The SEO marketing professionals of today have to deal with a dynamic environment that’s becoming more competitive every day. An increasing number of websites are all vying for the coveted top spots in search engine results. This means that no business can afford to fall behind on its SEO techniques unless it’s preparing to shut down and move on.
As important as it is for you to have a strong SEO strategy, it must support conversion rate optimization and vice versa. You can’t ignore one at the expense of the other.
SEO is needed to improve visibility, generate traffic, and bring in more visitors to your website. But once they’re there, the effectiveness of your CRO strategy will decide whether they become a customer. Paying attention to both components helps create an effective internet marketing strategy.
Below, we take a closer look at what CRO is all about and discuss the SEO techniques that can give it a boost.
The Basics of Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion rate optimization is a comprehensive process designed to improve your website’s conversions. Ideally, the people visiting your website should move beyond just browsing and perform the action that you want them to—whether that’s buying a product, signing up for a service, subscribing to a newsletter, or filling a form.
CRO ensures that the transition from browsing to performing the desired action is as smooth as possible for your audience. On the one hand, it considers the user experience on your website and tries to improve it as needed. On the other, it also looks into the potential challenges your website’s visitors might face while performing the action.
Unlike SEO, CRO focuses solely on your website and what can be done to convert a casual visitor into a customer.
Depending on your website and the nature of your business—such as e-commerce— conversion can take place every time your website has a visitor. In other business models, such as subscription-based services, a visitor can only be converted once in a specific period.
Improving Your Website’s CRO Through SEO Techniques
Here are five tried-and-tested SEO techniques that you can start using right away:
1. All About The Keywords
Keywords form the foundation of all SEO marketing efforts but knowing how to use them correctly is great from a CRO perspective too. Recent trends emphasize the integration of long-tail keywords along with more generalized keywords, which is a great development.
Broad keywords can help elevate you in the rankings, but it’s long-tail keywords that will draw customers to your website. This is because long-tail keywords have specificity and focus, something which can often be missing from other keywords.
For example, if ‘women’s handbags’ is a core keyword for your website, try using a related long-tail keyword like ‘women’s designer handbags discounted prices’. Not all of your visitors may be looking for designer handbags, but the women who are specifically searching for them at discounted prices will easily find your website if you set up your long-tail keywords correctly.
2. Prioritize Delivering Value
Remember that the people who find your website in search results are all looking for something. They could be searching for information, or they could be looking to learn more about a service, or they could be trying to find the right product.
Every element of your website must be designed to deliver value to your visitors. If they’re able to find the answers to their questions quickly, they’re more likely to stick around and explore your website further.
The era of cluttered website design is gone for good. Provide a simple, clean design that lets visitors find what they’re looking for without spending too much time. Lastly, don’t forget to optimize your website for mobile devices. You don’t want to miss out on the huge percentage of people who only use the internet on their phones.
3. Content Optimization
Many websites make the mistake of publishing content that’s crafted solely with search engines in mind. Earning a higher ranking is the whole point of SEO marketing, but it shouldn’t compromise how a visitor experiences your website.
Content that is difficult to read, tough to skim, or looks like a giant wall of text will quickly drive visitors away from your website. Similarly, throwing in too many keywords into your content in a way that affects its readability is also a major mistake.
Your content strategy needs to meet multiple requirements. It must be an accurate representation of your brand voice, it should engage your audience, and it should balance SEO goals with providing value to your readers.
4. Don’t Get Distracted
A common error made by businesses is that they stop focusing on their core areas of expertise. They let their content branch out haphazardly into areas that aren’t relevant for their market or their audience.
Branching out is good when it follows a plan and is a part of your overall vision for your company. But trying to come off as an expert in too many fields will confuse your audience and adversely affect your conversion rate optimization.
Focus on a specific area, and ensure that your website design, content creation, and SEO techniques all connect to it.
5. Use Visual Content to Your Advantage
Websites these days are recognizing the effect that strategically placed imagery or video content can have on their audience. While pictures and videos have not entirely replaced text-based content (yet), they’re a powerful resource for improving audience engagement.
Captivating visual elements—such as high-quality images and short videos—can be used throughout your website and in your content. Whether or not you trust your audience’s attention span, there’s no doubt that visual content can easily grab their attention.
When used appropriately, visual content has the potential to significantly drive up your conversion rate optimization.
Conclusion
CRO and SEO are two parts of the equation that brings people to your website and encourages them to do what you need them to do when they’re on it. Putting in consistent efforts and not shying away from some trial-and-error can help you determine what works best for your website, and the techniques discussed here are a great starting point.
About the Author
The author is affiliated with Search Berg, an internet marketing and SEO agency offering customized solutions to help businesses succeed in the competitive business environment of today. Contact the company for more information.
