How to use PPC conversion stats to guide profitable SEO

[Note: This tip is of moderate difficulty. Some prior knowledge of Pay Per Click Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Optimization is an advantage.]

Targeted traffic is a vital component of online sales lead generation (and one that most web designers neglect).

Not only will targeted traffic convert into sales leads and enquiries, but traffic volume is also highly leveragable. Especially if you’re starting from a low base, it can be possible to multiply traffic volume by ten times or even one hundred times.

But rather than thinking only about sheer numbers, it also pays to think about traffic quality. Certain keyword phrases may convert much better than other phrases. You’ll get superior results if you think about both quantity and quality.

One of the ways you can do this is by using Pay Per Click conversion stats to guide your natural Search Engine Optimization efforts.

Here’s the gist:

Step 1: Set up Google Adwords with a broad range of keywords and conversion tracking turned on. Google Adwords or similar Pay Per Click search engines are the fastest way of generating high-quality search traffic for a new site.

Step 2: Optimise your Google Adwords campaigns over 6 to 8 weeks by split testing ads and performing other tweaks.

Step 3: After 6 to 8 weeks, consult your conversion stats. See which keyword phrases are converting best. Some factors to consider are…

• Average cost per conversion (lower is better)
• Daily search volume
• Competitiveness of the phrase in natural (”free”) search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN etc.

Having identified your best phrase (or cluster or similar phrases), you can start to optimise your site for this phrase on natural search engines.

If you can get Top 3 rankings for a search phrase, you’ll normally get somewhere between 5 and 10 times more clickthroughs than you’re getting from Adwords.

This can lead to savings on your PPC account, but more importantly, can also lead to several times more leads or enquiries.

Reasons to use this technique

This technique gives you the hard conversion stats you need to make informed marketing decisions. And because Adwords handles the stats part for you, it’s dead easy to set up.

It’s especially useful to help you choose between two or more similar search phrases. For example, imagine you own a French language school in Perth. Would you rather be ranked well in search engines for the search phrase

French language school Perth

or

Learn French Perth

Although these phrases look quite similar, the search volume, conversion rate and cost per conversion may be significantly different. And it may be difficult in the short term to rank highly for both phrases - you have to choose one or the other.

This technique gives you a method of choosing the most profitable traffic strategy that can boost your results by a significant margin.

For more ideas on profitable Internet lead generation, grab my Free Online Marketing e-Guide here.

Will Swayne Web analytics geek

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