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	<title>Wingify Conversion Optimization Blog</title>
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	<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog</link>
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			<item>
		<title>The joke of long tail search keywords</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/the-joke-of-long-tail-search-keywords/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/the-joke-of-long-tail-search-keywords/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 22 May 2010 15:25:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ab testing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[long tail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[multivariate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=159</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On this blog and on Visual Website Optimizer&#8217;s blog, we get a lot of long tail search visitors. The term long tail is borrowed from power-law like distributions, wherein a small number of elements make up for the most volume while a large number of different elements make up for lesser volume. The latter one [...]


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/why-your-bounce-rate-is-high-and-how-to-fix-it-top-6-reasons/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website'>Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/organic-and-ppc-attractiveness-two-new-metrics-for-a-scientific-seo-strategy/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Organic and PPC Attractiveness: two new metrics for a scientific SEO strategy'>Organic and PPC Attractiveness: two new metrics for a scientific SEO strategy</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/introducing-visual-website-optimizer-50-free-beta-invites/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Introducing Visual Website Optimizer &#8211; 50 free beta invites'>Introducing Visual Website Optimizer &#8211; 50 free beta invites</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fthe-joke-of-long-tail-search-keywords%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fthe-joke-of-long-tail-search-keywords%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>On this blog and on <a href="http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/">Visual Website Optimizer</a>&#8217;s blog, we get a lot of long tail search visitors. The term long tail is borrowed from power-law like distributions, wherein a small number of elements make up for the most volume while a large number of different elements make up for lesser volume. The latter one is called &#8220;long tail&#8221; and here is how it looks:</p>
<p style="text-align:center"><a href="http://edgewatertech.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/how-to-profit-from-the-long-tail-catering-to-savvy-consumers/"><img src="http://edgewatertech.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/long-tail.png"/></a></p>
<p>You see <a href="http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/">I love Split Testing blog</a> is all about (duh) split testing. And I expect search engines to send to the blog people looking for things related to split testing. Of course, a bonus for us, search engines can also send visitors looking for related topics such as SEO, online marketing, web analytics, etc. However, some of the  visitors we get  from Google were searching for completely different things. Sample some of the following keywords where our blog is apparently ranked highly on Google:</p>
<ul>
<li><i>conversion statistics rodents of unusual size</i><br/>(whoa! Why would Google rank our blog for this term? Why would someone search it in the first place?)</li>
<li><i>world optimizer</i><br/>(So, now VWO can optimize the world too?)</li>
<li><i>Enjoy a bit of downtime</i><br/>(Google, you should <a href="http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/no-more-downtime-amazon-s3-based-external-javascript-hosting/">read and understand this</a>)</li>
<li><i>why do you split 8s</i><br/>(I have no idea what this means)</li>
<li><i>excuses for not performing well</i><br/>(We do A/B testing, not self help book publishing)</li>
<li><i>VISUAL SITE HACKER</i><br/>(a potential startup idea!)
<li>
<li><i>can you have the same website at two different URLs</i><br/>(a honest question for sure, but &#8220;A/B testing&#8221; would have actually scared this visitor)</li>
<li><i>bouncing sidebar</i><br/>(Google probably mixed up bounce rate, and <a href="http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/left-vs-right-sidebar-which-layout-works-best/">sidebar case studies</a>)</li>
<li><i>how can I give feedback to their ideas</i><br/>(may be first try A/B testing your feedback on other people?)</li>
</ul>
<p>The point of this post isn&#8217;t to belittle Google&#8217;s job. It is a fantastic search engine and does amazingly job in long term searches. The humorous queries above constitute <2% of total search volume we get. </p>
<p>But, still, it is always good to see such queries in web logs. Makes up for a good laugh. Plus, gives a room for improvement in (now) slow-moving search industry.</p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/why-your-bounce-rate-is-high-and-how-to-fix-it-top-6-reasons/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website'>Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/organic-and-ppc-attractiveness-two-new-metrics-for-a-scientific-seo-strategy/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Organic and PPC Attractiveness: two new metrics for a scientific SEO strategy'>Organic and PPC Attractiveness: two new metrics for a scientific SEO strategy</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/introducing-visual-website-optimizer-50-free-beta-invites/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Introducing Visual Website Optimizer &#8211; 50 free beta invites'>Introducing Visual Website Optimizer &#8211; 50 free beta invites</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/the-joke-of-long-tail-search-keywords/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What web analytics should actually be</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/what-web-analytics-should-actually-be/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/what-web-analytics-should-actually-be/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:16:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversion Optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Split and Multivariate Testing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=157</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For any business, two pieces of information are most important to its survival.  One, in order to make decisions, a business needs to know the ground reality of where it stands in the market now. Second, in order to plan forward and determine progress, it needs to know where it stood in the market [...]


