Since our launch of DineSXM.com in February 2008, search engine traffic has contributed significantly to the site's growth. In the 3 month period from March 1st until May 31st 2009, approximately 63% of visitors came to our restaurant reservations and dining guide by following a link from a search engine. This number is up from 25% in the same period in 2008.
In the 16 months that the site has been online, we have been able to determine what the types of keywords are that:
- bring visitors to DineSXM,
- which ones are responsible the most for conversion activities
Our main finding is that two separate groups of visitors are most likely to convert. The largest of the two segments consists of persons who search for a specific restaurant by including its name in the query term - these visitors have reached the end of their decision making process and are ready to finalize their transaction. DineSXM is able to successfully answer the user's query by providing them with the ability to make their restaurant reservation online.
In contrast, the second sizable group is still in an exploratory phase: their search is focused enough to specify their intended activity (dining / visiting a restaurant) on St. Maarten or St. Martin, but their decision as to which restaurant to visit has yet to be made. In similar fashion, the latter group hasn't quite made up their mind yet as to which types of cuisine, environment, or neighborhood they are going to visit.
Today's analysis of DineSXM's search engine performance will focus on the keywords that are used by people who are looking to find assistance on our website in order to help them make a decision. In this situation, DineSXM is able to add significant value as a service - both to our participating restaurants, and also to potential guests who are browsing the site. Rather than just serving as a transaction platform (by facilitating the booking), the website's quality content and consistent presentation is what drives the visitor to conclude their search process and become a paying restaurant guest.
The terms that have been identified as strong drivers are keyword phrases that specify the geographic location: (St. Maarten / St. Martin, SXM) in combination with the activity that a visitor intends to research (dine / dining / restaurant / restaurants).
In order for a search result to be among the ones being followed -clicked on - by a potential site visitor, at least three conditions have to be met. Two are under the control of a webmaster, and one is determined by the search engine's algorithm. The latter one is something a welll organized website can be optimized for, and thus can be influenced in part.
- Title of the resource
Search engines utilize the title of a resource (page) as the heading of the search result and as a link to the item that is shown. Furthermore, that text is often bolded and underlined. It acts as the first visible cue to a user, as to what they will find if they click on the link that is presented to them.
DineSXM utilizes titles that include what the site is about, and the section of the website that is about to be visited. The second part of the title is capitalized, to stand out from other results. A user's decision as to which of the results to explore further is made in a fraction of a second. Predictably, clear and descriptive titles, such as the ones provided by the DineSXM website, will usually be the deciding factor. - Excerpt of the resource
In general, while search engines decide which exact text to use when displaying a descriptive text for the resource, webmasters can influence this by providing a relevant snippet.
In our experience, search engines will prefer to show what is supplied to them. DineSXM supplies the search engines with clear, concise, and descriptive text that can be used as an excerpt - thus leading even more visitors to click-through and visit our dining guide. - Position amongst the results displayed to the user
Complete books have been written about the ever-changing algorithms that search engines employ to decide the sequence of results that is presented for a certain keyword phrase. Suffice it to say that we carefully monitor a large basket of common keyphrases that are important in guiding visitors to DineSXM. The graphics presented here are based on our daily observations of ranking changes.
Since ranking results are known to fluctuate, it is important to determine which factors are most likely to affect a page's position among other possible results shown to a user. One of the primary indicators that determine the relevance of a particular resource for a certain combination of keywords is the quality of content that will be provided to a visitor, both on the to be visited page itself, and in a more general sense on the website as a whole.
That is exactly why we continue to build out the restaurant guide with clearly written, reliable, quality information. The website's restaurant updates, user reviews, articles, and even the recipe section serve to complement and increase the value of DineSXM to our users. We also try to make it easy for search engines to understand what we're all about: one of our most recent enhancements was to include additional hints that make it possible to parse address information and reviews directly from DineSXM pages.
Looking at Bing and Google Squared, our crystal ball tells us that the major search engines will utilize these types of enhancements, in order to present their visitors with useful, actionable results. DineSXM is fully planning to leverage the engines' presentation changes to our advantage.
The data presented here serves to highlight that DineSXM is doing a great, and fairly consistent, job in ranking for its money keywords. There is still some room for improvement, I'd like to see us in the top 3 for all these combinations. The trend is that our ranking positions are still improving, which leads me to think that our goal is very much attainable.
For most phrases we now rank in Google's top 5 results: above the fold and in some cases with an extended or double listings. Not too bad for a new site, I'd say. For searches that have to do with "dining" the graphics show a relative advantage overall compared to "restaurants" in the search term.
Some new questions are also raised, like what is causing "st martin restaurants" and "st maarten dining" to be such outliers? I'm lacking a logical explanation for this. Looking at the source data, I am less worried about the former because it has not been fluctuating as much as "st maarten dining" and I can understand that "restaurants" is more competitive than "dining." I could envision the phrase dropping down to where it belongs as the site grows larger and gains more trust.
Google clearly sees SXM, St. Maarten and St. Martin as synonyms and I'm tempted to believe that the domain name is of importance in explaining our performance with regard to Dining vs Restaurants. A factor could be the relative search frequency of various terms.
Some major changes to DineSXM have been made since these graphs were created. In the past month, we have started adding more content, nearly duplicating the number of restaurants for which we have information available.
This marks a big departure from our initial goal, which was to profile only venues that can be booked online. Time will tell if we made the right decision: insofar that summary, or teaser, descriptions of -all- restaurants on the island will lead to more transactions for our featured (and paying) restaurants.
Every restaurant on the island should be on DineSXM. As a restaurant owner, you stand to gain with a featured listing. The price is right, and among St. Maarten / St. Martin websites, we're the only ones that give you regular feedback and updates on your online performance. It's time for everyone to stop complaining about the recession and instead start doing something about it. Our best performing restaurants are on top of things -and it definitely shows!
Get on top of things: join DineSXM. Read the listing information on our website and give us a call - you'll be glad you did!
