SEO and adherence

I have been doing research on SEO techniques by creating a number of sites and then doing different forms of search engine optimization for them. Much of what I’ve found is what various articles have said, however these are just reiteration. First of all, it seems that Google is measuring the bounce rate by detecting how long it takes for a person who entered a site to return to their search (at least that’s my guess). I believe this because any site that I rank up but has poor design and a high bounce rate quickly ranks down. On the other hand, sites that stand alone and viewers stay on them for a long time rise in rank.

Although there are only a few sites measured for this and there are many other factors that make the level of confidence in how tightness impacts ranking uncertain, it would make sense for Google to care about this measurement. Radfish (2005) wrote that Google already uses stickiness within its AdSense to determine the relevance of an ad in a specific area. Radfish further stated the belief that Google could use Urchin Tracker to read what users do on a site and thus rank the site with this.

In other words, it’s important to make sure your site has a high level of stickiness before you start your SEO marketing campaign. For small sites and businesses, many of the methods used to determine this are not available as they are beyond their budgets. However, PPC and rich media marketing tactics can be used to measure this quite cheaply.

Start by creating some landing pages and directing different ads to different pages. See which customers stay the longest and which ones are most likely to convert. View clickstreams to determine strengths and weaknesses within the website and make adjustments, removing and adding new landing pages.

Interactive elements can increase engagement, but only if they make sense for the site. Having a unique look that speaks to users who you’re trying to draw, and easy to navigate elements is perhaps more important for creating stickiness than any technology.

Of course, your attempts to build stickiness and SEO shouldn’t interfere with your attempts to get conversions. Remember that conversions are the reason for most websites (with the exception of ad-based revenue sites). If your SEO drops a few places but your site gets a higher conversion rate, then you may be better off.

This same thought can be reflected in the title which, if well written, can attract more clicks than titles, which would give a website a higher position. Balancing these things is often difficult as it is impossible to say for sure what search engines are looking for on a website, so one cannot know how much different titles would rank up or down and how much conversions would increase. . Click-through and conversion rates can be tested using titles in PPC advertising. If there is a drastic difference between click-through rates and conversions for different titles, it would probably be better to choose the title that has a better conversion rate instead of the one that is a perfect fit for your keywords.
Radfish (2005, July 12) http://www.seomoz.org/blog/stickiness-of-sites-affecting-rankings