by George Aspland

Once your website starts getting at least some traffic from organic search queries, you can help increase conversions (inquiries, signups, purchases, phone calls etc) by investigating what happens once people reach your website from the search results.

You can use Google Analytics to choose what keywords to focus on and to check the entrance pages (landing pages) for issues hurting conversions.

How To Choose Which Organic Keywords To Focus On

Most websites have hundreds or thousands of keywords bringing visitors to their website so it’s ideal to have an easy way to select which keywords to focus on.

In Google Analytics, you should have either some important (non-ecommerce) conversion Goals being tracked or e-commerce turned on and set up so that it is tracking transactions. You’ll then be able to see the conversion rates by keyword as follows:

1. Choose Traffic Sources / Keywords
2. Set a date range of about 3 to 6 months (Less if you’ve made a fair number of changes to the site that might have affected rankings, changed URL’s etc)
3. Choose “Show: non-paid” (See the screen shot below)
4. Then choose either a Goal Set tab or the Ecommerce tab (see the screen shot below)

Sort on Visits if needed by clicking on the column title (or export to a spreadsheet so you can sort the data in various ways).

Scan through the list and more closely examine any keywords with a conversion rate that is lower than some minimal percentage.

You’ll likely notice a fair number of keywords with a conversion rate of zero. You’ll need to make a judgment call on each of these as to whether the phrase is relevant to the conversion goals of your site.

Sites tend to rank for many phrases that aren’t very relevant and are not likely to lead to conversions. Skip those and focus on the keyword phrases that you believe should be leading to conversions.

Check The Entrance Pages For Issues

Although we have some control through optimization, it’s the search engines that decide what web pages rank high for organic keywords and thus become the entrance pages when people click through (unlike PPC where you choose the landing page) so the first step is to check any entrance page with more than a minimal number of entrances for issues.

• In the Google Analytics table of keywords you generated, click on a keyword in the table that you want to examine.
• Next, click on the drop down selector you’ll see in the screen shot below

• Then select Landing Page (see in the screen shot below):

You’ll be presented with a list of the entrance pages for that keyword (You may have to click “non-paid” again on this page too).

Unfortunately, Google Analytics doesn’t turn the entrance page listings into links in this table, so you’ll either need to copy and append the URL segment in the listing to the website address in a browser address bar or follow the next steps.

Here’s what I do using two monitors. I open Analytics again in another instance of the browser on the other monitor and do the following:

1. Choose Content / Top Landing Pages
2. Select “containing” in the Filter option selector you’ll see in the screen shot below.
3. Copy all or part of the URL segment from the keyword entrance page listing into the Filter field (see the screen shot below)
4. This will generate a list of entrance pages that contain the URL segment.
5. Click on the entrance page you want to examine.

When you click on the landing page you wish to examine a Content Detail page is presented. Click on the “visit this page” link you’ll see in the screen shot below to view the page.

Typical Issues With Organic Entrance Pages

Here are some typical issues we see with organic entrance pages along with some suggestions on how to handle them.

Files with no navigation

We often see the content of frames (albeit less often these days) or orphaned “pages”, or the content from pop-up windows get indexed in search engines and viewed without any site navigation. In other words, people are clicking on the search results for these files and the page that they land on has no easy way for them to navigate into the rest of the web site.

For framed pages (if you still have this issue) determine if they really need to be developed as a frames system and rebuild them if not. There are also some JavaScript solutions to ensure that frames pages load correctly. Trying Binging “JavaScript ensure frames load correctly”.

Consider not using pop-up windows or putting the content of pop-up windows into a folder and disallow that folder in your robots.txt file. Recheck what entrance pages are being returned after a couple of months.

Old web pages still live

Webmasters often leave old web pages up on the site where they continue to get indexed by search engine. Many times I’ve seen entire old versions of websites moved to a folder on the site, but search engines find and index them. Sometimes, these old pages rank for important keywords.

