increase, there are still no assurances this traffic will convert into paying customers. These very issues are what a couple of posters at WebProWorld recently faced. Each has decent-to-top SERP rankings but they have little to show for it, business and traffic-wise.
Good Rankings Don’t Equal High Traffic
Are your visitors converting to customers? Discuss at WebProWorld.
The first poster, monarchanurag, owns custom-made men’s clothing store specializing in Jodhpuri suits. In monarch’s post, the problem was stated as; “I am able to get the good rank of the site in Google in last 4 months but not able to convert the traffic into customers. Average pageviews per month is between 1000 to 1500.”
Another poster with similar issues, named Curious George, has top positions for his chosen key phrases, but has a very low traffic count. George says, “The average daily unique visitors have constantly been around 14 since the site launched in February. The service is free (for now) but the long-term goal is to generate revenue from both art collectors and artists’ traffic. Beside SEO and SERP rankings I have no advertising budget because I thought with good SERP ranking will come the traffic, only to find out that it (SERP) is not a field of dream(s).”
Here are two cases where the SEO work has been done (for their targeted keywords) and yet these two individuals cannot either increase visitors or convert them into customers. Their cases differ slightly, however, the advice they need to improve upon their situations is almost the same.
Duncan Pollack, another WPW poster with helpful marketing knowledge, answered George’s post:
“What possible reason would I have for wanting to find your site? Looking for art to buy? Looking for works of upcoming artists? Looking for an art gallery in Maryland? What? Why? Ask yourself what brings people to you at present. What are they trying/hoping to buy? You need to know and understand the answers to these kind of questions and then to optimize your site for the appropriate keywords.”
This advice not only applies to George, it applies almost universally to all prospective ecommerce providers. Know what your customer is looking for and tailor to that need. If that means targeting a new set of keywords within your site’s intended audience, then so be it. What use is a top SERP ranking if no one is searching for the term or phrases? Or to quote WPW moderator jbgilbert, “You need rankings for phrases people actually search on…”
With monarch, while the advice about correctly targeting keywords applies, the issue facing the clothing site seems to be a little more specific. Because each item of clothing is tailor-made, there is a no return policy in effect for would-be customers. This, in and of itself, can lower conversion rates drastically. Duncan informs monarch of this and offers some suggestions:
“I’m not at all sure that people will too readily take you on trust, and this, in effect, is what you’re expecting them to do. What guarantee do they have that the clothing will be delivered in the first place?” He goes on to say, “To my mind, an essential requirement for any online order system is “Satisfaction Guaranteed or Money Cheerfully Refunded.” I think you need to rework your business plan to absorb any losses that can ensue if you get goods returned. I’m quite sure you fully intend to give people their money’s worth, but I’m far from convinced that they’ll believe you. Until you give them reasons for doing so, I’m not sure you can expect many conversions at all.”
Another WPW moderator, vwebworld, offered three guidelines that should be considered by everyone considering online sales, or sales of any kind.
Three Factors That Make A Sale
- Relevance – Does your web site have what the viewer is seeking?
- Differentiation – What makes you different from the other web sites that offer your product, service, or information?
- Trust – The viewer must feel confident that all interactions with you will be completed in the manner you specify.
So, it’s not all about SERP positions, even though they’re a huge part of the online marketing experience. Make sure the keywords you target are relevant to the product(s) you are offering. Because again, what good is an impressive search engine ranking if you aren’t getting visitors? Or worse yet, you ARE getting visitors, but the products being offered aren’t relevant to their search?
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