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/how-to-benchmark-competition-conversion-rates-using-alexa-in-two-super-simple-steps/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to benchmark competition conversion rates using Alexa in two super simple steps'>How to benchmark competition conversion rates using Alexa in two super simple steps</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/three-effective-tips-to-get-started-with-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization'>Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/seven-actionable-ideas-to-optimize-e-commerce-website-conversions-for-the-holiday-season/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Seven actionable ideas to optimize e-Commerce website conversions for the holiday season'>Seven actionable ideas to optimize e-Commerce website conversions for the holiday season</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fwhat-web-analytics-should-actually-be%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fwhat-web-analytics-should-actually-be%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>For any business, two pieces of information are most important to its survival.  One, in order to make decisions, a business needs to know the ground reality of where it stands in the market <em>now</em>. Second, in order to plan forward and determine progress, it needs to know where it stood in the market in the <em>past</em>. These two sources of information individually don&#8217;t convey much information. But combined together, they provide actionable insights. <em>Where am I now</em> and <em>where was I</em> is what you need to know if you need to plan for <em>where I want to go</em>.</p>
<p>Making parallels to web analytics, current set of tools (unfortunately) only provide information on what is happening now. Your favorite tool will churn out data on number of visitors, page views, countries, referrers and what not. This exactly tells you how your website is doing today. However, this completely misses out macro trends. Sure, you can see a historical graph of number of visitors and all sorts of other metrics but that is only the first step towards knowing <em>what has changed</em>.</p>
<p>Ideally a web analytics tool should go deep on the segment level and mine signals in the (historical) data and correlate different metrics automatically for you. Here are some of the examples that I expect an analytics tool to mine automatically for me:</p>
<ul>
<li>Accounting for other variables, correlation between Twitter activity and number of organic searches. (Which isn&#8217;t obvious but could indicate that I&#8217;m doing a great job on Twitter building my site&#8217;s brand)</li>
<li>Show meta-trends in the drift of the type of traffic I&#8217;m getting, countries visitors are coming from or the time spent on page. Am I slowly getting more traffic from niche blogs as compared to Google? That tells me what I am doing is working with niche blogs and should probably do more of that stuff.</li>
<li>Automatically deduce what content or website sections see atypical visitor behavior so that I can act fix it (if it leaks) or use it for further gains (if it works).</li>
<li>Tell me top 5 common paths my visitors take on the website and if there has been a significant shift over time.</li>
<li>Source data from all different inputs: social monitoring tools, newsletter tool, etc and automatically correlate my activities outside the website with what is happening on the website.</li>
</ul>
<p>Most of what I have written above isn&#8217;t super hard. Some of it can be done by having simple heuristics built into the tool. Moreover, data mining and machine learning has progressed a lot and I am surprised web analytics industry has been so slow at adopting the methodologies. Though Google is taking the right steps with their <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-feature-spotlight-analytics.html">intelligence feature</a> but it still it leaves a lot to be desired: where are correlations, recommendations, trend mining and other interesting stuff?  <a href="http://www.nuconomy.com/">Nuconomy</a> was doing the right stuff but they took far too long, didn&#8217;t innovate a lot and end up getting bought by a company for in house analytics.</p>
<p>Web analytics shouldn&#8217;t be simply a data collection and reporting tool. It should actually be collection, reporting and <em>mining </em>tool. My tool gives me 100s of metrics to look at which I can&#8217;t keep looking at day after day (unless it is my full time job). Instead it should mine all 100s of reports for me, and show me interesting nuggets on what has changed (and possibly what could change).  So I ask: where is the innovation in web analytics? All I see around is dumb reports ready to get mind by a human.</p>
<p>What is your perspective on this? Do you think web analytics is ripe for a major change?</p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/how-to-benchmark-competition-conversion-rates-using-alexa-in-two-super-simple-steps/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to benchmark competition conversion rates using Alexa in two super simple steps'>How to benchmark competition conversion rates using Alexa in two super simple steps</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/three-effective-tips-to-get-started-with-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization'>Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/seven-actionable-ideas-to-optimize-e-commerce-website-conversions-for-the-holiday-season/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Seven actionable ideas to optimize e-Commerce website conversions for the holiday season'>Seven actionable ideas to optimize e-Commerce website conversions for the holiday season</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/what-web-analytics-should-actually-be/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>From the bleeding edge: 10 must-read scientific research papers on conversion rate optimization</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/must-read-scientific-research-papers-conversion-rate-optimization/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/must-read-scientific-research-papers-conversion-rate-optimization/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:37:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversion Optimization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=151</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Scientific research papers on how to increase sales or conversions are rare.  Most of the articles you read on the Internet (admittedly, including a lot of posts on this blog as well) are based on what the writer thinks and what makes logical sense. But scientific research works in a different way. Authors of research [...]


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/6-eye-tracking-studies-and-what-do-they-say-about-website-conversion-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 6 Eye Tracking Studies and What do they say about Website Conversion Optimization'>6 Eye Tracking Studies and What do they say about Website Conversion Optimization</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/hello-world-welcome-your-buddy-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!'>Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/three-effective-tips-to-get-started-with-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization'>Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fmust-read-scientific-research-papers-conversion-rate-optimization%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fmust-read-scientific-research-papers-conversion-rate-optimization%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>Scientific research papers on how to increase sales or conversions are rare.  Most of the articles you read on the Internet (admittedly, including a lot of posts on this blog as well) are based on what the writer thinks and what makes logical sense. But scientific research works in a different way. Authors of research papers must produce accurate, reproducible results.  And their articles are reviewed by peers before getting published. Hence in most cases you can always trust results of a scientific paper.</p>