Unfortunately, old web pages usually have broken navigation links and images, out of date information, and countless other issues. Consider setting up a 301 redirect from the old page(s) to the best page on the live site to capture that keyword traffic for awhile. Then work to optimize a page(s) on the live site for the keywords.

File not found

You may get “404 file not found” errors for many reasons. You’ll need to determine why this is happening for specific keyword phrases to decide if there are issues that need to be addressed. In some cases “file not found” errors are returned from search results because a web page was deleted or moved and the search engines haven’t removed the old URL from their listings yet.

Setup a 301 redirect for this URL to the best page on the live site. Recheck what entrance pages are being returned for the keywords wtihin a couple of weeks or months.

Is This The Best Entrance Page For The Keyword Phrase?

If there are no issues with an entrance page such as those pointed out in the previous section, consider whether it’s the best page for people to enter the site for this search query. The fact that you are examining the entrance page for this keyword phrase because the conversion rate is low would suggest that it may not be the best entrance page.

Here’s an example from a client’s site. They sell cooking products on their e-commerce website. They also publish their own book on a specific cooking topic which they sell on the site. People do search on the name of the book.

However, the top entrance page, the page ranking highest for the name of the book, was a page for a free recipe from the book. Not only was there no easy way to get to the page where one could by the book, nowhere on the page was it even mentioned that the book was for sale.

Here’s what we suggested:

• Add a prominent “call to action” one or more times on this page to get people over to the page where they can buy the book.
• Optimize the book page to try to get it ranking higher than the recipe page and even de-optimize the recipe page if necessary. Note: If it isn’t important for this page to rank for other phrases, you might use a Meta Robots Tag to keep search engines from indexing is. See Meta Robots Tag 101.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

George Aspland is founder and President of eVision, providing Internet marketing services to companies and organizations for over 12 years.

Websites are often underused marketing tool for small businesses. duoSITES is built around this concept, aiming to help small businesses make the web work for them.

The web only works for small businesses if their websites are affordable, attractive and effective:

Affordable

Generally a custom website costs thousands of dollars. Some of the best web development companies charge on average $3,000-5,000 right out of the gate and many charge a lot more. As a small business owner myself, I know that is not affordable for many small businesses.

Attractive

An affordable website shouldn’t mean a cringe worthy website. Your site should be attractive, appealing and representative of  you and your business. A website should give customers confidence and not leave people rolling their eyes at outdated styles. I want you to be proud of your site.

Effective

An attractive website means little if it isn’t effective. If all you have is eye candy, you’re wasting
your time. You can’t afford to have websites that doesn’t deliver. Your website should do something for your business.

1. You need the have the keys to your own website

One common complaint I hear from website owners is: they canʼt change their own website. It’s true some business owners just don’t want to be responsible for this part of their business and that’s fine if you can pay someone to help you.  Regardless, you should at least have both the access and ability to change your own website whenever you want—24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from anywhere with Internet access.

The best way to get control of your own website is to use a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress. A CMS lets you easily manage and change your website giving you the power to do things like add new pages, upload photos, change text and more.

The primary reason you need to have the keys to your own website (through a great CMS like WordPress) is that you—not someone else—can change your website whenever you want.  No more waiting on someone else to make changes to your site, you’re not double-checking to make changes have been made and made right. The
power is in your hands!

I understand, some people donʼt want to mess with their own website and that’s fine. Maybe you donʼt feel like you have the time to maintain your site, or you just want to focus on doing what you do best — and want to leave the rest to professionals. I am always happy to help you!  You should at least have the option to change your own site if you
wanted to!

2. Let Google know about your business

Google has now become a verb for searching for stuff online. Millions of people each day go to Google to find products, information, photos, news and much much more. A percentage of those millions looking for the product or service you offer. You want your website and business to be listed high up on the first page in Googleʼs search results.

Google conducts complicated mathematical algorithms to determine which sites get ranked highly in search results. The ranking is based on a number of factors including keywords that appear on your site, links from other websites and the configuration of your website code and many other (very boring) factors.

With a process called search engine optimization (SEO) we can boost your positioning in the search engine results. WordPress is particularly well suited for SEO as it streamlines the process of optimizing your content.

