Increase sales by NOT focusing on Google
We are changing our approach to eCommerce clients from now on, with a direct approach of boosting revenue and not trying to satisfy Google. The measure of any eCommerce business owner is the bottom line, so that’s what we’re here to do with a recent client’s experience as a perfect example.
What I learned
- Revenue should be the sole focus of any eCommerce business
- Allowing one company to control a revenue strategy is the best approach
- Big targets can be achieved with effort
- Focus on the user to please Google
Transcript
Hey, welcome back Rankers. Here you go. I want to show you a little bit about the way that we are working on eCommerce sites now because it`s changed significantly over the years and more recently, we`ve moved to more of a performance-based model for eCommerce clients. And the reason for that is that we can make a lot more money for them than focusing on traffic which is essentially what say SEO, PPC, paid ads in Facebook display, all that sort of thing. It`s traffic generation, even content to a large extent is about that brand recognition. But at the end of the day, where the rubber hits the road, is at the checkout. And for our eCommerce clients that`s how they measure whether they`re making money or not. Which is a pretty good measurement, right?
Revenue focus
So we finally convinced a client in October, at the end of September, to say look you need to let us look after your revenue and focus on that because up until that point, they had been sort of focused on no, you do the organic ranking and this company over here, you do the PPC and this company … and so they have this spread out in this sort of compartmentalized or siloed mindset. So he said okay, well we did $30,000 in September which was terrible. I need $100,000 in October. Wow, big call, okay. But there it is, we got it. We got $106k actually. There is another side, another profile which you can`t see here, which I am not showing you. But there is another $16,000 in addition to this $92k that you are seeing here. But what we did was focus on the important things to the user and that is A: “Have we got traffic there? And when the traffic does get there, are they converting easily? Can they find the things they want?” And you can see here that yes, we upped CPC traffic significantly, 61% for 134% increase in revenue. Direct traffic also increased in revenue by 216% and only a 56% increase in direct traffic. Google traffic, though, increased by 24%. We didn`t do any SEO that month right and yet Google traffic went up by 24% and revenue by 662% for organic.
Don’t focus on Google
Now when I say we didn`t do any SEO, we weren`t focusing on Google. We were not focused on Google when we are looking at this sort of stuff. We`re focused on the user. It just so happens that the things that are important to the user are important to Google. That`s why Google exists. Google has been very good at working out what users like and what users don`t like and then rewarding sites that deliver the things that users like. So that`s basically what we are doing when focused on revenue. And revenue just gives you such a pinpoint measurement that you can just know almost immediately and within the hour anyway, if it`s a busy site, how those changes have affected the users and more importantly, how it has affected your bottom line.
Hopefully, that`s helpful and just before we go, this is how we now set our goals for clients. Previously, it`s been around traffic metrics, all sorts of things but eCommerce clients, we say, okay, this is what you did in the last 12 months. This is what we are going to do in the next 12 months. Alright, so it`s as simple as that. Follow the money, show me the money. Hopefully, that`s helpful. See you next week. Bye.
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
