Check out today’s SearchDay article we contributed.

According to a recent Marketwatch story, a growing number of advertisers are cutting their spending on search campaigns. The reason? Keyword inflation and low conversion rates.

So let’s get this straight — instead of taking the abundant traffic from search engines and working on ways to better convert that traffic, many advertisers are abandoning search in whole or in part, looking for a cheaper way to drive traffic. What do they expect will happen with the new traffic once it gets to their non-converting sites?…

…This situation is NOT Google’s fault! Blaming Google for your traffic woes is like a brick and mortar store blaming the city for its traffic. Once the customers walk through the door of your store, it’s your responsibility to convert them.

If people kept walking into your brick and mortar store, and over 80 percent left after their second step, you would probably do something to entice them to come further into your store. However, this happens every day on virtually every Web site out there, and marketers often do nothing about it.

Read more of the SearchDay article to find out why Landing Page Optimization is going to hit the mainstream in 2007.