Conversion Rate Optimization for Local Businesses

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: rand@seomoz.org

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