The Importance of Usability in Paid Search

An SEO developer’s role and job is to get a website as high up in the rankings as possible using different website optimisation techniques. This in turn should generate more traffic. This is generally where the role stops.

As a PPC Manager it is our role to get the ROI possible for a campaign using different Pay per Click optimisation techniques, pausing terms that do not create the desired ROI etc. But our role does not stop there. We can deliver quality, highly targeted traffic to the site, but if it fails to convert then we have not achieve the best ROI possible. So it is also our job to advise and recommend changes to websites to improve usability and conversion rates.

Paid search and usability go hand in hand. Unlike natural search where you are attracting free search, with paid search you are paying for every single visit, one way or another. To correctly analysis a site’s performance you need to install some type of tracking software. Google’s Analytics platform is free and very detailed. It is also just as important to link this correctly to your AdWords account. You can do this by making sure that both your AdWords and Analytics accounts have the same user name and both have admin access. Once this is done, log in to your AdWords account and click on Reports >> Google Analyics >> Link account and select the website in the drop down menu.

This will now successfully tag all your AdWords traffic with the Campaign, Ad Group and Keyword.

Philip Pollock
PPC Account Manager