A Question For SEO Experts

[Jeb Binkley]

Hello Fellow Warriors,

I have worked diligently over the past few months setting up my online store and just recently achieved the number #1 position in Google for the word keyword phrase I was targeting. Unfortunately, I have not seen the increase in traffic to my website that I was looking for.

To help you better understand my situation; let me give some more details on the matter. The website is beautyfragrances.net and the keyword phrase is women's fragrances. The website appears #1 in Google when I type women’s fragrances, “women’s fragrances”, womens fragrances, and “womens fragrances”.

When I use Google's Adwords: Keyword Tool, my two word keyword phrase delivers these results under the "Local Search Volume" Category:

Broad - 165,000
Phrase - 110,00
Exact - 90,000

Taking the Exact monthly number, I would expect to see roughly 90,000 / 30 days = 3,000 visitors a day. Assuming not everyone who searches for this term clicks on the #1 Google result, let's say only 50% do, so now I except to see approximately 1,500 visitors a day.

I use Host Gator, so going through my cpanel, I check my visits per day under the provided "Website Traffic" box and only see ~50 visits per day. That is a factor of ~30 less than what was calculated above.

What am I missing here? I have taken a look at the other website titles and descriptions that pop up along with my website during the Google search and they seem to be similar. In other words, I don't think I'm losing much traffic to my competition. Although I'm #1 in Google, there are Sponsored Links (3 of them) that appear before my site's listing. Do the majority of visitors go there and to the side Sponsored Links?

Any information or direction to resources would be beneficial. Once I establish a "good" amount of traffic to my site, I can then concentrate on creating a better converting website etc. Thank you for your time warriors.

[thecableguy]

I think that Google's tool is more for Adwords advertisers and reflect the CONTENT network as well as the search network, plus singular and plural, etc. According to some other tools that use organic results there's only about 8 searches a day.

Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from Wordtracker

Sometimes Google is more accurate and sometimes the other tools are more accurate, so I cross check the results and if it's kinda close I'll go for it, but if not I'm kinda wary. I did the same thing several times. I forget the breakdown MarketSamurai gave, but I think the #1 listing could expect 42%, and the others were under 10%.

And BTW I find that using Hostgator's Awstats and scrolling to the bottom under Search Terms (or something) give a more accurate count of your visitors. The Unique hits at the top of the page shows the number of files downloaded (images) and not the real visitor count.

[jazbo]

The Google volumes are estimates. Also the average clickthrough rate for position 1 of a Google search is around 43%.

I am seeing a discrepancy in the Google keyword tool results you are quoting. USA targeted search volumes for "womens fragrances" as a broad term shows as:

local search volume:22,100
Global search volume: 18,100

As you are only number one in Google USA ( you are not even on the top two pages in Google UK) this explains why your search volums are lower than expected - you are only number 1 on Google.com but you have quoted global search volumes.

[Jeb Binkley]

Originally Posted by alanfukuda

According to some other tools that use organic results there's only about 8 searches a day.

Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from Wordtracker

Sometimes Google is more accurate and sometimes the other tools are more accurate, so I cross check the results and if it's kinda close I'll go for it, but if not I'm kinda wary.

That's a big difference between the two 3000 vs. 8. That would help explain the traffic results that I am seeing though. Hopefully that is not the answer because that would be a lot of time wasted on my part

[NickArnold]

I just searched for Women's Fragrances and Womens Fragrances and you were appearing #8... I guess not everyone is getting that far.

Didn't check using quotes, but nobody searches using quotes anyway.

[Liam Hamer]

According to Micro Niche Finder, 'womens fragrances' gets 9,900 searches per month, which is 330 per day. I'd still be expecting you to get 100 or so hits per day if you are number 1 though. Are you making many sales from the traffic you get? To be honest, I think your site is nice, but it doesn't quite have that professional shine that some of your competitors have. Big congrats on getting the number 1 spot though

Edit: as others have said, you are number 8 in the UK, but you do hold the number 1 spot on Google.com.

[Jeb Binkley]

Originally Posted by jazbo

The Google volumes are estimates. Also the average clickthrough rate for position 1 of a Google search is around 43%.

