5 top tips to increase your search marketing ROI

#1 on Google for top keywords? Job done? Far from it. Search marketing success is a constantly moving target, so here are Cubeworks' top tips for giving your online revenue a boost:

1. Find bouncy pages. Make them sticky

Bouncing is fun on a trampoline, but for an entry page it's a disaster. What is bouncing? It's when someone's clicked on your ad or link only to bounce straight out again on arriving at your site. Even worse, with pay-per-click you've paid for the privilege too!

There are two main causes for a bouncy entry page:

  1. First, not meeting the expectation created by the referring link. Disappointed, the customer goes elsewhere.
  2. Second, failing to make the next step clear (really, really clear). A confused visitor quickly leaves.
Our top tips

The first thing is find the bouncy pages on your site (see Tip 4 below). Once found, bouncy pages need to become sticky fast. Make the entry page highly relevant to the visitors' search terms.

Also, make it obvious what the customer needs to do next. Remove superfluous information and make the call to action prominent. Remember that online customers have a five second attention span.

2. Grab the Long Tail

The concept of the Long Tail has been described as 'the best idea of 2006'. Applied to search marketing it suggests that there is as much value to be found in the huge number of 'niche' keywords as there is in the 'blockbusters'.

So, chasing the #1 ranking in Google for your favoured keyword - your 'blockbuster' - may not be the best use of your money. The cost and effort of maintaining a few 'blockbusters' could be better spent on a much larger number of less popular 'niche' keywords.

Our top tips

Hunt for value further down the Tail. Conduct keyword research to find relevant keywords that are less competitive yet still deliver a reasonable amount of traffic. For example, 'easter egg' would be highly competitive, but 'where buy easter egg' would be less so yet still deliver a reasonable amount of traffic.

3. Break the AdWords addiction

Google AdWords is great. Make an ad, set a budget and wait for the traffic to roll in. No need to optimise the site for search engines; no need to spend your weekends manufacturing links to your site.

Problem is, following AdWords' big push in 2006, everyone else is playing the same game. And as AdWords is effectively an auction, the cost of your cost-per-click has risen to keep up. AdWords addiction can quickly cost a fortune.

Our top tips

There are two ways to deal with AdWords addiction:

  1. First, break the habit and fall in love with natural search engine optimisation again. Start hassling your web designers to optimise the site code, push your PR people to get keywords into online press release, and scour your web stats to continually improve.
  2. Second, make sure your AdWords addiction doesn't break the bank by upping your ads' Quality Score to lower your minimum CPC bid. This means making sure your ad text, keyword and entry page are all highly relevant.

4. Measure, measure, measure (& improve)

  • Who is clicking on your ads?
  • Which entry pages work best? Which are bouncy?
  • How much does it cost to generate a sale?

Critical questions. If you don't know the answers to them you could be wasting your search marketing budget.

Our top tips

  1. If you haven't got analytics on your website get them now. Google's free analytics service will suffice for most sites
  2. Pick a few key metrics to measure, then monitor them over a 3-6 month period as you roll out search marketing campaigns
  3. Your web agency should be able to help you align analytics metrics with your business goals

You can then get started with advanced methods like A/B testing. This involves running two versions of an ad or entry page and using analytics to see which one works best. It's like natural selection for your online campaigns.

5. Be the constant gardener

Picture the search marketing equivalent of Alan Titchmarsh, glowing with pride (and no little sweat) as his labours bloom in the garden of Google. Now fast forward six months as he watches competitors' weeds overwhelm the flower bed and once-promising CPC grapes wither on the vine.

The search engines and your competitors never stay still. A hard-earned top ten ranking can disappear overnight and winning AdWords quickly become duds.

Our top tips

Search marketing rewards patience and persistence, so:

  1. Plan and budget your search marketing for at least 12 months out
  2. Coincide it with your other marketing activities, both online and offline
  3. Remember that natural search engine optimisation can take up to eight weeks to bear fruit
  4. If you're using an external agency ask that they provide you with at least a quarterly review of how you and your competitors are doing

Cubeworks is a web design and e-business agency with a successful track record in search marketing. Find out more by viewing our project showcase.

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