Should Search Analytics Drive Online Content?
Deciding what content to serve on your website isn't so much a factor of what you want to sell as it is a factor of what your prospective customers want to buy. The good news is that they are telling you exactly what they want to buy every time they perform a search and wind up on your site. One of the most successful methods of content management I have used is determining the use of online real estate and creative through Search analytics. There is a direct correlation between search strings entered by users, creative messaging of both organic listings and paid listings, related landing page content, and conversion. For companies with a large variety of similar products to sell, and especially for those who sell experiences more so than physical products (leisure, travel, luxury, lifestyle sectors), riding the Search 'long tail' and creating A/B/n scenarios between Creative and related landing pages/page content can yield extremely high profit margins due to the low bid cost and considerably higher conversion rates (I have run these at up to 15%).
So, let's say you've done this for all your products and services, maxed out the long tail and hit the wall on conversion. What now?
I said earlier that customers are already telling you what they want. It is those customers who have searched for something, clicked on your site because they thought you might be able to sell them what they were looking for, and then left because you weren't selling it that we must consider. Search analytics can tell you everything people were looking for when they arrived at your site. Often it is the people who walked away who give great insight into existing demand for something you don't sell, but perhaps should.
The point is, don't just consider how to organize the content you already have- sometimes it is more profitable to create new content, and even products and services, to meet demand. A good Search Analytics Research model can deliver the information to make content related decisions with a very high degree of certainty.
