Monthly Article

By: Greg Jenkins

"Sticky" Sites Yield More Traffic:
Length of stay and page depth improves conversions

Search engines in the past were quite simple. They were mere machines that connected your potential customer's search terms with the words properly coded into your Website. Over night you could go from no visibility in search engines to number 1 ranking under several keywords simultaneously. The only way Google, Yahoo, AOL and the other search engines could estimate how your listing stacked up to your competitors' in terms of user appeal was by comparing the number of clicks you received and the quality and count of any sites that also linked to you. This began to change with the advent of the search toolbar; rather than losing the user when he or she left the search page, any of the various Google, AOL or other toolbars or desktop interfaces could now track search habits continuously. Search engines began to monitor not only search terms but also online behavior, such as a user's length of stay on a Website and the number of pages viewed after arrival. What does this shift mean to the success of a company or organization's website? The longer searchers stay on your site and the deeper they click into your pages, or the "stickier" your site is, the better you stack up to your competition in search results. Better and more relevant search results have a compounding effect for your site, leading to better rankings and more traffic.

The good news is, "stickiness" improves how your site is perceived by the search engines and it also naturally lends to a higher conversion rate; more qualified leads, bigger purchases and greater dissemination of information.

On average well over 90% of visitors never go beyond a Website's homepage. In many cases this number is as high as 98% to 99% so only 1% or 2% of potential customers penetrate beyond the homepage.

A firm understanding of what appeals to your target audience creates synergy between your customers and the search engines. The big debate in the marketing discipline is whether marketing is an art, a science, or a set of technologies. According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), marketing is the "management process of anticipating, identifying and satisfying customer requirements profitably." Brian Norris famously said "if it doesn't facilitate a sale then it's not marketing." Your website is possibly the best technology available to determine, hone in on, and respond to the habits of your target audience - and requires formulaic (scientific) as well as creative (artistic) flexibility.

When selecting a Web developer, choose a firm whose Web designers understand the user experience. Be sure their programmers write code which is both logical and dynamic (flexible!) and check that the marketing team has access to market intelligence and understands analytic measurement. In so doing the search engines of today will reward you for a job well done tomorrow.