I am seeing a discrepancy in the Google keyword tool results you are quoting. USA targeted search volumes for "womens fragrances" as a broad term shows as:

local search volume:22,100
Global search volume: 18,100

The Google keyword tool results listed in my original post are for the keyword phrase women's fragrances. They are for USA targeted search volumes.

[Jeb Binkley]

Originally Posted by Liam Hamer

According to Micro Niche Finder, 'womens fragrances' gets 9,900 searches per month, which is 330 per day. I'd still be expecting you to get 100 or so hits per day if you are number 1 though.

A hundred hits per day would be nice from that keyword phrase. The site gets a total of ~50 hits a day from all different sources and keyword phrases.

Originally Posted by Liam Hamer

To be honest, I think your site is nice, but it doesn't quite have that professional shine that some of your competitors have.

I agree with you and would like to focus on my site's design and conversion ratio once I figure out the traffic issues.

Originally Posted by Liam Hamer

Big congrats on getting the number 1 spot though

Thank you. I learned everything from this forum. A great resource.

[randypatok]

I checked your keyword "womens fragrances" using Market Samurai. The average number of people searches for this keyword daily is "891" and the maximum potential daily clicks for the #1 rank site for this keyword could potentially achieve is "374"... okay details below.

KEYWORD SEARCHES SEOT(Traffic)
womens fragrances 891 374
womens fragrance 1,627 683
women’s fragrances 27,058 11,364


I think the problem is the .net extension. In my own opinion I rather go for the .com because I am used to it. And I noticed the number 2 rank in Google SERP has the same TITLE TAG you have and their extension is .COM

Just my Point of View

[Jeb Binkley]

Originally Posted by randypatok

I checked your keyword "womens fragrances" using Market Samurai. The average number of people searches for this keyword daily is "891" and the maximum potential daily clicks for the #1 rank site for this keyword could potentially achieve is "374"... okay details below.

KEYWORD SEARCHES SEOT(Traffic)
womens fragrances 891 374
womens fragrance 1,627 683
women’s fragrances 27,058 11,364

Wow ... 11,364 for women's fragrances and I am only getting < 50. See why I posted this thread for.

[thecableguy]

Originally Posted by jbinkley

That's a big difference between the two 3000 vs. 8. That would help explain the traffic results that I am seeing though. Hopefully that is not the answer because that would be a lot of time wasted on my part

Yeah I did the same thing only it was the other way around, Wordtracker was showing over 700 searches a day for a keyword, I reached #1 for a few weeks and I could count the daily visitors on one hand, in fact half of one hand. When I checked Google's tool it returned no data.




BTW doesn't MS use Google's data?

[Jeb Binkley]

Originally Posted by alanfukuda

BTW doesn't MS use Google's data?

Yes, I believe MS does. Anymore keyword related tools to help determine the traffic of a particular keyword phrase?

[thecableguy]

I think most keyword tools will use either Google's tool or Wordtracker's tool so you'll be getting the same data, even MNF uses Google's data.

I like to use those two free keyword tools to get an idea of the amount of searches, then use Marketsamurai to get a snapshot of the amount of SEO'd (SOC) websites in the top ten, backlinks, keywords in title, URL, H1, etc. before deciding to go after a keyword. I think the free version of TafficTravis does something similar.

[Jeb Binkley]

Originally Posted by alanfukuda

I think most keyword tools will use either Google's tool or Wordtracker's tool so you'll be getting the same data, even MNF uses Google's data.

I like to use those two free keyword tools to get an idea of the amount of searches, then use Marketsamurai to get a snapshot of the amount of SEO'd (SOC) websites in the top ten, backlinks, keywords in title, URL, H1, etc. before deciding to go after a keyword. I think the free version of TafficTravis does something similar.

So the conclusion would be that both Google and Wordtracker tools are needed to get the most accurate assessment of what daily searches a specific keyword phrase commands. In my case, Google states that the keyword phrase "women's fragrances" provides ~3000 searches daily while Wordtracker suggests that the phrases only generates ~8 searches a day. Judging by the traffic I am receiving, it would seem that Wordtracker is more accurate in this case.

