A client’s website had a ranking of 18 for their primary target keywords on the second page of Google’s natural search engine results. Considering the number of companies competing for a high ranking on this keyword, a position on the second page seemed like a good accomplishment, but the volume of sales leads was disappointing.

SEO Works

We focused our optimization efforts on improving the natural keyword ranking for this one target keyword. After some time and effort, the ranking for the keyword first moved to the number 9 position, and then to the number 4 position of the first page search engine results. The improved search engine ranking for this single keyword generated an increase in sales leads far more than expected, which subsequently converted to an increase in sales revenue amounting to over $1,000,000.

Tracking the Moves

The list below shows the search engine ranking relative to the number of sales leads that were generated from the company’s primary target keyword:

• Nov 08 – position 18 = 6 leads
• Dec 08 – position 9 = 31 leads
• Jan 09 – position 9 = 126 leads
• Feb 09 – position 4 = 102 leads
• Mar 09 – position 4 = 207 leads
• Apr 09 – position 4= 221 leads

Summary of Results

The increase in the number of monthly sales leads can be seen as the target keyword ranking moved up over the six month time period. The full benefit of the keyword moving from the 18^th to the 9^th position is reflected in the January total because the change occurred later in the month of December. The same applies to the move from position 9 to position 4 because the change occurred later in February.

For online marketing managers and business owners who are wondering about the difference between having a major keyword listing on the first page of search results compared to the second page of results, this case study should provide some insight based on our experience.

It also shows an example of the potential benefit from having keyword search results listed above the fold of a web page as opposed to below the fold where viewers must scroll down to see more search listings.

Based on these results, there is clear evidence that a higher organic search engine ranking can dramatically affect sales lead generation and company revenue, in this case over $1,000,000.

Results provided by 10th Degree online advertising agency, and Jazel auto dealer websites.

Thinking too small. Overestimating the size of a market is a common mistake for affiliate sellers as they tend to forgot that they will only ever be able to capture the percentage of it that is being offered by merchants. This site selling snowboards for example may be able to survive, but seeing as they will only pass on around 10% of the profits to affiliates, it is unlikely that affiliates sites could servive in such a niche. What affiliate sites should do is broaden the horizons and cover, in this case, all extreme sports for example, not just snowboarding.

Thinking too large. When products cost a great deal of money, like buying a swimming pool or luxury cruises for example, sellers take a lot of time over their decisions.It is quite rare for buyers to follow affiliate links for expensive goods or services and then buy them on the same day. They will spend time pondering, weighing the options and doing further research for example. And by the time they come to make the purchase the tracking cookie or alternative will have expired in lots of cases. Sticking to smaller items including gifts and downloads is far more likely to get results and people are more likely to buy these quickly.

Not strong enough. With any successful market it is not long before it attracts quite a crowd, and you find that you are not only competing with lots more affiliate marketers, but on top of that you have to try and boost your profile over the online merchant. Of course, whilst they are marketing themselves with the goal of getting 100% of the sale, you are marketing for usually a much smaller percentage. This means you need to stay one step ahead of the game if you want to turn any sort of profit.

In the past 50 years every business owner had to change their views that only a good product is enough for being successful. Everyone knew immeditately what the few companies were offering as something new. Almost everyone knew what was offered in a very short time. Everyone got to know this in the shortest time. There was not the problem of marketing something.

The providers are now the majority and the consumers determine what shall be produced and to what price it should be offered. The consumers are dictating the price and everyone is trying to court them to their favor.

A mix of good working ad methods is the key for attracting the target group you are trying to achieve? Well, marketing is the answer but it is wise to use methods which are wiser than just the old-fashioned ways of advertising. TV spots, newspaper ads, billboard ads all do have one thing in common: All are not cheap and all of them do have a certain wastage level, that means a certain percentage of the target audience attainment will be lost.

Now, the internet comes into play. What wasn’t possible with classic ads is now reachable. The talk is about spreading your ad message to your exact target audience with a precision rate of almost 100%. Among internet basedword-of-mouth marketing (Empfehlungsmarketing in german)and other forms of ad types a new search engine based ad method has arisen.

A big benefit of these ads is that you only pay when someone really clicks on your ad, whereas you always have to you pay when it comes to tv spots. Another advantage is the fact that you only pay for one click/or visitor when someone really clicks on your ad, not for just seeing it like a TV spot.

Although this sounds almost too good to be true a business man has to keep in mind that you will get these visitors you to your website but this doesn’t mean that these will immediately buy your products.

Both your website and your keywords and ads must be optimized in such a way that the conversion rate will rise. So, it’s sometimes even necessary to display different versions of your website (landing pages) depending on what kind of keyword the user typed into Google.

“Adwords doesn’t work” is generally heard from those who could not get success from using it. However, these people apparantly don’t know all the small but nitty-gritty details of Google Adwords. An Adwords Optimization is indispensable if you want to harness all the benefits of Adwords (translated into german: Adwords Optimierung).

This will cause a lot of advantages: Your ads will be adjusted to the keywords, the costs per click will be lower and you will find a lot of better converting keywords.