Key Term Conversion Rate
It may be that you are reading through this blog in order to optimize a non-commercial website, which is fine. However, chances are good that you are using search engine optimization as a means to increase qualified traffic to a business-related website. If this is the case, then the success of your efforts is more complicated than increased traffic. The real effect you’re going for is an increase in the number of conversions.
A conversion can be defined as a desirable action taken by a visitor to your website. This may be purchasing a product, providing lead information, subscribing to a newsletter, or whatever other action generates revenue for your business. In other words, it is when a visitor “converts” into a consumer, client, subscriber, etc. Tracking the conversion rate of your key terms complicates the whole situation a great deal, but it can be the most crucial factor in deciding the success or failure of your optimization efforts.
For example, if you rank well for a key term that generates 1000 unique visitors a day at a conversion rate of 0.5% and another, less popular term that produces 250 unique visitors a day who convert 2.5% of the time, the second term is producing more revenue even though it produces less traffic. If different conversions are also weighted differently, such as the amount of a sale, this can be further complicated by the net revenue per conversion for each key term.
This blog is not extensive enough to cover the topic in detail, but the point is that traffic is not the end-all, be-all of search engine optimization for a business. If your business is large enough, it may be worthwhile to purchase a tracking utility in order to learn which key terms are really driving your conversions. The information you gain can be more than worth the price.