Blog

Applying conversion optimization to SEO

Lilian

Lilian

3 minute read

When you are exploring how to optimise your website, you probably found out that high rankings are not the only key to success in online marketing. However, you can only start with conversion optimisation once you have sufficient traffic flowing to your website. How do you need to approach this, and what else is there to explore? We will dive into these topics below.

What is conversion?

There are different types of conversion to take into account. Some refer to conversion as actions of users on a website. These actions are important for the online success of your company. An example of such a conversion is a subscription to a newsletter, a request for a quotation, downloading a PDF file or the completion of an order on your webshop. This can also be described as a goal, and every web page has a specific goal in mind. You can make a distinction between micro and macro conversions. Micro conversions are actions that deliver a "small" success in your campaign. For example, clicking on a phone number on the website. Macro conversions, on the other hand, are a "large" success to your campaign. An example is an online transaction in your webshop.

SERP, CTR, and CTA

Common conversions in the field of online marketing are a request for quotation and the purchase of a product. From a Search-Engine Optimisation (SEO) perspective, this starts when visitors reach your website through the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). When clicking on your website, they will reach your website. This is then referred to as a web page impression, and the click is referred to as the Click Through Rate (CTR). Having a strong call to action (CTA) message can help you to persuade a prospective client to click on your link in the SERP. This CTA can be defined in the title and tagline of the search engine snippet, allowing you to convince them to visit your website.

The goal of CRO

When a search engine user lands on your website, the conversion optimisation process starts. By optimising your conversion rate, known as CRO, you aim to increase the number of conversions that flow from the number of pages visited. Similar to SEO, the use of CRO should always be present in a strong online marketing strategy. Adding CRO to your strategy helps you to create user-friendly pages that have a direct bottom-line impact through conversion. Before you start with CRO, it is important to have your SEO strategy right. You can only start optimising for conversion once you receive sufficient visitors to your website. With more visitors to your website, you will have more data available to analyse which methods work.

A perfect pair

A strong strategy combines SEO with CRO. It is important to align your SEO and CRO strategy to enable a sufficient stream of visitors through the organic search results. The algorithms of Google are continuously evolving, meaning that it is necessary to continuously adjust your strategy. When you retrieve sufficient visitors through organic means, you will be able to capture them on optimised pages through your CRO strategy. The optimised pages result in visitors staying on the pages for a longer time, increasing the chance of taking action. These visitors do not go back to Google but stay on your page. This is exactly what you want to happen when combining SEO and CRO. An expert that focuses on conversion optimisation is working around the clock to test pages and optimise them for the goals set. With more organic visitors, a conversion specialist has more data and can determine which method works faster. Google does not want to 'punish' relevant websites, meaning you can seamlessly conduct your A/B tests without harming your SEO strategy. Google even encourages these tests to be conducted.

Some relevant bits and bytes

To optimise this process, there are a few technical aspects to take into account. Good examples are the page speed, Javascript, and CSS code of your website. Google also indicates that the User Experience (UX) also has an effect on the rankings of websites. By optimising the UX you can help your visitors find the relevant information faster. Therefore, UX is an important aspect of CRO as well. An intuitive experience helps to increase the conversion. By combining SEO and CRO you retrieve more organic traffic which is better converting through CRO. A win-win!