<p>So I fished out research papers on the internet which tell you how to increase your revenues online. Here is the list for your reading pleasure:</p>
<p><strong>Usability</strong></p>
<ul style="line-height:1.5em">
<li><a href="http://tao.nuk.edu.tw/hci/UsabilityPerformance.pdf">Web site usability, design, and performance metrics</a> [PDF, good paper with lots of information]</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ecs.umass.edu/~eshittu/Toyin/Influencing%20Online%20Consumers%20Behaviour.pdf">Influencing the online consumer&#8217;s behavior: the Web experience</a> [Good, detailed paper]</li>
<li><a href="https://www.msu.edu/~mcknig26/TrBldgModel.pdf">The impact of initial consumer trust on intentions to transact with a website: a trust building model</a> [PDF]</li>
<li><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&amp;_udi=B6VD0-4FPN9W3-2&amp;_user=10&amp;_coverDate=01/31/2006&amp;_rdoc=1&amp;_fmt=high&amp;_orig=search&amp;_sort=d&amp;_docanchor=&amp;view=c&amp;_acct=C000050221&amp;_version=1&amp;_urlVersion=0&amp;_userid=10&amp;md5=1ba0fcb27cd72d1b56c8deff7d8dd18e">The role played by perceived usability, satisfaction and consumer trust on website loyalty</a> [needs subscription for fulltext]</li>
<li><a href="http://www.shirazu.ir/~fanaee/trans/Ecommerce23.pdf">An empirical study of Web browsing behaviour: Towards an eﬀective Website design</a> [PDF]</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Miscellaneous</strong></p>
<ul style="line-height:1.5em">
<li><a href="http://exp-platform.com/Documents/2007-10EmetricsExperimenation.pdf">Practical Guide to Controlled Experiments on the Web: Listen to Your Customers not to the HiPPO</a> by Microsoft Research [PDF, Good paper for A/B split testing internals]</li>
<li><a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1557161">Predicting bounce rates in sponsored search advertisements</a> by Google [PDF]</li>
<li><a href="http://84.11.13.37/Volumes/SIGIR_07/data/pdfs/p567-huffman.pdf">How well does result relevance predict session satisfaction?</a> by Yahoo Research [PDF]</li>
<li><a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.123.7692&amp;rep=rep1&amp;type=pdf">Generating Web Site Traffic:  An Empirical Analysis of Web Site Visitation Behavior</a> by UC Berkley [PDF]</li>
<li><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&amp;_udi=B6VCT-4CP14JJ-2&amp;_user=10&amp;_coverDate=10/16/2005&amp;_rdoc=1&amp;_fmt=high&amp;_orig=search&amp;_sort=d&amp;_docanchor=&amp;view=c&amp;_acct=C000050221&amp;_version=1&amp;_urlVersion=0&amp;_userid=10&amp;md5=716cb6590b909aa358612ef81930a036">Predicting online-purchasing behaviour</a> [needs subscription for fulltext]</li>
</ul>
<p>After compiling this list and reading most of the articles, I realized there is a large disconnect between what happens in research and what is actually applied in the market. Do you agree? Did you even know such kind of research happens at all?</p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/6-eye-tracking-studies-and-what-do-they-say-about-website-conversion-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 6 Eye Tracking Studies and What do they say about Website Conversion Optimization'>6 Eye Tracking Studies and What do they say about Website Conversion Optimization</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/hello-world-welcome-your-buddy-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!'>Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/three-effective-tips-to-get-started-with-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization'>Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/must-read-scientific-research-papers-conversion-rate-optimization/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Organic and PPC Attractiveness: two new metrics for a scientific SEO strategy</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/organic-and-ppc-attractiveness-two-new-metrics-for-a-scientific-seo-strategy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/organic-and-ppc-attractiveness-two-new-metrics-for-a-scientific-seo-strategy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:12:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=136</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Like everyone else, you want to rank high on Google and you want to extract maximum ROI out of your Adwords PPC campaigns. Your website deals with a particular topic area, say Conversion Optimization (which is the case for this blog).  But then the topic is so vast that optimizing (or positioning) website and content [...]


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/the-joke-of-long-tail-search-keywords/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: The joke of long tail search keywords'>The joke of long tail search keywords</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/only-three-metrics-matter-for-your-online-business/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Only three metrics matter for your online business'>Only three metrics matter for your online business</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/must-read-scientific-research-papers-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: From the bleeding edge: 10 must-read scientific research papers on conversion rate optimization'>From the bleeding edge: 10 must-read scientific research papers on conversion rate optimization</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Forganic-and-ppc-attractiveness-two-new-metrics-for-a-scientific-seo-strategy%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Forganic-and-ppc-attractiveness-two-new-metrics-for-a-scientific-seo-strategy%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>Like everyone else, you want to rank high on Google and you want to extract maximum ROI out of your Adwords PPC campaigns. Your website deals with a particular topic area, say Conversion Optimization (which is the case for this blog).  But then the topic is so vast that optimizing (or positioning) website and content on a single broad topic becomes very challenging. A whole gamut of websites deal with Conversion Optimization, so how does this blog have even a minute chance of getting seen on search engines?</p>
<p>The answer is to write website content including keywords and phrases that people search for at prominent places. This is such a no brainer advice that it borders on being completely useless.  The real challenge is to know what people search for. You can (and should) bring process to researching what exactly people search and how to rank on it:</p>
<p><strong>Step 1</strong><strong>: Go to </strong><a href="https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal"><strong>Google’s Keyword Tool</strong></a><strong> </strong></p>
<p>This tool displays a lot of juicy information on the keywords we enter and other automatically generated related keywords list. Mainly, what we are looking for is:</p>
<ol>
<li>A list of keywords in conversion optimization domain (or your area) where we can rank</li>
<li>Particularly, we are interested in keywords that get most searches on Google (and similarly on other search engines)</li>
<li>If you want to do paid advertisements on Google (Adwords), we are looking for keywords with minimum competition, maximum search traffic and minimum cost</li>
</ol>
<p>Enter your main keyword in tool. For example, I enter “conversion rate optimization” as the keyword and get a long list of related keywords. To derive maximum information on these keywords select ‘Show All Columns’ from the drop down (‘Choose columns to display’) towards top right.</p>
<p><a href="https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137" title="Google's Keyword Tool" src="http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/tool.png" alt="Google's Keyword Tool" width="600" height="388" /></a></p>
