There are many scenarios where businesses invest in Organic SEO or PPC campaigns (AdWords), and believe that alone will be enough to produce results. However, SEO can be a complete waste of money if you haven’t taken the time to address conversion optimization. Is your website optimized to convert traffic into real revenue? Do you know what conversion optimization is? Read on for important information that may help you significantly increase your results.
Conversion optimization, or conversion rate optimization (CRO), is a method of creating a visitor experience for a website or landing page that will increase the percentage of visitors that convert into actual customers. It is also commonly referred to as CRO.
1. SEO starts with meaningful content
If you focus on providing high quality content tailored to your specific audience, you will greatly increase your chances of showing up in Google and getting more site traffic and leads. Great content keeps users engaged, helps your site pages rank better in search engines and ultimately generates more customers.
Here are few ways to generate SEO and user friendly content:
- Write primarily for your users not for search engines. Don’t focus on keywords; rather focus on how you can tailor your content to your audience.
- Create a blog, then post weekly or perhaps even more often if time allows. If you cannot commit the time required then you may want to consider guest posting on other related blogs.
- Diversify your content. When you post recent news or new articles, do not always make it text based. Diversify your content by posting videos, photos or podcasts as well.
- Focus on quality not on length. If your audience is business owners, you need to provide more in-depth information and how to articles. Try to make 1,000 word articles or even longer. If you are targeting consumers then you can still rank with a 200 word article as long you provide great value.
2. User friendly websites convert users into customers
SEO brings traffic, however, is your website converting users? Is your website easy to navigate? Is it straightforward enough for the users to buy your products or services in a few clicks? If you are unsure if your website is user friendly, then ask a few friends or family members to complete simple tasks on the site and see if they can easily find their way around. Additionally, you can use free trial services like 5 seconds test or Peek, where you can test the website’s usability at no cost.
In this scenario, you are receiving traffic but your website fails to convert due to poor usability. Maybe users cannot easily find the content they are looking for or they cannot see your contact information right the way. This is why it is a good idea to gather more data on how users are navigating your website.
3. Mobile friendly websites perform better
Mobile friendly websites are also referred to as responsive websites (site designs that respond to different display sizes). Responsive websites do take some extra effort to initially setup; however, the hard work pays off later in terms of traffic and conversion rates.
If your site is responsive, users visiting your site from mobile devices stay longer on your website, which leads to increased conversions. Additionally, websites optimized for different screen resolutions and devices have a positive impact on SEO ranking.
If you can’t afford a custom website there are many mobile friendly WordPress templates you can use.
4. Fast loading websites impacts SEO and conversions
57% of users will abandon a site after waiting 3 seconds for the page to load. Fast loading websites lead to less frustrated visitors who are very likely to abandon your website if the pages do not load quickly. Improving the website loading speed can greatly improve your website conversion rate by keeping visitors engaged with your content.
Google also takes into consideration website loading speed for ranking purposes. Working on improving this conversion aspect helps with SEO. Here’s more information on how to improve website speed.
5. Website technical issues impact SEO negatively
Is your website easy to navigate? Does your website have broken links? Are your URL’s something that a user can remember? Or maybe your images are missing their alt tag? All of these technical issues lead to a bad user experience, which negatively affects your conversion rate, and it also influences SEO.
Conclusion
Focusing on conversion optimization can also improve SEO for your website. For many years, SEO has been regarded the “magic ingredient” for websites to be successful and reach their true potential. However, with increased competition and search engines improving their algorithms, it has become more complicated. If you are serious about having a successful website that generates consistent revenue then conversion optimization is something you cannot afford to ignore. For more information about improving your SEO and optimizing your Conversion Rate please view my SEO and Conversion Optimization packages.
