Acquiring users and getting them to take an action on your site is the absolute core of web marketing. Whether that action is making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, registering for a demo...it doesn't matter, if you're doing business online, your job is to acquire users and get them to take an action.
There are a million ways to go about this process, but it's crucial for yourself and your clients to understand the funnel (particularly in terms of search patterns) that takes a potential customer from a vague notion of a want/need to converting on your site. You're probably thinking that you already know your highest converting search terms, but you may be surprised. Watch this week's video to learn about some important steps in the conversion funnel that you may have overlooked.
SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday - Path to Conversion from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.
Rand, I was boring with this video until very last part which starts in 6:10. You have said:
Great point. Have never thought about it. It could be an idea for one of next WBF episodes, how to do this in GA (or, at least, some good starting advice).
I am a big fan of applying an attribution model, so you assign 30% of the revenue generate to the first click, 30% to the last click and the remaining 40% spread evenly over all the clicks of that user.
So essentially the first and last click get a 30% bonus. This highlight so many RTM which were thought to be none profitable (ie. Generics terms)
We had to switch to Coremetrics who use first party cookies to ensure a 98% accuracy because Google who use 3rd party cookies ranges around 60% if that. Also it tracks a users total lifecycle, even on separate machines.
There are other analytic providers available. :)
The ability to track where visitors initially came from is more important than ever if your client measures SEO results and pays according on conversions from search traffic, but excludes direct brand mentions.
Nice, I'd like to add one point to your advice on how to track the real paths: there's a moment right after the conversion took place (like they paid and see the confirmation page) where the users are usually unsure about what to do next. Why not ask them there how they came to the website. It's a bit connecting the 'what' with the 'why'. I admit that that's no good way to find out which keywords they were using, but it gives you a little more valuable information about your costumer.
I dont disagree with the concept but my initial gut reaction is that when people are out there searching in the begining and are coming across unbranded keywords they're more than likely going to end up on your site via a link from another site no? Whether it be an affiliate or a happy go lucky twitter(er) that responds to their query for good seo information with a link to SEOmoz.
Maybe this is just how I search but I typically (never say never) do not go back and type in the branded keywords after doing my research but end up on the end result via a link.
Just my .02
Brilliant point you made Rand. A visitor probably has already done a lot of browsing and "window shopping" before they decide to buy fro, you - I couldn'ty agree more with you.Mintyman has already mentioned that ROI revolution provided a tool to adjust your analytics to get at that initial source of referring traffic. But I find it very tricky and requires a lot of background knowledge to install.
Perhaps you could do a further tip on how to implement this?
I've just come accross white board Friday from a few years ago. Its a great video, I'd love to see a follow up which shows how to monitor this usefully in Google Analytics.
Rand,
When I started to use ?utm_nooverride=1 variable on adwords I noticed big differences. Now I wish i was able to do the same thing for organic results. Rand do you know how to track back transaction back to intial referrer in GA?
A related question that has the same level of importance is how do you attribute the transaction a keyword if the user comes back typing your URL on the browser instead using your brand name on a search engine?
In Google Analytics or in Your Analytiscs?
In Google Analytics
I don't know it, sorry. I have already asked Rand about it above.
In "Your" Analytics it would be easy to implement.
Rand,
Do you have any link or content explaining how to setup the first referring string / extended session in Google analytics? (What you referenced at the end of the video)
Good question, but maybe a better way for us to find out about it would be to use the GFGI Research Method and then write a killer Youmoz post about it. This post provides some good insight into extended sales cycles and GA.
Thanks for the link James. That sheds some light on the subject. You can append a ?utm_nooveride=1 variable to links to your sites from ad campaigns you are running (AdWords, Banner Ads, Affliate Links, etc.) For more information on utm_nooverride, go to this link and click on item #10 on the right.
This helps to attribute the first original referring "ad" campaign to the sale, but unfortunately doesn't help to keep track of multiple search queries from the same user across multiple days. I'm still googling for a way to track this.
@Whitespark
Thanks for adding the link. It is a great video that sums things up in a simple visual way.
I'm looking for a solution where we'll be able to put utm_nooverride into javascript code snippet, instead of appending it in URL. Until now I unsuccessful. Have you any ideas guys?
Mmm, how timely, just spent the last week arguing that there must be away of doing this right in Indextools.
We've had the settings on 'intelligent' (should work similarly to an attribution model, me thinks) with a year cookie but it certeinly dosen't appear to be intelligent in any way. It priorities the campaigns (ppc, email, affiliate) over natural traffic (direct, search engines etc.). And, the year cookie is great for collecting data but really doesn't seem fair when it commes to conversions.
So, not being a hard core web analyst I'm at the moment struggeling with the choice of first click/1yr cookie but if the searcher came in via any campaign natural search gets nada. Or, last click always, like the affiliates programme (minus the 45day cookie).
Just don't know so will go and seek for answers in the pub...
Hi there,
I watch Whiteboard Friday every Friday :) and I have to say that this video is one of the best I've seen yet. I think that the first part when you explain how people compose their query is one of the most comprehensive ones : NEED+QUERRY. Although I knew that, I couldn't put it out in such a simple and meaningful way.
About the brand queries, I read at shoemoney.com an article a few weeks ago in which he said that most of his traffic comes from people searching for "shoemoney", which is great : in that moment usually people know what to expect from you and the path to gaining their trust is much shorter if not complete.
Exactly!! This is what I've been looking for, for ages. If anyone could point to where and how I could implement this with GA on WP or Joomla, I'd be happy to pay for it!
Rand, with your videos and posts, you deliever a level of quality (and entertainment) that is unfallibly high, and I think this one beats them all. Thank you very much for all your indefatibable efforts!!
ROI Revolution recently posted a good article about how to do this.
Thanks a lot for passing this link on. I found it very helpful.
I love the Whiteboard Friday's. Thanks for posting these. One quick piece of feedback: It would be nice if you could update the intro music so it didn't sound like an 80's porno.
It is odd at work when I play one of these videos with my sound up and everyone looks at me like I am browsing porn sites. Not good. Initial reaction is close window.
Thanks guys!
Sal
SEO actually stands for search engine optimization and is the process of making your website appeal friendly to search engine spiders. When properly executed SEO tactics can help you achieve high search result rankings in all of the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc so that you receive a steady stream of traffic of visitors each month.
Excellent spam. <polite applause>
Oh, no follow what a tool!
We should do a "Where are they now" VH1 special on Top 10, or bottom in this case, SEOmoz members with the fewest points every year. We can see who's new to the list, who moved up and down and who has gone through Moz counseling and is making a strong comeback.
Check out the current list. JohnyX is still in the lead with -66.
Sachin has some work to do to make the bottom 10.
Wow i did not know this ... This is truly the single most valuable piece of information I have ever gotten out of SEOmoz comments!