Jeffrey Eisenberg on SEM intent and landing page conversion

Mon 31 May 2010 19:38, J-P De Clerck

Recently, I posted an article on another blog about a nice comparison Jeffrey Eisenberg made of online conversion from SEM as a contract with the online (prospective) customer.

I wrote a post about it from a more general conversion perspective but in his post, called “SEM Intent & Landing Page Conversions”, Jeffrey clearly talked about SEM. So I wrote a longer and different, SEM-focused, post for Search Cowboys.

Jeffrey wrote how we all dream of being able to know or read the true intent of a search query so that we can respond to it accordingly. If this would be possible, there is no doubt that we could convert successfully most of the time. And maximum conversion rate is the prime objective of all marketing efforts.

A maximum conversion rate, Jeffrey says, is only possible by making your offerings relevant to the queries of your prospective clients. In order to convert your prospective client into an actual account, offer him/her exactly what he/she is looking for. It is the essence of conversion as you probably know.

A PPC ad as a contract

Jeffrey advices to think of every hyperlink, whether it’s in the form of PPC ads, SERPS, navigation on websites, banners, etc. as a sales contract between you and your prospective customers.

Whenever a visitor clicks on a hyperlink, he/she is indeed asking a question related to your products and services and expects you to provide a relevant answer with all details.

What does this imply? You need to make efforts to plan relevant hyperlinks and create content that perfectly corresponds to that hyperlink so that online visitors do not feel that they have been let down. Relevance is the key to persuade a buyer into the buying mode.

All your search engine marketing and other online marketing efforts will go in vain if a prospective client finds you and it takes too many clicks with most questions unanswered on the landing page. You can never convert him.

What’s the use of paying for keywords in search engine advertising that are not proving beneficial when it comes to conversion?

Key takeaways:

First, Jeffrey says, try to understand the link between keywords and your prospective buyer’s intent.
Next, see what kind of an experience are you providing to your prospective clients. In this context, it is important, he says, to realize that failed conversion does not lie on Keywords, rather it’s the fault of the marketer who fails to offer the right landing page experience.
Try to do extensive keyword research to find all the terms associated with your product or service.
Also, test the SEM ad for click-through rates.
And finally, spend some time and efforts on the optimization of the landing page. Both the ad and your landing page need to be in sync with the intent of each search query.

Read Jeffrey's full post here.

Originally posted here.

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