Turning Web visitors into customers

Search engine marketing is the science of bringing targeted traffic to a website through the optimisation of specific phrases, allowing the website to be found and ranked on the first page of search results. This brings already qualified prospects to the website.

The next step is persuading visitors to enquire and purchase on-site. So what are the secrets to this illusive yet important element of successful online marketing?

After searching via a search engine, visitors arrive at your website with specific expectations and certain questions they want answered. If the search phrases your website is optimised with have been chosen carefully, based on phrase research, it should be easy to predict visitors' main expectations.

Visitor conversion strategies can be applied to any product or service. But, for the sake of simplicity, let's take for an example a hospitality establishment in Johannesburg.

If the phrase selected is 'safe accommodation Johannesburg' and the website appears in the first 10 results in Google, visitors finding the website through this search will expect that your service will include some sort of safety benefits, over and above accommodation. The visitor will probably find millions of websites offering great deals and a host of extras, but he or she is interested in safety.

The secret to successful visitor conversion is to build the website around the qualifying part of the phrase, in this case 'safety'. This offers a great way to differentiate a website and creates a strong competitive advantage.

Such a focussed marketing strategy also allows you to create the website content to answer the questions the visitor may have in mind. The search phrase the visitor chose shows that firstly, he or she has decided to visit Johannesburg and secondly, that safety is a major concern. Considering these clues, the questions may include:

What safety features do your establishment offer?
Which areas are safe to visit?
Will someone fetch me at the airport?
What safe activities can you recommend?

The answers to these questions will allow you to create relevant content for the website and allow you to tailor your offering to target visitors who are security conscious. If all the questions are answered comprehensively, setting the visitor's mind at ease that he or she will be safe in your establishment, you have probably acquired a new patron.

Choosing the right key phrases is essential, and in conjunction with visitor conversion strategies, your search engine marketing campaign will create a competitive advantage for your company and turn web visitors to customers.