Vertical Leap’s Search Analytics don’t just track increased visitors, you get to improve your website’s usability too!

Speak to any reputable search engine optimisation firm and they’ll tell you that effective SEO isn’t just about increasing the number of visitors to your website, it’s the number of motivated buyers converting that matters.

If your website promotes online training courses, a surge in visitors looking for the latest Nike training shoes isn’t much use to you. At its most basic then, it’s attracting those people who are specifically looking for your goods and services that really counts.

And that’s where everyday search engine optimisation firms leave it. But since the launch of Vertical Leap’s Search Analytics, clients are finding that the benefits derived from the initial search engine marketing recommendations made by Vertical Leap and improved usability – meaning an easier to navigate and thus a better performing website – are not mutually exclusive and indeed, can be progressed in tandem.

Search Analytics reveal how traffic arrives at a client website from search engines, by tracking all keywords and phrases used in the initial query and by logging visitors from linked websites. Just as importantly the Analytics also show visitor behaviour on the website when they get there.

For example, Search Analytics show how successfully various search results lead to specific actions on your website such as a sale, a download or simply a request for more information.

A whole series of pages can be designated ‘Action Pages’ and how visitorsnavigate to them and how many follow that action through can be monitored in real time 24/7.

So not only does your Vertical Leap search engine marketing campaign get you more targeted visitors, it gives you pointers on how your website can be improved into the bargain.

Comparisons are often made between search engine marketing and the fading Yellow Pages model. For sure, Yellow Pages lists your business in a conventional directory that you can enhance in exchange for a lot of money, but more consumers than ever turn to their keyboard to find national and localsuppliers.

What Yellow Pages can’t give you is ongoing data on the sales prospects who are taking you up, but just as importantly, those who are contacting your business but who walk away.

But Search Analytics do. Which opens up a wealth of real time feedback data gleaned not from anybody’s gut feel, or from how a web designer thinks it might work, but from where it really matters – your target audience.

Search Analytics allow you firstly see which search terms are motivating people to reach the brochure request page in the first place – and from which search engine – but they also allow you to experiment and test the design of your website.

Recently a client was bemused at the high amounts of seemingly keyword relevant traffic he was getting for relatively little take up of his brochure – which was well received when requested via other means, such as the phone.

Could the problem be how the brochure request form was found on the website? By assigning Action Pages to the three different ways of requesting a brochure the client was able to ascertain which routes worked best and which keywords drew the highest conversions.

The client had a landing page built around the most popular keywords – dedicated to answering the most popular query, which means that interested visitors arrive directly at the page they are interested in from that search engine query. The click through to the brochure request was also positioned in the most proven most popular spot on the screen.

Result? Sales directly attributed to the website which in turn are trackable from organic search engines rose by 25% in the first week. Effective search engine marketing and website usability really can walk hand in hand!

All of which demonstrates another important difference between Vertical Leap and everyday SEO outfits. In an attempt to fastrack ranking results, they will recommend all manner of clumsy headline and text updates to your website.

Result – a site that may to reasonably well in ranking results, but one that is disjointed, difficult to read and that has visitors leaving in droves. Search engine spiders may visit it, but only humans buy from it.

Search Engine Marketing is still in its infancy, but as search engines constantly strive for more accurate listings, they will increasingly reward the most complete websites and increasingly those which are the most popular and regularly visited.

Search Analytics give you the best of both worlds then. Improved volumes of motivated visitors and at a glance data telling you which search engines are performing best and with which keywords and phrases. But more than that you’ll get valuable pointers on website evolution too. And all this for the same, fixed fee.