<p>After you click on show all columns, you will see an image like the one above. You can note we have multiple data points here:</p>
<ol>
<li>Local monthly search      volume. Number of monthly searches from the region you have chosen (US,      India or any other region)</li>
<li>Global monthly search      volume. Number of monthly searches from the whole world for that      particular keyword.</li>
<li>Advertiser Competition. An      indication of how popular is this keyword from sales perspective (since      advertiser competition will be greatest on the keywords which generate      most sales). But then you want to avoid heavy competition as it will      decrease your visibility.</li>
<li>Estimated Cost Per Click.      If you bid for this keyword on Google, what should you expect to pay. In      this case the bid is in Indian National Rupee (INR), so don’t get alarmed <img src='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </li>
</ol>
<p>Let’s download all this information in MS Excel format to crunch some numbers. Click on Download all keywords (.csv for excel) towards the center right.</p>
<p><strong>Step 2</strong><strong>: Delete irrelevant keywords</strong></p>
<p>Open the freshly downloaded list of keywords and pour through it. You will notice that it may have many irrelevant keywords. In my case, I found a lot of keywords related to <em>currency conversion</em>. Delete all such keywords. Aim  to have a short list of keywords which closely relate to your area of operation.</p>
<p><strong>Step 3</strong><strong>: See competition on Google for remaining keywords</strong></p>
<p>In the list we have a field called advertiser competition. But that related to PPC campaigns on AdWords. For organic, natural search results (from SEO perspective) we want to know the competition on Google search. Ideally, it will be easy to rank on the keywords which have low competition.</p>
<p>A good proxy of competition on Google is the number of search results. So fire up Google.com and take each keyword, enter it into the search engine (you can try including the keyword inside double quotes to get finer results but searchers seldom use double quotes so best to enter keyword as it is) and note the number of search results. For example, the keyword “optimizing conversion” (without quotes) gets us 1,650,000 results while “improving conversion rates” gets us 3,930,000 results. This tells us that there is more competition for the latter keyword than the former. Make a new column in excel and for each keyword add number of search results into it. It may be bit tiring to repeat it for 30-40 odd keywords but trust me, it will be worth it.</p>
<p><strong>Step 4</strong><strong>: Do the magic!</strong></p>
<p>This is the step where we define our new metrics for each keyword (using the existing columns in the excel):</p>
<div style="border: 1px solid"><em>Organic Attractiveness</em> = Global Monthly Search Volume / Search Results on Google</div>
<p>Idea is that those keywords are most attractive for SEO which get  most searches on Google but have least competition.</p>
<div style="border: 1px solid"><em>PPC Attractiveness (Volume)</em> = Global Monthly Search Volume  / Adwords Advertiser Competition</div>
<p>This ranks keywords on bringing most traffic through AdWords CPC campaigns.</p>
<div style="border: 1px solid"><em>PPC Attractiveness (Budget)</em> = Global Monthly Search Volume  / Estimated Avg. CPC</div>
<p>This ranks keywords in your area which will be most pocket friendly.</p>
<div style="border: 1px solid"><em>PPC Attractiveness (Overall)</em> = Global Monthly Search Volume  / (Estimated Avg. CPC * Adwords Advertiser Competition)</div>
<p>This ranks keywords in your area which will be most pocket friendly and which bring in most traffic.</p>
<p>So, you simply add these four new columns and do simple calculations in Excel to get values for these four new metrics. (<em>Tip</em>: only do the calculation for the first keyword, drag the results down to all the rows to get values for all keywords automatically).</p>
<p><strong>Step 5: Sort the columns to get most important keywords</strong></p>
<p>Now all you have to do is sort the columns for Organic Attractiveness and PPC Attractiveness to know which keywords are best for SEO and PPC Campaigns respectively. In my case, for SEO (Organic Attractiveness) I get following keywords at the top:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/SEO-keywords.xls"><img class="size-full wp-image-139 aligncenter" title="Download Excel file" src="http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/excel.png" alt="Excel Screenshot" width="600" height="224" /></a></p>
<p>Click here to <a href="http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/SEO-keywords.xls">download the excel file</a>.</p>
<p>I marked some keywords in green to indicate the keywords which I think will turn out to be most useful. Red keyword (“conversion rate”) is too broad to be useful. And I left topmost keyword (“conversion tracking”) uncolored because Wingify doesn’t only concentrate in this to justify maximum effort into optimizing the website for it.</p>
<p>In the end I get keywords “landing page optimization”, “conversion rate optimization” and “conversion optimization” which will yield maximum benefit from SEO perspective. If I choose to advertise on Google through Adwords, all I have to do is to sort the column PPC Attractiveness (Volume or Budget or Overall) to get list of keywords on which I will be bidding first.</p>
<p>Let me know if you find this strategy useful by leaving a comment below.</p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/the-joke-of-long-tail-search-keywords/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: The joke of long tail search keywords'>The joke of long tail search keywords</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/only-three-metrics-matter-for-your-online-business/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Only three metrics matter for your online business'>Only three metrics matter for your online business</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/must-read-scientific-research-papers-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: From the bleeding edge: 10 must-read scientific research papers on conversion rate optimization'>From the bleeding edge: 10 must-read scientific research papers on conversion rate optimization</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/organic-and-ppc-attractiveness-two-new-metrics-for-a-scientific-seo-strategy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Your swiss-army knife for increasing website sales and conversions</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/your-swiss-army-knife-website-sales-and-conversions/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/your-swiss-army-knife-website-sales-and-conversions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:56:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversion Optimization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=132</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[All right, let&#8217;s admit it: increasing conversion rate on a website is still a voodoo science for many. With new technologies and terminology being thrown around (on Twitter, blogs, etc.) every other day, it doesn&#8217;t get any easier for people just starting to understand conversion optimization. In this post, I will try to briefly talk about [...]


