CRO for Local BusinessesHow to make your local/small business website
optimized for visitor conversions.
Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz CEO, March 2011
At SEOmoz, we make SOFTWARE!! We don’t offer any consulting.
What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?
Visitors Who Convert
Total Visits
CRO Measures the Rate at Which Your WebsiteGets Visitors to Make Desired Actions
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.hotelforum.com/
Hotel Forum probably wants lots
of visitors to use this button
Desired Actions Could Include:
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
Booking a Reservation
Signing Up for An Email List
Clicking an Ad
Buying a Product
Viewing Contact Details
Sending an Email
Filling Out a Form
Downloading a Document
Making a DonationLeaving a Comment/Review
Watching a Video
Tweeting a Link
Liking/Sharing on Facebook
Taking a Virtual Tour
Example of a Typical Local Website’s Funnel:
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.delaurenti.com
Home Page List of Cheeses Hours + Directions
Hopefully, this means a customer is going to
come buy some cheese!
15% 10%
How Can We Improve Desired Actions?
Let’s Make it Better!
More Traffic
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlIt’s a lot of hard work to get more visits, though, and we don’t know if they’ll be the kind who love cheese!
Home Page List of Cheeses Hours + Directions
More visits to the home page means more people will decide to visit
15% 10%
A Better Funnel
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
Home Page List of Cheeses Hours + Directions
A better “conversion rate” means more people who already visit the site will come to the store!
25% 20%
Woo hoo! Now for every 1,000 people that visit the site, 25 are potential cheese buyers!
Tracking Local Business Funnels
That which goes unmeasured cannot be improved.
Basic Google Analytics Data
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.google.com/analytics
2.7% of visitors click the “sneak a peek” link;
maybe we should make that more obvious.
Advanced Segments and Filters
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/media/11search.html
Our “Social Media” segmentIncludes sources like Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn
Adding “Goals” in Analytics
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/media/11search.html
Click-to-Call Tracking
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2011/02/mobile-analytics-tracking-click-to-call-mobile-ad-campaigns.html
Creating a Weekly Conversion Dashboard
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThis is the overview report SEOmoz’s marketing team tracks each week
Analyzing Quality of Traffic Sources
Quality > Quantity(at least, most of the time)
Segmenting Traffic by Conversion Rate
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlWe can use “goals” to understand which visit sources sent the most valuable traffic
Looks like Facebook & Twitter traffic are
reasonably good, while StumbleUpon + LinkedIn
aren’t so great.
Focusing on “Good” Traffic Sources
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/media/11search.html
This filter lets me show only sites that sent more
than 100 visits
Experimenting to Stay Fresh + Relevant
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlFrom November – February, I experimented with answering questions on Q+A sites
Keys to Local Business Successon the Web
What does it take?
The Right Content
Contact Information
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.dambrosiogelato.com/
Excellent! The Gelateria has a link that says
“Contact Us”
Services List / Pricing
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.salumicuredmeats.com/
There’s a list of all their offerings, but no
prices
Photos
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.osfashland.org/plays/theatres/elizabethan.aspx
Once I see it, I REALLY want to go!
Reviews (Editorial + Users)
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://blueacreseafood.com/media.html and http://urbanspoon.com
Viral/Blog/Share-Worthy Content(on the same domain!)
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.saltys.com/recipes/entrees/Heirloom_Tomato_BBQ_Glazed_Salmon.asp
Search Friendly
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlGood recipes AND they’re included in Google? Way to go!
Mobile Friendly
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.mobistro.com/Home.aspx
Important Information is Easy to Access
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.riminiterme.com/
The Right Interface / Design
Simple
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.keithcakes.com.au/
Easy to Navigate
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://easybistro.com/
Great Design: Not Critical, But it Helps!
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.outdooritalia.it/
The Right Funnel
Contact Form and/or Conversion Page with Phone Number
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.kuletos.com/contact/
Conversion Page w/ Events that “Trigger”
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/media/11search.html
The Right Kinds of Traffic
Local-Focused Intent
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
Evangelists and Those Likely to Share
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.siena-online.net/eng/siena-accommodation.html
Recommended Tools + Resources
Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla for CMS
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://wordpress.org/, http://www.joomla.org/ and http://drupal.org/
GetListed.org (US/UK only right now)
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://getlisted.org
Google Local / Maps / Places Registration
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://places.google.com/business
Whitespark Local Citation Tool
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/
MailChimp for Email Lists
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://mailchimp.com/pricing/
Local SEO
Make Your Information Consistent!
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.google.com/search?q=coffee+seattle,+wa
Address
Business Name
Phone Number
Consistency Everywhere on the Web
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
As Many Citations as Possible
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
Optimize Profile Pages & Places Listings
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-places-seo-lessons-learned-from-rank-correlation-data
Examples of Great Local Sites
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.villagerkent.com/
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.zokacoffee.com
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.skysguideservice.com
Q+ARand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder, SEOmoz
• Twitter: @randfish
• Blog: www.seomoz.org/blog
• Email: [email protected]
You can now try SEOmoz PRO Free!http://www.seomoz.org/freetrial
http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
Summary of This Presentation
Creating a Conversion-Rate Optimized Local Site Requires:
• Key information to inform curious users/searchers
• Accessible content (to search engines and mobile devices)
• A conversion funnel with proper tracking
• Experimentation with the quality/quantity of traffic driven by various sources