The mentality of
“if you build it they will come [and spend money or time]” is a myth. This applies to physical locations and
digital locations. Having the best
products and/or services or the most attractive web site is not enough to
attract or retain customers. So how does one go about getting a competitive edge? Know your customer. And how best does one begin to understand the
customer -- through SEO.
SEO serves not
only to provide data but also to provide “actionable insight” (Kaushik, 2009,
p.5 Kindle Edition). SEO is the “analysis of qualitative and
quantitative data from your website and the competition, to drive a continual
improvement of the online experience that your customers, and potential
customers have, which translates into your desired outcomes (online and
offline)” (Kaushik, 2009, p.5).
Today, we take a
look at an engagement metric. An
engagement metric provides a window into “a visitor’s level of interaction with
the site” (Web Analytics Association, 2008).
And while there are many worthy engagement metrics out there, today we
look at Bounce Rate, which provides
value and actionability for the both the novice and experienced SEO
practitioner.
Bounce Rate is
an indicator “of sessions on your website with only one page view” (Kaushik,
2009, p.51). Bounce rates at the site
level indicate which of pages are driving traffic away from the site. Looking at bounce rate from a top landing
page perspective is indicative of where traffic lands when coming from
somewhere else [referrals]. Finally,
looking at bounce rate can suggest opportunities to improve search
functionality by modifying existing keywords associated with those pages.
Nike Golf, a
subsidiary of Nike, retails golf apparel, accessories as well as golf clubs and
balls. One would think that anything
Nike would instantly be popular; however, Nike Golf struggled in search engine
placement and quality of traffic driven to its web site.
Nike Golf
engaged the firm SwellPath to conduct an SEO analysis and make recommendations. After analyzing the site, SwellPath
identified several key areas that were affecting the quality of traffic being
referred by search engines as well as the quality of keywords.
Swellpath’s
analysis revealed that keywords such as “’golf apparel’, ‘golf clothing’, ‘golf
clothes’, or ‘golf sportswear’ were being treated [by Google and Bing] as more
or less distinct, that ‘golf apparel’ (SwellPath, 2012). Furthermore, US visitors were more likely to
search by the term “golf apparel” and these individuals “stayed longer, dug
deeper, and were more likely to convert” (SwellPath, 2012).
So what about
for those on a budget, will Bounce Rate work for them? Absolutely! Whoever is in charge of SEO for the business can
begin by looking at the Bounce Rate.
Look at the pages that the search engines are referring customers
to. Begin by asking, “If I searched on
this keyword would I find value in this page or would I leave?” Perhaps the keywords need to be modified to
direct traffic to a different page. Perhaps there is not enough depth to the
page to which visitors land. The bounce
rate data provides the cold hard truth about how good or bad any given page
is. But this is not necessarily bad news,
as now there is an opportunity to improve content that engages customers and
encourages them to return.
Sources:
Kaushik, Avinash
(2009-12-30). Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and
Science of
Customer Centricity. Wiley. Kindle Edition.
SwellPath
(2012). SwellPath: Case Studies. Retrieved January 18, 2014,
from
Web Analytics Association.
(2008, September 22). Web
Analytics Definitions 20080922 For
Public Comment. Retrieved
on January 19, 2014 from
Hi, Kimberly!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your posts!
Julie
Thanks Julie!
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