Any more ideas or suggestions? Thank you for all the input so far.

[dburk]

Hi jbinkley,

Let me try to clarify a couple of things for you. The Keyword tools show you past search volume. That is the number of searches not the number of "visitors" thet you or anyone else could expect to receive.

Your original post incorrectly made that assumption that searches (or impressions) always result in a click through to your website. You are not only competing with all the other organic listings, but the sponsored listings as well.

In this particular case there are 3 sponsored listings at the top of the left column where organic listings always appear. This will probably divert much traffic from the organic listings normal traffic.

Also of note is that your title and description are both nearly identical to the listing immediately below yours. I'm sure this will have a somewhat negative impact on your CTR.

The bottom line is that a number one position gives you an opportunity to win click-throughs, not a guarantee. You must write a great page title and description that searchers find too compelling to resist. You can bet those PPC ads above your listing have done just that. They are probably harvesting most of that traffic, while your organic listing creates little interest.

It's important to consider that you are not only competing with the organic listings, but the Sponsored Listings as well. Getting the impressions is only half the battle, you must write ads that get good CTR to turn that exposure to actual traffic.

[thecableguy]

I don't think you should rely totally on one keyword tool, I now always crosscheck Google and Wordtracker. At first I'd rely on Google's results and had the same thing that happened you. Wordtracker's organic results seemed more reliable until the revese happened, I got a 700+ per day results that showed as no results or "No Data" on Google. Now I always crosscheck them against each other and leave those with major discrepencies alone or through up a one page 99 cent info domain just to test the waters before spending any time on it.

[Texjd]

All the keyword tools only should be used for rough numbers and to see what terms might get more searches than others. To expect exact numbers based on any of these tools is not being realistic.

If you run the numbers every three days you will get variations, sometimes wild variations. Wordtracker uses other search engines than Google, so it's always a good idea to take a look and see if what it comes up with for numbers. If the same terms rank high, then they are probably worth the effort.

I don't know where this "the first position gets 42% of the clicks" number came from but I have my doubts about it's accuracy. I think there are way too many variables on every search to go with over all number.

I don't know anybody who just clicks on the first choice. And given that Google has indicated that a very high percentage (over 40%) of searches are unique, that also means that the numbers provided by their tool can be way off.

Hey, you're obviously doing something right since you rank number one on the USA side. Just keep working and don't get caught up in the statistics. Give it some time and put Google Analytics on there to see what you can do about converting the traffic you get.

It's not how many people visit, it's how much you sell.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by Texjd

I don't know where this "the first position gets 42% of the clicks" number came from but I have my doubts about it's accuracy. I think there are way too many variables on every search to go with over all number.

Hi Texjd,

I tend to agree with you. The "the first position gets 42% of the clicks" statement may be technically correct when put into proper context. As the statement says "42% of the clicks" it's important to consider that the average search only results in a little over 54% CTR. So, of those clicks that do occur, there may be an average of 42% going to position one which equates to about a 23% CTR. (0.54 * 0.42 = 0.2268)

Position #2 nets about 6.5% CTR on average, so it does usually pay to be number one. The exception is when you have Sponsored Ads directly above your organic listing, which tends to siphon the bulk of your potential traffic.

[Mike Anthony]

I agree with Don. As it turns out this is not a SEO problem its a copywriting problem. the sponsored links are nailing you with more compelling headlines.

80% off. $5 off etc

Then theres the branding names like Halle Berry and Nordstrom. Also you probably wont want to hear this but some of the searches are probably people who have searched before and remember your site not being impressive compared to the others.

[freddie65]

Hi

Don't forget that the searches also include all the other webmasters that are selling women's perfume.

Counts will be registered whenever one of your competitors does a search on your keyword to check either the competition or there own ranking.

You may want to take off 10-30% to account for this!

[Jeb Binkley]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

I agree with Don. As it turns out this is not a SEO problem its a copywriting problem. the sponsored links are nailing you with more compelling headlines.

80% off. $5 off etc

I'm definitely hearing from the various posts that my site's title and summary need work. I agree that the spondored links are grabbing potential customers away with their more compelling headlines.