A Formula for Success

Keyword value is best assessed by a combination of metrics

May 2006 By Michael Stebbins

multipage

Five years ago, extra doughnuts and rich coffee were bestowed on anyone who could provide the top 10 keywords that brought visitors to the company Web site. Two years ago, it was hip to show which keywords generated the most revenue—and the worthy marketer might earn some bran muffins and a chai. Today, bragging rights go to marketers who can assess keyword value based on visitor volume, revenue, conversion and perhaps the most important Web marketing metric: time on site.

Here’s a look at the criteria and limitations of some of these most common metrics to measure keyword success, and a look at one selection strategy I’ve found to be particularly effective.



Volume Isn’t Enough

Most online marketers rely on Web analytics tools and use Web log files or “JavaScript page tagging” to report the keywords that brought the most visitors to the Web site. Volume keyword lists can be very long, and as it turns out, not very helpful. They’re not the best way to decide which keywords to invest in. Marketers may love high volume, but in the online marketing world, volume has little value if there isn’t a subsequent interest in your site’s content. Anyone can post an over-promising ad and bring unqualified—and slightly gullible—visitors to their site. After seeing the irrelevant homepage, the visitor who was “duped” into coming to the site simply will leave. If you’re going to put some marketing dollars behind your top keywords, you’ve got to measure the volume, not of all visitors, but of engaged visitors.

Revenue Isn’t Enough

I’ll admit it: My first attempt at generating a keyword list was an effort that was bran muffin-worthy: I based all my keyword suggestions solely on revenue. After all, revenue is the ultimate measurement of any campaign, right? Well, not really. Let’s take a look at why that is.

First, while we’d like to think that a Web analytics tool can account for all revenue, the reality is that it can’t. Certainly, it catches enough of the online sales to see some trends, but not enough to be the sole basis on which to make keyword decisions. Second, a long sales cycle might disassociate revenue from current valuable visitors. In this situation, too, we have holes in the reliability of ROI on its own. And, these factors don’t take into account the visitors that almost bought—the ones who came to the site, added items to their cart and then seemingly disappeared into thin air. Suffice it to say that while revenue is the measurement of my marketing, Web site and product value, it really shouldn’t be the sole indicator of keyword value.

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