Web Marketing - don't forget the user experience

One aspect of search marketing which is often neglected by marketers, is the broader picture of the user experience. As the entire online marketing process is about conversions, it is surprising how often the conversion rates and user experience are overlooked. Online marketers should not only try to constantly refine their paid search keyword lists and search engine optimisation strategy, but also look at the user experience and website itself.

The wealth of information available in the majority of web analytics packages is a great place to begin looking for ways of improving conversion rates. The most important statistics to explore in depth are:

Bounce Rates

When users enter a site via one page, and exit without viewing another page on the site, this is known as a bounce. To an extent, a bounce can be considered a failure, in that the user clicked on your paid ad or organic listing because they believed it was what they were looking for, only to realise once on the site, that the website was not actually fulfilling their requirements or expectations.

A high bounce rate for a paid search campaign is essentially throwing money away, money which could be used on keywords with much lower bounce rates. A high bounce rate on an organic search campaign means a lot of wasted time, effort, and ultimately money. As bounce rates may also be taken into consideration as an algorithm factor, high bounce rates may also be restricting your SEO campaign from achieving the best rankings possible.

Generally, you would expect a lower bounce rate in paid search, where you have greater control of your ad text and the landing page. A bounce rate below 20% is rare, however a bounce rate above 45% is definitely a cause for concern.

The good news is that steps can be taken to lower bounce rates. The amount of work required to lower the bounce rates will depend on how high the bounce rate percentage is. It may range from anything from an entire site redesign / restructuring, to simple text changes. The key to lowering bounce rates is to ensure your site meets the expectation of the user.

For example, a company has a website selling a wide range of branded shoes. A user entering the site using the keyword “shoes” is probably looking to purchase online, rather than researching shoes. They will enter the site expecting to see a professional looking site, showing latest ranges of shoes. They will expect to be able to view and sort shoes by different variables such as brand name, price and gender. They will expect the shopping process to be straight forward, with no need to confirm their email address 3 times during the process. These are a handful of expectations, in reality the list is a lot longer and more detailed.

The point behind this example, is that unless the vast majority of boxes are ticked, a user will look elsewhere. As the online marketplace becomes more and more competitive, a more user-friendly website can be just a click away.

Exit Points

Exit points are self explanatory; pages within the site which people exit from. Exit points are equally as important as bounce rates, and should be examined independently. For example, a low bounce rate may look good in your statistics, however, it may be that users are simply viewing 2 pages then exiting the site.

Exit pages can help identify pages which may be hampering the user the route to conversion. For example, a website has 5 pages between the user entering the site, and converting into a sale (homepage > product information page > sign up page > confirm email page > payment details).

Analytics stats show that a high percentage of users are leaving at the account signup page. Is account registration necessary? Can the site incorporate signup on the same page as card details? The aim is to make the users experience as simple, hassle-free as possible.

The points raised above give us a brief indication of how to improve the user experience, use bounce rate and exit point statistics, and ultimately increase conversion rates to help improve the effectiveness of an online marketing campaign.

This article was provided by SEO agency - Latitude Group