Website Optimization Starts with Accurate Tracking

The owners of Shower Door Experts, a custom shower door company located near Frederick, Maryland (MD), knew that in order to take their business to the next level, they'd need to improve their website. Like many small business owners, they were already somewhat familiar with the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) and had recently revised their website. However, they knew there was more that could (and should) be done to maximize their online marketing performance.

Company President, Tom Huck, is a no non-sense kind of guy. From day one, he fully understood that the first step to get more online leads was accurate measurement and tracking. He engaged Blue Corona's marketing analytics team to accurately track every aspect of his website - including the phone calls generated from various online traffic strategies.  

Knowing exactly how many visitors their site was getting, where each visitor came from and which traffic sources generated the most leads was critical information for Tom and his team. Think about your business for a moment...

• Do you really know how much website traffic you're getting from non-branded organic searches?
• Exactly how many leads you get as a result?
• Your website's true cost-per-lead from each online traffic source?

You Can't Maximize What You Don't Accurately Measure

Without this information, it's impossible to make the best decisions with respect to SEO and/or improving your website as a lead generation tool. And where do you think consumers go when they're looking for a new custom shower door? You guessed it - the Internet.

Take a look at the impact Blue Corona's SEO efforts have had on SDE's website since the first month of tracking in April 2009:

Note:  We've blurred the exact traffic numbers, but traffic has more than doubled

SEO Results

There are three primary ways visitors can find your website - direct (they remember your URL or website address and type it directly into their browser or return to your site via a bookmark), referral (paid or free - a website that has a link to your website - examples include yellow page sites, Facebook, etc.) and search engines.  Remember - this traffic growth was almost entirely from organic search as a result of Blue Corona's SEO efforts. 

Take a look at this graph:

Traffic from organic search increased over 150% from the baseline (pre-SEO) period to the month following the SEO work! Increased traffic is great, but what most small business owners really want when they invest in SEO is more leads (sales, revenue and profit!).

Increasing Online Leads

Traffic is good, but leads are better! Here's a look at SDE's online leads - from the baseline data period of April 2009 through the post SEO phase in October 2009:

Note: Again, numbers have been blurred for privacy purposes, but online leads have increased by more than 220%!

Website Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

The increased traffic to SDE's website resulted in more online leads, but changes to their site derived from Blue Corona's marketing analytics service improved their online conversion rates from .78% in April 2009 to 3.01% in October 2009.

The Importance of Call Tracking

Many home service businesses make the mistake of only tracking their online lead activity. Certainly, tracking web leads is better than tracking nothing at all, but look at how many inquiries SDE receives from the web via phone call:

The good news is that the phone inquiries mirror the increases seen in the online leads!

Conclusion

If you'd like to measurably improve the performance of your company's website or learn more about the benefits of tracking your website, join Blue Corona for one of our free weekly webinars or drop us a line today!