By Robert Pryce
Head of Online Marketing
Search engine marketing has come a long way in such a short time. It has grown from obscurity ten years ago to an industry that spent $6.7bn on online advertising in the US alone last year (Source: eMarketer). The total size of the market occupies an ever increasing percentage of the marketing budget especially when you consider that this does not include the amount paid to search engine marketing firms.
Search engine marketing encompasses a whole spectrum of activities, far too numerous to mention, let alone cover in one short article. However one area that is often overlooked, but can be the difference between succeeding and failing online, is web traffic analysis, and in particular the HTTP referrer data within the web stats.
Whether your company is involved in sales, marketing, IT or customer service, traffic analysis consistently proves to be an invaluable tool. Web site traffic analysis has seen dramatic changes in the last ten years with the focus of attention changing. Where once it was used for analysing traffic patterns and how a site performs, it is now successfully used to:
- improve marketing campaigns
- monitor and increase conversion rates
- improve customer transactions and
- generally improve customer satisfaction.
So, what do I mean by the HTTP referrer? Although it may sound very technical it is in fact a fancy name for how people found your site or where they came from. When a person navigates between sites the browser temporarily stores some of the referring site's information and forwards it to the server of the destination site. This information is known as the refereeing information.
Depending on what analysis software you use, the most common and useful pieces of information are:
- Referring search engines
- Referring domains
- Referring URL's
- Referring search phrases
- Referring countries
Note: If you are using log files you must specify that you want to record the referrers as well the other information. Otherwise it will not appear.
Knowing this information about your visitor can help devise the optimal online strategy and help create the best copy for the website. This will ensure the best user experience for your target market. It will also inform if the content on the site matches the users expectations. Whilst there is a large amount of information that can be gleaned from the referrer, I will concentrate on six:
- Website Content: Content is one of the most important elements of any website. The two main reasons for this are (i)good copy is essential to improve organic listings and (ii)knowing what a user searches for before reaching your site can enable you to target the copy to encourage the best user experience possible. This results in increased sales, downloads or whatever the specific call-to-action (CTA) for the website is.
- Competitive Analysis: By analysing the search phrases you can determine which competitors are appearing ahead of you in the rankings and devise programs to target this dearth in your overall strategy.
- Pay-Per-Click Campaigns: If conducting pay-per-click programs such as Google Adwords or Overture, the referring search phrases are critical. As well as highlighting the terms that are driving targeted traffic, PPC campaigns highlight the terms that may not have been included in the original campaigns. They can also recommend the type of keyword matching to employ and if negative phrases should be included.
- Linking Opportunities: The referring URL highlights those sites with links to yours. Many webmasters are surprised at how many link to your site without prior permission. This is particularly true if you are seen as an industry leader or an authority on the subject matter.
While these links alone will have a positive effect on your organic visibility, you can contact the site owners directly to create a mutually beneficial arrangement such as an affiliate partnership. This can be particularly useful if you're selling a product. Also, as the site is deemed relevant by the referring sites, try to contact similar sites to see if they'd add a link to you.
- Geotargeting: Dependant on the product offering this information is useful for market penetration. If the target market is localised geotargeting is not important. However if the target market is global, it's imperative to determine the site's reach in each particular market.
- Search Engine Optimisation: By examining the referring search engine data you can determine which engines the site is performing well on, and those where more emphasis is needed.
When examining the traffic stats keep in mind that there are a number of reasons why the referrer does not appear. The most common is the firewall, both corporate and personal, and the fact that some browsers do not handle referrers correctly.
Remember the more information you have about your visitors the greater the possibility of meeting, and exceeding, their expectations.
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