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/seven-actionable-ideas-to-optimize-e-commerce-website-conversions-for-the-holiday-season/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Seven actionable ideas to optimize e-Commerce website conversions for the holiday season'>Seven actionable ideas to optimize e-Commerce website conversions for the holiday season</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/why-your-bounce-rate-is-high-and-how-to-fix-it-top-6-reasons/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website'>Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/stop-measuring-number-of-pageviews-on-your-website-measure-the-right-metric-visitor-lifetime-value/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Stop measuring number of pageviews on your website! Measure the right metric: Visitor Lifetime Value'>Stop measuring number of pageviews on your website! Measure the right metric: Visitor Lifetime Value</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fyour-swiss-army-knife-website-sales-and-conversions%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fyour-swiss-army-knife-website-sales-and-conversions%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>All right, let&#8217;s admit it: increasing conversion rate on a website is still a voodoo science for many. With new technologies and terminology being thrown around (on Twitter, blogs, etc.) every other day, it doesn&#8217;t get any easier for people just starting to understand conversion optimization. In this post, I will try to briefly talk about all technologies and methodologies being used today for extracting more juice out of existing traffic:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Web Analytics</strong> &#8211; the first step is to actually measure conversion rate of your website. Tools like <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/">Google Analytics</a>,  <a href="http://getclicky.com/">Clicky</a> and <a href="http://woopra.com">Woopra</a> make is quite simple to define your website goals and then measure the goal completion rate. Different tools may have different terminology but essentially every web analytics tool worth its salt with have ability to track conversions, knowledge of which is an absolute must. Think of it in this way: how can you optimize a metric if you don&#8217;t know what the metric&#8217;s value is. So if you are not measuring your conversion rate, you should forget about improving it.</li>
<li><strong>A/B Split Testing</strong> &#8211; these tools allow you to make different versions of your website in order to test which of it leads to maximum downloads, sales, signups or conversions. Main idea is to keep testing your ideas of what works and what doesn&#8217;t, instead of relying on intuition.  With introduction of easy to use tools such as (our very own) <a href="http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/">Visual Website Optimizer</a>, split testing has become a very simple, yet extremely effective methodology. Nothing beats increasing conversions than testing your ideas against hard, cold facts of your visitor clicks. <a href="http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer">Google Website Optimizer</a> is another tool for split testing which is available free of cost, though it does require technical understanding of HTML, page tagging, etc.</li>
<li><strong>Behavioral Targeting</strong> &#8211; this methodology requires extensive planning and segmenting of visitors into different groups to show customized offers/pricing/promotions. Ultimate idea of BT is that you  tailor  your website according to behavior of the visitor (e.g. number of pageviews, entry page, etc.). <a href="http://btbuckets.com">BTBuckets</a> and our <a href="http://www.wingify.com/labs.php">labs tools</a> are the ones which let you try and use behavioral targeting for conversion optimization.</li>
<li><strong>Clickmaps and heatmaps</strong> &#8211; these tools let you visualize which parts of your website get most clicks and which parts don&#8217;t get even a single click. Such tools come handy when you have doubt that perhaps your call-to-action is not very visible on the page. What these tools will tell you that while your button isn&#8217;t getting any click, people are clicking onto your bullet points (which are not hyperlinked) in search of more information. So perhaps it is a good idea to hyperlink those bullet points. <a href="http://crazyegg.com">Crazyegg</a> and <a href="http://www.clickdensity.com/">Clickdensity</a> are some of the most affordable tools  that let you generate a clickmap of your website.</li>
<li><strong>Visitor movies</strong> &#8211; tools such as <a href="http://www.clicktale.com/">Clicktale</a> and <a href="http://userfly.com/">Userfly</a> give you a magical power of peering over your visitor&#8217;s shoulder to see what exactly they are doing on your site. What these tools enable you to do is to see each and every action by your website visitors. The tools will literally replay all mouse moves, clicks, keypresses that a visitor does.  Though it ultimately becomes cumbersome and tiring to watch 100s of visitor movies, this method is still a fantastic way to gain qualitative insights.</li>
<li><strong>Voice of customer</strong> &#8211; when every other method fails, you should resort to surveying your visitors:  why exactly they didn&#8217;t make the purchase, was your pitch clear, did they understand what you are offering. All other tools tell you <em>what</em> is happening on your website, customer feedback tools such as <a href="http://www.kampyle.com/">Kampyle</a> or <a href="http://getsatisfaction.com/">GetSatisfation</a> tell you <em>why</em> it is happening.</li>
<li><strong>Live Chat</strong> &#8211; taking surveying users idea to next level, live chat tools (<a href="http://olark.com/">Olark</a> and  numerous other tools) actually let you chat with your live website visitors. They can ask you questions or you can initiate the conversation. Having a live chat feature on your landing page and sales page can help boost conversions because visitors may have N number of doubts which your page may not be clearing; chatting with you can answer most of their concerns.</li>
</ul>
<p>Apart from these categories, numerous other tools in search analytics, PPC analytics, affiliate management, etc. are available but the  above ones are the most useful ones. Even amongst the above, I will argue web analytics and split testing tools should be an absolute must for anybody serious about improving his/her website conversions.</p>
<p>Leave a comment here if you think you have additional toolssuggestions for conversion rate optimization which I missed here.</p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/seven-actionable-ideas-to-optimize-e-commerce-website-conversions-for-the-holiday-season/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Seven actionable ideas to optimize e-Commerce website conversions for the holiday season'>Seven actionable ideas to optimize e-Commerce website conversions for the holiday season</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/why-your-bounce-rate-is-high-and-how-to-fix-it-top-6-reasons/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website'>Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/stop-measuring-number-of-pageviews-on-your-website-measure-the-right-metric-visitor-lifetime-value/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Stop measuring number of pageviews on your website! Measure the right metric: Visitor Lifetime Value'>Stop measuring number of pageviews on your website! Measure the right metric: Visitor Lifetime Value</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/your-swiss-army-knife-website-sales-and-conversions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Introducing Visual Website Optimizer &#8211; 50 free beta invites</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/introducing-visual-website-optimizer-50-free-beta-invites/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/introducing-visual-website-optimizer-50-free-beta-invites/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:35:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Wingify News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=118</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sick of tearing your hair for doing a simple A/B test?  Do you seek help of highly paid consultants simply for testing whether a red button would increase conversions? Do you continuously churn ideas for improving your website but your developers are sick and tired of your regular code changes to the site? Do the terms page [...]