Right now go to Google.com, type in the product or service you offer. Is your business listed in those results?

3. Get blogging, make connections

There’s a lot of buzz about blogging in the web marketing sphere. Here are just a few reasons why blogging can boost your business:

• Google and the Search Engines Love Blogs
  WordPress makes it extremely easy to have a blog on your website.  To the search engines a blog (or weblog) means frequently updated content, which tells the search engines that your website is kept up to date.
• Keeps your readers / customers engaged
  Just like an email newsletter or even a newspaper, if youʼve got an active blog, with useful information about the products and services your prospective customers may be looking for.
• Teach and Share Your Expertise
  Blogging gives you a platform to show why you’re good at what you do.
• Blogs Make Your Business More Personal
  Most blogs have a comment feature that invites readers to respond and share their
  opinion. That personal connection can be a  great way to answer customer questions, get ideas and feedback for improvement, and ultimately lead to more sales.

4. Be there for the customer

Your website means your customers can find you and get their questions answered on their schedule. Not every question can be answered on your site and sometimes your product or service requires making contact.

A website should make it easy for customers to get in touch with you. Posting your phone number is a no-brainer, but some customers are reluctant to pick up the phone for various reasons they may rather have an unobtrusive way to ask questions and get answers.

Having an simple online contact form is an effective solution. The best part about an online form is you can gather whatever information you need and send it directly to whomever should be responding to it. Adding a simple contact form increases inquiries for products and services dramatically.

5. Motivate their actions

Websites, especially business websites, should not be static. They shouldn’t just sit there, passively letting web surfers absorb information and move on. Your website should do something for your business.

Your site should be directing potential customers to do whatever it is you want them
to do. Do you want them to contact you for more information? Maybe you want them to print a coupon and come to your store. Should they sign up for your mailing list? Simply put, you need to gently steer the visitor to the desired action. It’s called a “call to action”. Whatever it is you want people to do, make sure there’s no way they can miss it. Because if they miss it, you’re the one who misses out.

7. Investigate, evaluate and refine

One of the best aspects of Internet Marketing is that just about anything can be tracked and evaluated. This means you can figure out what’s working, what isn’t and make changes to improve.

I install a free stats program called Google’s Analytics which tracks keywords being used to find your site, what sites link to you, where your visitors are coming from, and loads of other information.  You can comb through the stats to figure out if you’re reaching the people
you need to reach, if they’re finding what they need on your site, if they’re actually doing
what you want them to do.

To have a successful website, you need to be tracking your website’s stats to refine and improve the site. The ever-changing nature of the Internet means you can tweak and change your site until you find the magic combination that works.

Wrapping it up

Are you ready for an affordable, attractive, and effective website?
Fill out an easy Request for Quote form and we can get the started.
If you have more questions first you can quickly contact me.
I look forward to hearing from you!

Meta data. The name doesn’t conjure up any particularly exciting images … more like crickets chirping. Turning the concept of Meta data into a compelling “must read” could put even the best writer at a loss for words. But, it does serve a very important role in search engine optimization – which is why you must read this article if you’re unclear on the role of Meta data in your SEO efforts.

With 40 percent of search engine queries containing some local intent, small businesses would do well to position themselves for search engine success. At the same time, those managing a small business often don’t have the time or resources needed to manage an SEO initiative. In these situations, it may make sense to hand a website over to a qualified and reputable SEO professional to optimize a site for local and organic search.

Learn how to organize your website in a way that is both friendly to search engines like Google and your website visitors.

Link Building is the process of creating inbound links to owns website. This can be done reciprocal links, being listed in e-zines, newsletters, directories, search engines, etc.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a specialty that is intricately woven into many other disciplines: website design/development, information architecture, copywriting, website usability, analytics and conversion analysis, etc. Successful SEO hybrids are web professionals who are equally skilled in SEO and another area of expertise. For example, many search-savvy web developers understand how search engines access content on a website, and they make it as easy as possible for search engines and searchers to access that content.