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Guest Blogging for Off-page SEO

What is Guest Blogging? Put simply, Guest Blogging is a content marketing and SEO technique where someone writes and publishes a blog post on a third-party website or blog to promote their personal/corporate brand (BigCommerce, n.d.). Guest blogging sites expose brands to a relevant audience and can be an effective method to generate awareness — but it is not without risk and must be done carefully and strategically to avoid Google penalty. Why Guest Blog? The first question that comes to many people’s minds when considering whether or not to author a guest blog is, “why would I share my knowledge and expertise to drive awareness on someone else’s site?” As with many considerations that people face in the digital marketing realm, I try to liken the question to a physical metaphor to help people see the value in an initiative. For example, my response to the above question (regardless of industry) would be along the lines of, “well, if you’re a professional fisherman trying to improve y
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Understanding Business Objectives and Conversion Rates

Conversion Rate is a critical metric for Web analytics because it is a representation of “where the rubber hits the road.” In other words, websites must exist to do something to further the needs of a business. And thus, conversion rates are the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that are most closely aligned with clearly defined business objectives. While many Web metrics are technical in nature, indicative of site performance and so forth, conversion rates are indicative of the website’s ability (if not the entire digital ecosystem’s ability) to generate real business value. 


Broadly defined, the website conversion rate shows the percentage of website visitors that take a desired action on your site. This action converts them from visitors to leads (or customers). The desired action might be downloading an ebook, signing up for a trial, completing a purchase, subscribing to a course, downloading a mobile app, booking a demo, or something else (Geckoboard, n.d.). The key takeaway here is that in order to properly understand conversion rates, one must properly understand what constitutes a conversion, which requires clear understanding and articulation of a goal, which can only be derived by clearly stated business objectives. For example, the very definition of a conversion rate “reads” like the business objective it is intended to convey:


  • “What percentage of visitors actually signed up for our newsletter after visiting the new services page?”
    • Conversion rate = newsletter signups / services page visitors
  • “What percentage of women ages 45-54 in Virginia bought wine after visiting from Facebook?”
    • Conversion rate = in-segment eCommerce transactions / Facebook referrals

Another critical aspect of “overall” conversion rates is the importance of “sub-conversion rates” and their ability to illustrate failed steps of the funnel path. For example, any overall conversion rate is the product of its stepwise conversion rates, as indicated in Figure 1. Thus, not only must we have goals for the top-of-funnel (ToFu) to transaction conversion rate, but we must also have goals for each step of the way. 




Typical conversion rates also vary widely by industry, and appropriate consideration must be paid when deriving strategy to ensure we are benchmarking against relevant competitive data sets. As illustrated in Figure 2, if we were making sales projections for a Sports and Recreation eCommerce site based on data from Arts and Crafts sales, we would likely be off by over 100% (Chaffey, 2021). 




Similarly, conversion rates will also vary widely depending on visitor state, for example new versus returning visitors. The way a first-time visitor interacts with a site is very different from how a returning visitor interacts. To improve first-time visitors conversions, you have to isolate this metric from the conversion rates of your loyal or returning customers. See what they’re interested in when they visit the website for the first time and how you can improve that experience. (Patel, n.d.). When analyzing returning visitor conversion rates, there are two questions to be asked. First, why did the person return? And second, did the person convert the first time around? And if not, how can you convert them the second time they visit your site? (Patel, n.d.)


Given the differences in conversion rates between new and returning visitors, conversion rate targets must be designed according to the customer journey. For example, many first-time visitors may be arriving at a site through brand awareness campaigns such as thought leadership pieces or organically finding blog articles, whereas returning visitors may have already progressed past brand awareness and are now in the consideration or education phase. Many different techniques can be employed to engage these visitors with higher intent, possibly returning for their second, third or more visit, in order to drive conversions. Messaging with greater intensity and affinity must be deployed that urge a prospect to take action. Conversion rate analysis based on the same customer segment but identified to be at different stages of their journey, can provide deep insight in content marketing and lead gen initiatives. 
 
References
Geckoboard. (n.d.) Retrieved from: https://www.geckoboard.com/best-practice/kpi-examples/website-conversion-rate/
Chaffey, Dave. (23 February 2021). E-commerce conversion rates 2021 – how do yours compare? SmartInsights. Retrieved from: https://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/ecommerce-analytics/ecommerce-conversion-rates/
Patel, Neil. (n.d.) The 8 Most Important Conversion Metrics You Should Be Tracking. Neil Patel Blog. Retrieved from: https://neilpatel.com/blog/the-8-most-important-conversion-metrics-you-should-be-tracking/

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