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/15-free-ab-split-testing-resources/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 15+ Free A/B Split Testing Resources'>15+ Free A/B Split Testing Resources</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/hello-world-welcome-your-buddy-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!'>Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/your-swiss-army-knife-website-sales-and-conversions/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Your swiss-army knife for increasing website sales and conversions'>Your swiss-army knife for increasing website sales and conversions</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fintroducing-visual-website-optimizer-50-free-beta-invites%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fintroducing-visual-website-optimizer-50-free-beta-invites%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>Sick of tearing your hair for doing a simple A/B test?  Do you seek help of highly paid consultants simply for testing whether a red button would increase conversions? Do you continuously churn ideas for improving your website but your developers are sick and tired of your regular code changes to the site? Do the terms page tagging, HTML and Javascript give you nightmares?</p>
<p>Despair no more, Ta-da! Introducing <a href="http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/">Visual Website Optimizer</a> &#8211; a <a href="http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/">hassle-free A/B, split and multivariate testing tool</a> that you can use with your eyes closed. Okay, a bit of exaggeration there but honestly VWO makes split testing super fun and dead simple.  Some of the VWO features which promise to make your life much, much easier:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Visually design website versions</strong> &#8211; you simply type in the URL of the site you want to optimize and your website loads into a visual designer where you can pick different elements (such as ad copy, headline, buy now button, etc.)</li>
<li><strong>Word-like WYSIWYG editor for making variations</strong> &#8211; once you are done picking important website elements, you use a WYSIWYG editor for making variations for it. Change text, upload images, change text color or do any other change you would like to test</li>
<li><strong>Choose a goal for your website</strong> &#8211; want to increase sales? increase downloads or signups? reduce bounce rate? Simply specify what goal you would like to optimize on the website for and you are done</li>
<li><strong>Add two simple snippets of code to your website</strong> &#8211; no page tagging, no code fiddling. Simple code needs to be added to the website and that too just for the first time. After that you can create unlimited number of tests from the interface <em>without ever having to touch the code again</em>. Hows that for simplicity?</li>
</ul>
<p>We won&#8217;t do self-praise here (even though we would love to), so here is what one of the initial beta testers has to say:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;[Visual Website Optimizer] does it so disruptively, embarrassingly better than Google does, that it puts a smile on my face&#8221; &#8211; <a href="http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/12/09/bringing-ab-testing-to-the-fortune-5-million/">Patrick McKenzie</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Of course, he is referring to a Google optimizer product you probably know about. Ask me privately on <a href="mailto:paras@wingify.com">email</a> if you don&#8217;t <img src='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Now for some <strong>Good News</strong>.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve got 50 free invites for this blog&#8217;s readers. Use the invite code &#8220;<strong>wingify-blog</strong>&#8221; (without quotes) while signing up for a free account here: <a href="http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com">http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com</a> Use it or share it, but do it fast as they won&#8217;t last long.</p>
<p>Also, you shouldn&#8217;t miss watching a quick (4 minute) video below which shows just how simple it really is to start increasing your conversion rates using Visual Website Optimizer:</p>
<div style="width: 100%; text-align: center;"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="344" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s98EEV4uYN8&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s98EEV4uYN8&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<p>Let me know your feedback on the new tool! Did you like it? Bugs, comments or praises &#8211; all sorts of feedback is welcome. Leave a comment here or email me at <a href="mailto:paras@wingify.com">paras@wingify.com</a></p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/15-free-ab-split-testing-resources/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 15+ Free A/B Split Testing Resources'>15+ Free A/B Split Testing Resources</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/hello-world-welcome-your-buddy-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!'>Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/your-swiss-army-knife-website-sales-and-conversions/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Your swiss-army knife for increasing website sales and conversions'>Your swiss-army knife for increasing website sales and conversions</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/introducing-visual-website-optimizer-50-free-beta-invites/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Wingify shortlisted for Econsultancy&#8217;s Innovation Awards</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/wingify-shortlisted-for-econsultancys-innovation-awards/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/wingify-shortlisted-for-econsultancys-innovation-awards/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:34:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=119</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just a quick post. We are too glad to be shortlisted for most innovative company in the domain of web analytics and optimization. You can see the whole shortlist here.


Related posts:Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!What web analytics should actually beThree effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/hello-world-welcome-your-buddy-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!'>Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/what-web-analytics-should-actually-be/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: What web analytics should actually be'>What web analytics should actually be</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/three-effective-tips-to-get-started-with-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization'>Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fwingify-shortlisted-for-econsultancys-innovation-awards%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fwingify-shortlisted-for-econsultancys-innovation-awards%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>Just a quick post. We are too glad to be shortlisted for most innovative company in the domain of web analytics and optimization. You can see the <a href="http://econsultancy.com/blog/5051-econsultancy-announces-innovation-awards-shortlist">whole shortlist here</a>.</p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/hello-world-welcome-your-buddy-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!'>Hello world, welcome your new buddy for Conversion Rate Optimization!</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/what-web-analytics-should-actually-be/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: What web analytics should actually be'>What web analytics should actually be</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/three-effective-tips-to-get-started-with-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization'>Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/wingify-shortlisted-for-econsultancys-innovation-awards/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Only three metrics matter for your online business</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/only-three-metrics-matter-for-your-online-business/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/only-three-metrics-matter-for-your-online-business/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:42:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversion Optimization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=115</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are number of metrics that startups and websites obsess on. Some of the most overanalyzed yet non-useful metrics are number of visitors or pageviews on a website. The reason startups get obsessive about them is that these metrics are easy to use and are no brainer. Just slap some code on the website and [...]


