This is a guest post courtesy of Invesp Consulting. Ayat Shukairy is a managing partner at Invesp Consulting, an online marketing and conversion optimization company. To read more of her posts, visit www.invesp.com/blog.

Everybody these days is talking about conversion and its significance. But how much of this conversion talk is half-truths, and how much of it is relevant and useful information? The fact of the matter is looking at your conversion rate without deciphering the information is not very meaningful. Conversion must be segmented and assessed from each segment’s perspective rather than lumped into one big number.

Marketers usually talk about conversion as a whole; they don’t talk about these segments because that’s not “elegant” marketing talk. But analyzing your segmented conversion data can make a big difference.

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Conversion Rates Misunderstood »

Google Analytics recently introduced an internal site search feature to its already kick-ass free stats program — aptly named “Site Search.”

This tool works with your existing site search and is invaluable to ecommerce marketers as it gives you so much insight into customer intent and your website’s success at delivering results. For example, you can use search log data to discover:

• What keywords people search for - what’s hot and what do they want that you don’t carry
• What search refinements are made, indicating possible “Results Not Found” messages or unsatisfactory results
• What pages the searches were made from, and where users clicked to

The next 30 days is when this information will be crucial. Customers can’t buy what they can’t find. Maybe you only use the term “notebook computer case” and your customers search for “laptop bags.” You can tweak your product pages and search engine for the various ways customers describe your product until the right pages show up when you test your site.

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Why You Should Turn On Google Analytics Site Search Today »

In London, eTail UK kicks off with Search and Analytics day and Dave O having laughs with Elastic Path’s own expert Jason Billingsley. They discuss search marketing strategies and concerns plus Google’s role in ecommerce, global payments and adaption.

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Analytics, A/B testing, landing pages and testing, the power of free shipping and more workshop topics are the topics as Libby Waldo of Pure Networks sits down with Dave O at MidMarket eTail Exhibition in San Francisco in Nov. 1, 2006 - plus info on Network Magic’s network mojo.

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[photo of Libby Waldo at Etail Midmarket,
San Francisco by DaveO]