I recently read a blog from a fellow Active Rainer, gloating about how many people came to her website during the year. Absolute rubbish, I say. Click through rates and paying (or reasoning) about technology dollars spent per click, are the wrong criteria to gauge success in my opinion. The author was as proud as a peacock with her statistics. Happily, AR was the number one referrer to her website.
Click through rates are nice, but aren't we better off with registrations? Several years back, I fought hand and foot with a SEO vender who tried to get my company to pay based on the click through rate that you are referencing above. What? SEO is meant to get leads.
What I've learned over the years is that it is extremely important is to see the entrance and exit pages on your site, the average time spent on your site and of course, registrations and number of "viable leads" obtained with your SEO dollar. Sure AR is great to get people to your site, but if they don't "stick" - your blogging efforts should be redirected to a more productive source of obtaining business.
I also like to look at whenpeople visit my site. Over 90% of the visitors to my site do so during the hours of 9am and 10:30 am in the morning and 5pm and 7pm in the evening. What does that tell me? It tells me that prospective buyers are looking at my website during office hours or after the kids leave for school or before dinner. My old firm used to get the majority of "hits" between 1a.m. and 4a.m. The result? Registrations like "Barney Rubble" and "Fred Flintstone" (There are many other funny, but vulgar ones too.)
Knowing where my audience is coming from, their browing habits and registration habits allows me to manage my website better. I can modify page content to reach a broader audience. I can talk to the leads to find out what they like or dislike about my site and I can adjust.
Comments(4)