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/stop-measuring-number-of-pageviews-on-your-website-measure-the-right-metric-visitor-lifetime-value/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Stop measuring number of pageviews on your website! Measure the right metric: Visitor Lifetime Value'>Stop measuring number of pageviews on your website! Measure the right metric: Visitor Lifetime Value</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/organic-and-ppc-attractiveness-two-new-metrics-for-a-scientific-seo-strategy/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Organic and PPC Attractiveness: two new metrics for a scientific SEO strategy'>Organic and PPC Attractiveness: two new metrics for a scientific SEO strategy</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/why-your-bounce-rate-is-high-and-how-to-fix-it-top-6-reasons/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website'>Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fonly-three-metrics-matter-for-your-online-business%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fonly-three-metrics-matter-for-your-online-business%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>There are number of metrics that startups and websites obsess on. Some of the most overanalyzed yet non-useful metrics are number of visitors or pageviews on a website. The reason startups get obsessive about them is that these metrics are easy to use and are no brainer. Just slap some code on the website and you are ready to get insights on your startup’s progress, supposedly.</p>
<p>In fact, there are three metrics that a startup (or for that matter, any website or online business) should single mindedly obsess on accurately measuring and hence optimizing for:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Monthly growth in number of paid users</strong> – what is the number of paid users you have this month v/s you had last month? Is the difference positive month after month? Focusing on growing number of paid users month after month should be top priority because it is what ultimately brings more revenue and gives you confidence to achieve even more success. Any growth less than 50% should be a cause of worry for startups because during a startup’s early days you are looking for hyper-growth. Eventually the number would stabilize as the business stabilizes but during the first year or so target for more than 50% growth for sure. And if by chance, growth starts going towards the negative territory, you should get alarmed and act accordingly.</li>
<li><strong>Retention rate of existing paid users</strong> – how many of your existing paid users canceled your product/service this month? Is that figure decreasing month after month? This metric is complementary to the metric above (growth in paid users) because while the above metric helps you focus on acquiring new customers, this one helps you focus on retaining existing customers. If customer growth rate is high but retention rate is low, then no matter how many new customers you get this month, next month you are back to square one. If, on the other hand, you have good retention rate, you will build great momentum month after month. You should definitely go out of your way to retain existing customers. If they leave, do (polite) exit interviews. Ask them why they leave and fix it in your offering. A good retention rate that you should be targeting at would be 75-100%. This means no more than one fourth of your existing customers should cancel your product or service in a month.</li>
<li><strong>Monthly Revenue</strong> – the amount of revenue you are bringing in month after month. This is a n obviously important metric but a lot of startups just don’t focus on it as much as they would like to. Instead they start focusing on number of visitors or other such proxies. Monthly revenue ties together the above two metrics plus one more important ingredient: cross-selling or up-selling. If you are acquiring new customers and your existing customers are getting retained, are they purchasing more stuff from you than they currently do?  As your startup evolves, you and your customers should move up the value chain and you should continually find new avenues to provide value to your existing retained customers.  And in the process, make more revenue per customer.</li>
</ol>
<p>The three strategies of: a) getting new customers, b) retaining existing ones and c) up-selling and cross selling new offerings are not new. Management gurus have been discussing them for ages. Even then startups and websites get drowned in a flood of metrics and forget that they are there to make money.  They should better be optimizing how to make more money. And only way to optimize that is to focus on the right metrics. Do you agree?</p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/stop-measuring-number-of-pageviews-on-your-website-measure-the-right-metric-visitor-lifetime-value/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Stop measuring number of pageviews on your website! Measure the right metric: Visitor Lifetime Value'>Stop measuring number of pageviews on your website! Measure the right metric: Visitor Lifetime Value</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/organic-and-ppc-attractiveness-two-new-metrics-for-a-scientific-seo-strategy/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Organic and PPC Attractiveness: two new metrics for a scientific SEO strategy'>Organic and PPC Attractiveness: two new metrics for a scientific SEO strategy</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/why-your-bounce-rate-is-high-and-how-to-fix-it-top-6-reasons/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website'>Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>How to benchmark competition conversion rates using Alexa in two super simple steps</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/how-to-benchmark-competition-conversion-rates-using-alexa-in-two-super-simple-steps/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/how-to-benchmark-competition-conversion-rates-using-alexa-in-two-super-simple-steps/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:25:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversion Optimization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=107</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Let’s face the truth; Alexa is not the best source of traffic data out there on the Internet. Plus, it does not have statistics on conversion rates. But, hey, Alexa is free and we are going to use it to benchmark (approximately) the conversion rates for your competition. Here is how to do it two [...]


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/list-of-industry-standard-conversion-rates-and-bounce-rates/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: List of Industry Standard Conversion Rates and Bounce Rates'>List of Industry Standard Conversion Rates and Bounce Rates</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/what-web-analytics-should-actually-be/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: What web analytics should actually be'>What web analytics should actually be</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/is-bounce-rate-and-conversion-rate-related-short-answer-no/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Is bounce rate and conversion rate related? Short answer: No'>Is bounce rate and conversion rate related? Short answer: No</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fhow-to-benchmark-competition-conversion-rates-using-alexa-in-two-super-simple-steps%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Fhow-to-benchmark-competition-conversion-rates-using-alexa-in-two-super-simple-steps%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>Let’s face the truth; <a href="http://www.alexa.com/">Alexa</a> is not the best source of traffic data out there on the Internet. Plus, it does not have statistics on conversion rates. But, hey, Alexa is free and we are going to use it to benchmark (approximately) the conversion rates for your competition. Here is how to do it two simple steps:</p>
<p><strong>Step 1. Establish industry norms using your actual conversion rate data</strong></p>
<p>Suppose you are <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/">SEOMoz</a> (I am using this website as an example and have no real data for them) and you sell paid tools for SEO. Let’s suppose your current conversion rate is a conservative 4% (again, hypothetical data) and you want to estimate how your competitor <a href="http://seobook.com/">SEO Book</a> is doing.</p>
<p>You and your competitors (since it is the same industry after all) follow a similar trend when it comes to relationship between conversion rates and other site metrics such as bounce rate, time on site, and page views per user. In this step, we try to calculate values for parameters which relate conversion rate to all these metrics. Using your actual conversion rate data and the <a href="http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/seomoz.org">stats that Alexa shows</a> about your website, calculate X, Y and Z as the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Your Conversion Rate = <strong>X</strong> * (1 / Bounce Rate as shown by Alexa )</li>
<li>Your Conversion Rate = <strong>Y</strong> * Time Spent on Site as shown by Alexa (in seconds)</li>
<li>Your Conversion Rate = <strong>Z</strong> * Page views / user as shown by Alexa</li>
</ul>
