I'm in the final negotiations with a large corporation that has come to the conclusion that highly-targeted websites and webpages make more revenue. It's nice when a company comes to me already understanding the value of the approach that I use!
Segmenting Websites
What this firm realized is that its main url - let's just call it: www.ourbrand.com cannot possibly meet the need of each and every visitor. People's needs are too diverse. But by creating separate pages and sites geared towards specific markets they will be able to drastically increase costumer conversion. For example, www.ourbrand.com/product_name.html will not only rank higher for "product name" but will also be more likely to delight a visitor looking for that term. The page can be designed to give customers exactly the information that they want and that helps them to have a better experience. They no longer have to dig through the main website to find the information that they want, or worse, leave before finding what they want.
Segmenting Geography
Pages can also be targeted geographically. In fact, many industries are dominated by local people doing searches for local services. To take advantage of this trend and to give a potential customer what he or she wants, a company could creat pages such as www.ourbrand.com/geographic_area.html. The geographic keyword could be a city, state, country or other keyword that represents a motivated buyer looking for your service. Combining both types of keywords can also be useful: www.ourbrand.com/geographic_area_product.html.
"Always Be Measuring"
Of course, it's important to have DATA to back up your hunches and to measure what is working. Data on how people are finding your website now, and data on potential keywords that they could be using. To do this, make sure that you have a tracking program installed on your website that will let you find out what terms people use to reach your website. For most businesses, Google Analytics will work out just fine. It not only has enterprise capabilities but it is also free and easy to install. In addition, a keyword tool that gives a broad overview of what people search for is useful. Google's keyword tool is good place to begin. Though as your capabilities grow, more complex tools are often necessary.
