Focus: How site design impacts core business metrics when customers come from Google Adwords
Over the past 18 months, our firm has been involved in extensive longitudinal usability testing and SEO research for several large client web sites. During that time, we have also conducted independent analysis of the relationship between Google Adwords keyword presentation technology and web site design. One important research question has been to what extent should a site’s information architecture and interactive brand experience be driven by Adwords reference logic. Does site design impact customer acquisition rates when potential customers visit through Adwords references?
We discovered that aligning carefully vetted keywords with web site information architecture and design significantly improves basic business metrics. Increased number of uniques, page views, time on site, number of repeat visits, and navigation pathways for critical cross-sell categories is achieved by designing a web site where all keywords are delivered to highly refined landing pages. These specialized pages contain some or all of the following attributes:
- Prominent replication of search keyword(s) from the visitors initial search query
- Presentation of a compelling image and value proposition tied to keyword content
- Directly accessible short text supporting the AdWords value proposition tag line
Below are 3 links to our new Beta site which is based on this initial research. The 3 key word links replicate AdWords delivery targets for: Usability Testing and User Experience Design. Furthermore, we discovered that metrics on second level content under a business category can also be improved by using these same principals. The example included in the links below is the page for our research service on Eye-tracking.
By selecting these 3 links, you experience exactly what visitors see when selecting one of our live Adwords ads on Google. You will notice that the site is basically comprised of 3 stacked home/landing pages with some duplicated content determined by examination of Adwords log files from our prior research sites. The initial testing of the new site has revealed significantly improved core metrics, but more important, a higher frequency of cross-sell across major service categories.
Special request: please do not use our active Adwords ads running on Google to test the site. Each real click consumes ad dollars. Please use the sample ads or links below. Also, depending on when you visit our site from the links below you may encounter minor variations in terminology on the actual pages. We have on-gong research focused on refining our understanding of how Google Adwards impacts web site design.
2007 User Experience Design Review
Click link to download PDF copy: MauroNewMedia 2007 User Experience Design Review
MauroNewMedia, Inc
23 East 73rd. Street Suite 5F
New York, NY 10021
V 212.343.2878 E 101
Skype mauro.charles
Certified Human Factors Engineering Professionals
Copyright MauroNewMedia 2008 all rights reserved
