Top keywords may not always be the best choice
2009-05-27
Business to business companies looking to increase their search engine optimization (SEO) may want to consider less prominent keywords, according to a new study out of NYU.In a paper entitled An Empirical Analysis of Search Engine Advertising: Sponsored Search in Electronic Markets, NYU Stern professors Anindya Ghose and Sha Yang find that it may be more profitable for companies to choose keywords that give them higher positions.
The report acknowledges that higher click-through rates are associated with more prominent search engine results page (SERP) placement, but the professors say that given the competitiveness surrounding some prominent keywords, it may not always be a profitable investment.
However, the duo also found that having a higher position in a SERP does not only lead to more traffic to a website, but is likely to result in more sales.
"The value-per-click to an advertiser decreases with each position down the search engine results page, meaning that clicks from more prominent positions are more valuable than clicks from lower positions, because conversion rates also decrease," the professors say.
Quality score is also a major factor for online marketers, according to the report, as the study finds that a one point increase in a landing page's quality score can increase a conversion rate by as much as 22.5 percent.
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© Brafton, Inc. 2009
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