Omniture’s 2009 Online Conversion Benchmark Survey – conducted in July and released last Tuesday – reveals some startling facts:

• 80% of online marketers do not serve personalized content, and do not use performance metrics to promote content
• Less than 30% frequently test their content
• 70% of content decisions are unsupported by data

That’s scary. Especially if you depend on your website to generate sales.

Since I often talk about ‘scientific marketing’ it’s good to have some solid numbers on the state of the industry. More and more, I’m emphasizing the importance of conversion tracking, testing, and optimizing in the campaigns I manage. This process is fundamentally at the heart of internet marketing, and it would be a waste if we didn’t fully exploit it.

Tracking

Tracking is gathering the data as it is now. The process is quick and easy through tools such as Google Analytics. By adding once piece of code to your website, you can have access to hundreds of detailed reports.

Testing

Testing is letting the market vote on your marketing ideas. After tracking systems are in place, you can perform split testing to determine the best mix of your website elements. Testing replaces guesswork with pragmatism in the marketing process.

Optimization

Optimization is acting on the information you discover. Once you have data, you must use it. Few website owners continue through all the way to this step. It’s essential your site development is guided by the insights you’ve collected.

This 3-step system is the only proven way to achieve outstanding internet marketing results.

Are you investing enough into this process?

[photo credit: faith goble]

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of making your hotel’s website easier to find in search engines. With the majority of people beginning their travel planning process with a web search, SEO has become an increasingly important discipline for hotel marketers.

However, there is some misinformation floating around the web, being propagated by quack “gurus.” Some of these myths are outright lies, but they are more likely to be tactics that no longer work: constantly-changing search algorithms make SEO a rapidly changing science. I want to debunk some of these myths before they hurt your optimization efforts.

Basic Tactical Myths

Myth: Adding a lot of keywords to your page’s title will help rankings

Fact: Stuffing the title with keywords will give the appearance you are a spam site. Since Google will only display up to 68 characters in the title tag (cropping to complete words), I recommend you write a short, people-friendly title that contains one or two of your most important keywords.

Myth: HTML META tags such as keywords and description are very important, and should be stuffed with as many keywords as possible

Fact: Meta tags don’t play that big of a role, and again you definitely don’t want to stuff your tags with keywords if you want to avoid being penalized as a spammer. You do, however, want to write a compelling Description tag. That’s what people see when they perform a web search, so you want to encourage clickthroughs with a strong benefits statement.

Myth: Adding every keyword to every page is good

Fact: Doing this confuses search engines – and your guests – about the purpose for each page on your site. Instead, group your target keyword list into themes – and use one theme per page. (More on this in SEO for Hotel Websites)

Myth: Trading links is a good idea

Fact: Exchanging links may be a good idea for referral business, but don’t do it for SEO purposes. Google’s Matt Cutts has explained they don’t reward reciprocal links like they do one-way links. Instead, create great content that naturally attracts links.

Myth: You should submit your site to search engines

Fact: That may have helped 10 years ago, but today search engines can find you. If your website has existed for more than a week, there is a strong chance Google has already found you. A better strategy is to get links from existing websites. I’ve taken several brand-new websites to Google PR4 (a ranking importance measure) in less than 3 weeks.

Myth: Submitting your links to directories is the best way to improve your ranking.

Fact: Google frequently penalizes sites that get listed in shady directories. Since it can be hard to determine the legitimacy of a site, pursue a better way and create some great content. If you’re publishing great stuff and interacting with other people online, getting backlinks is only a matter of time.

Many of the above myths have been debunked by others, and thankfully are becoming less common. But every few weeks I still hear someone asking about these tactics, so I wanted to put them to rest. Let’s move on to more high-level misconceptions.

Dangerous Strategic Errors

Myth: SEO is a hoax

Fact: As we see success stories from companies of all sizes, this is less common than it used to be. When done correctly, natural search engine optimization can be your most effective method of bringing new visitors to your website.

Myth: SEO is a one-time event

Fact: The notion that you can improve your search ranking by just changing a few website components is false. Today, search engines look at dozens of factors to determine how relevant and useful your content is. Yes, I wrote the 15-Minute SEO Tuneup – but the reality is that it needs to be part of an ongoing process.

Myth: Your goal is #1 ranking for your top keyword

Fact: While you should aim for the top position for a popular keyword, your real goal should be to rank near the top of results for dozens (if not hundreds) if different keyword combinations. A quick review of your website analytics will reveal that people find you through hundreds of different search queries. For this reason, you need to build your internet presence to be as large as possible.

Myth: Search optimization is a job for the web designer

Fact: Optimization is a strategic marketing function, and has nothing to do with design. It requires comprehensive keyword research, a knowledge of branding, and careful targeting of guest personas.

Myth: It’s all about the rankings

Fact: It’s actually all about how many qualified potential guests you bring to your website, and how many of them book a room. Rankings and overall traffic are meaningless unless you can convert that into sales.