'Net Features : engine ready

SEO vs. PPC: The Engine Ready Study

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:04:00 GMT

It's the one discussion that every Website promoter wants to know - which traffic source is more valuable when it comes to conversion.

Search marketing service and software provider Engine Ready released an update to its ongoing study which compares conversion data of visitors arriving on sites from PPC ads, organic listings, other websites and direction navigation (typing the URL). Results of the Engine Ready study can be downloaded here (free, registration required).

"For quite some time, marketers have debated which investment tends to generate higher returns, pay per click or search engine optimization", reports Engine Ready CEO Jamie Smith. "This study prepared by the Engine Ready Research Team hoped to bring some clarity to that discussion by analyzing ROI and visitor engagement metrics with the intent to provide marketers with a better vision on which types of visitors most cost-effectively meet their goals".

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SEM Call Tracking: Which 800 Number Performs Best?

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:38:00 GMT

Search marketing software company Engine Ready released an interesting study on how toll-free numbers are treated.

Engine Ready used its call tracking software to create a test to determine if the use of various toll-free prefixes produced different conversion rates, measuring the impact of those different prefixes on call-in conversions and online conversions.

The sample included 18,100 visits to one lead generation site. All visits were from paid search ads in Google and resulted in 2,614 combined call-in and online conversions. The visits were split evenly among 4 distinct landing pages, each page displaying a different toll free number. Other than the different phone numbers, the landing pages were identical. All visits were recorded during the 1st quarter of 2009.

Two interesting results from the study include:

- The highest conversion rate corresponded to the 800 prefix (the oldest of the 800s) and the lowest conversion rate corresponded to the 866 prefix (the newest of the 800s). Thus, the age of the prefix appears to directly impact the call-in conversion rate.

- The toll-free prefix that accompanied the page yielding the highest online conversion rate was "888", followed closely by "866". The impact on online conversions was less than conclusive.

Some good insights can be drawn from the study; namely, that these 800 prefixes do matter. As a result, it's important to perform testing to see if there are opportunities to increase conversion rates. A write up of the 800 prefix and SEM study is available at EngineReady.com.

Conversion Critic: Analyze Landing Page

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:15:00 GMT

Search marketing agency Engine Ready released ConversionCritic today, an online tool for search marketers designed to help them analyze and improve landing pages. The service is free of charge right now and is definitely worth a look if you're aiming at generating a few more sales from landing pages.

ConversionCritic scores pages based on 37 criteria, for example, "Does the copy focus more on selling the benefits versus the features of the product or service?" The tool then provides feedback on the marketing effectiveness, offer clarity, readability and engagement or suggested modifications of the landing page. I tested Website Magazine's new professional membership landing page and was pleased with the results, but did see some room for improvement.

“The dynamics that persuade a visitor to be your customer are numerous and complex, and depend on your product/service offering, competitive influences and the demographics of your target audience,” reports Engine Ready’s CEO Jamie Smith. “ConversionCritic is a great online tool for search marketers to see exactly which on-page factors are contributing to higher conversions and what improvements are needed to further increase the conversion rate.”