Getting prospects to your Web site through a search engine is only half the battle. Converting them once they're there is the other half—and the tough part. Luckily, Patricia Hursh has come up with eight tips that may help convince searchers that U-R the 1-4 them, and improve your conversion rates. Here are four.

Improve relevance. "A tight alignment between a searcher's query, the search listing, and landing page copy conveys … relevance," Hursh says. You should, at a minimum, "repeat the searcher's query (ie, keyword) in the ad headline, and then again, if possible, in the ad copy."

Focus on benefits. Hursh says your copy should clearly answer the searcher's question, "What's in it for me?" Example: "Download our … case study, which illustrates how Company A reduced IT expenses by 30 percent."

Ask a compelling question. A good, relevant question appeals to a visitor's curiosity, and pulls him or her into the site. She suggests something like, "Are you spending too much for IT services?"

Keep on testing. The key to keeping conversions up is to continually track how you're doing, and to make changes to stay current.

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