MSN conversion

Everybody is always talking about how bad their traffic is from MSN, but how are the conversions for you?

For me the conversion is great!

MSN traffic is about half that of Google, but the reservations I get are double.

So MSN is outperforming Google by 400%.

Market is online hotelbookings.

Conversions? What do you mean?

If MSN is double, how's that 400%? That would be 4 times, double is 200%.

I think most people complaining have never run their logs and really sniffed the SERPs are talking without really knowing. They need to know about identical search term traffic up against identical competitors in same SERP position - or at least as close as possible.

Right you are EGOL - you can't measure apples and oranges and get a good number at the end - Dr. Garcia berated me for this with some of my tools; I believe his term was simplex optimization.

On the other hand, I have noticed some circumstantial evidence to back up what you're saying tfbpa - MSN has been sending over some very qualified traffic in general to my sites, despite low numbers.

Conversion = sales / visitors

Google = 1 / 400 = 0.25%
MSN = 2 / 200 = 1.00%

I know the conversion rate in general is low, am still working on that...

MSN & Yahoo bring about twice the conversions as Google for us. Following data from about 23,000 sales over the last 6 months:

5.1% msn
5.5% yahoo
18.9% google
70.2% other

Keep in mind that Google brings in 2x the traffic as MSN or Y!

Also, some keywords are money terms on one search engine, but not others. You can't really just compare them across the board. Thankfully, ClickTracks makes keeping up with that kind of thing a whole lot easier.

S

Some keywords convert better than others. I think that what keyword the traffic is coming from can be much more important than the source of that traffic. Although I will say that there are different types of people using google, and yahoo and MSN.

Very true. I have found non web savvy users seems to use MSN as their default page since IE sets it as the default page so they do not know how to change it therefore it has become a habit to use MSN search. We have been getting great traffik from M$N. Can't complain here.

i also read a report somewhere that said conversion rates are higher on Y! and MSN! ... the speculation was that google is used simply for searching, while MSN and Y! are portals (used by less internet savvy searchers)

Well, I just finished some tests and can confirm your findings tfbpa. M conversion rates are MUCH better for me as well. G's conversion rate is about 0.7% and M's 1.13%.

I'd say that you may be experiencing better conversions with MSN traffic because it is possible that MSN users are less experienced in terms of online shopping ( or in terms of everything that has to do with the web ), while Google users could have a higher amount of knowledge and experience and could be more reticents because of their past experiences ( good or bad ).

MSN users are more fortunate, shop more and as some mentionned, might not be as computer saavy. On the other hand, Google is used by many harvesters, Google API based softwares, webmasters and students for researches and such. Personaly, I'm now putting more efforts developing my MSN rankings than Google's.

I only used new visitors in calculations, those that have never heard of my site before. So past expereinces have nothing to do with it. I wish I knew why this is happening.

seo_sensey I have to agree with you about: MSN users are less experienced in terms of online shopping ( or in terms of everything that has to do with the web), while Google users could have a higher amount of knowledge and experience and could be more reticents because of their past experiences (good or bad).

You point should be an eye-opener for those who are just desperate in vain in terms of optimizing their sites for G and Y and dont get anywhere near top rankings. They should look at MSN and get some traffic with a higher num of ROI.

cheers

Google is mostly for researchers and students. MSN is targetted by the serius buyers. this is what I think. any suggestions???