<p>The reason we don’t use your actual bounce rate, time spent and page views data is because you don’t have that data for your competitors. You only know what Alexa says about your website and what Alexa says about your competitors. So it is better to work on the Alexa data that is freely available and uses the same methodology all across.</p>
<p>As an example of SEOMoz, Alexa tells the bounce rate, time spent on site and page views / user is 50.7%, 219.7 seconds and 3.2 respectively. Using this data, we get the values of X, Y and Z as:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>X</strong> = 4% / (1 / 50.7 %) = 201.6</li>
<li><strong>Y</strong> = 4% / 219.7 = 0.018</li>
<li><strong>Z</strong> = 4% / 3.2 = 1.25</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Step 2.  Use the parameters to estimate competitor’s conversion rate</strong></p>
<p>Now we have obtained the parameters which relate your actual conversion rate to the data that Alexa shows about your website. Next step is to simply use those parameters on your competitor’s data (as shown by Alexa) to get estimates of their conversion rate.</p>
<p>Competitor Conversion Rate:</p>
<ul>
<li>Estimate 1 = X * (1 / Competitor Bounce Rate as shown by Alexa)</li>
<li>Estimate 2 = Y * Competitor Time spent on Site as shown by Alexa</li>
<li>Estimate 3 = Z * Competitor Page views / user as shown by Alexa</li>
</ul>
<p>Finally, to get an idea of what their real conversion rate, we simply average the estimates.</p>
<p align="center"><strong>Competitor Conversion Rate = (Estimate 1 + Estimate 2 + Estimate 3) / 3</strong></p>
<p>Continuing the SEOMoz example, if we were to estimate the conversion rates for SEOBook, we calculate 3 estimates of conversion rate (based on the <a href="http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/seobook.com">data shown by Alexa for SEOBook</a>):</p>
<ul>
<li>Estimate 1 = 201.6 * (1/69.4) = 2.90%</li>
<li>Estimate 2 = 0.018 * 135 = 2.43%</li>
<li>Estimate 3 = 1.25 * 2.43 = 3.0%</li>
</ul>
<p>As you can observe, the estimates are quite close. Hence, we can be pretty confident that the actual conversion rate is close to the average of these three estimates, which is:</p>
<p align="center"><strong>Estimated conversion rate = 2.77% </strong></p>
<p>Of course, the above estimated value is only valid if the real conversion rate for SEOMoz that I assumed (4%) is true, which may or may not be the case as I don’t have access to their real web analytic data.</p>
<p><strong>Summary</strong></p>
<p>Simply plug in your conversion rates in the above methodology and you should have pretty good estimate on how you are doing as compared to your competitors. You can also try to triangulate your estimates by using other data sources (apart from Alexa) such as <a href="http://www.compete.com/">Compete.com</a> or <a href="http://www.quantcast.com/">Quantcast</a>.</p>
<p>Do let me know if you find this approach helpful.  As always, feedback and comments appreciated. Want a tool to automate all this analysis for you?</p>
<p>PS: <a href="http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/is-bounce-rate-and-conversion-rate-related-short-answer-no/">The way I define Bounce Rate and Conversion Rate</a>, they are not related.  But the way Alexa defines, the two metrics are definitely related.</p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/list-of-industry-standard-conversion-rates-and-bounce-rates/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: List of Industry Standard Conversion Rates and Bounce Rates'>List of Industry Standard Conversion Rates and Bounce Rates</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/what-web-analytics-should-actually-be/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: What web analytics should actually be'>What web analytics should actually be</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/is-bounce-rate-and-conversion-rate-related-short-answer-no/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Is bounce rate and conversion rate related? Short answer: No'>Is bounce rate and conversion rate related? Short answer: No</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>10+ Free Resources for Creating High Converting Call-to-Action Buttons</title>
		<link>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/free-resources-for-creatinghigh-converting-call-to-action-buttons/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/free-resources-for-creatinghigh-converting-call-to-action-buttons/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:05:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Wingify</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversion Optimization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/?p=99</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Lately, I have got quite a few requests for how effective call to action buttons are created in Photoshop. Though having persuasive text as call to action is important, button shape, size, color and style can also make a tremendous difference in conversion rates. So, here goes the list of free resources on creating buttons [...]


<strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/15-free-ab-split-testing-resources/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 15+ Free A/B Split Testing Resources'>15+ Free A/B Split Testing Resources</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/three-effective-tips-to-get-started-with-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization'>Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/why-your-bounce-rate-is-high-and-how-to-fix-it-top-6-reasons/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website'>Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Ffree-resources-for-creatinghigh-converting-call-to-action-buttons%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingify.com%2Fconversion-blog%2Ffree-resources-for-creatinghigh-converting-call-to-action-buttons%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p>Lately, I have got quite a few requests for how effective call to action buttons are created in Photoshop. Though having persuasive text as call to action is important, button shape, size, color and style can also make a tremendous difference in conversion rates. So, here goes the list of free resources on creating buttons that convert and examples to get you started:</p>
<p><strong><em>Photoshop Resources</em></strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/10/13/make-a-big-beautiful-call-to-action-button-in-photoshop/">Make A Big, Beautiful Call-To-Action Button In Photoshop</a> [Sitepoint.com]</li>
<li><a href="http://www.psdvault.com/text-effects/create-clean-and-fresh-call-to-action-button-embossing-text-effect-in-photoshop/">Create Clean and Fresh Call-to-Action Button + Embossing Text Effect in Photoshop</a> [PSDVault.com]</li>
<li><a href="http://woorkup.com/2009/11/15/how-to-design-call-to-action-buttons-with-photoshop/">How to Design Call-to-Action Buttons with Photoshop</a> [Woorkup.com]</li>
<li><a href="http://sixrevisions.com/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/how-to-create-a-slick-and-clean-button-in-photoshop/">How to Create a Slick and Clean Button in Photoshop</a> [SixRevisions.com]</li>
<li><a href="http://speckyboy.com/2009/08/11/30-useful-photoshop-buttons-and-badges-tutorials/">30 Useful Photoshop Buttons and Badges Tutorials</a> [SpeckyBoy.com]</li>
</ul>
<p><strong><em>Ideas for Buttons</em></strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/13/call-to-action-buttons-examples-and-best-practices/">Call to Action Buttons: Examples and Best Practices</a> [SmashingMagazine.com]</li>
<li><a href="http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/good-call-to-action-buttons/">Good Call to Action Buttons</a> [UXBooth.com]</li>
<li><a href="http://boagworld.com/design/10-techniques-for-an-effective-call-to-action">10 Techniques For An Effective ‘Call To Action’</a> [BoagWorld.com]</li>
<li><a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/10/12/5-tips-for-creating-an-effective-call-to-action-button/">5 Tips For Creating An Effective Call To Action Button</a> [SitePoint.com]</li>
<li><a href="http://xdxy.com/strong-call-to-action-button/">57 Strong Call to Action Buttons</a> [xdxy.com]</li>
</ul>
<p>This list is an ever expanding list, so feel free to suggest more (free) resources for call to action buttons. Leave a comment and I will add it in the list.</p>


<p><strong>Related posts</strong>:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/15-free-ab-split-testing-resources/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 15+ Free A/B Split Testing Resources'>15+ Free A/B Split Testing Resources</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/three-effective-tips-to-get-started-with-conversion-rate-optimization/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization'>Three effective tips to get started with conversion rate optimization</a></li><li><a href='http://www.wingify.com/conversion-blog/why-your-bounce-rate-is-high-and-how-to-fix-it-top-6-reasons/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website'>Why your bounce rate is high and how to fix it &#8211; top 6 reasons why visitors immediately exit your website</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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