Whenever you’re starting a new SEO campaign, the first question on your mind is probably, “How do I know this is working?” That’s the first question anyone should ask in digital marketing. Thankfully, there are many tools that can show you metrics for success: conversions, form fills, traffic, and more. What isn’t so cut and dried is how to guarantee success.
Every website and business is unique, which makes optimizing your digital marketing strategy even more complicated. While cookie-cutter solutions exist to help you increase conversions, true marketing success comes from tailoring your websites to your clients and what they’re looking for. This is what Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is all about: turning traffic into transactions.
Implementing a solid CRO strategy can feel daunting, especially for smaller businesses. However, the rewards are well worth the investment.
Let’s take a look at what conversion rate optimization is, and how CRO can take your SEO strategy from high traffic to high profits.
What is CRO?
Conversion Rate Optimization is simple: adjust your website to make it as easy as possible for clients to convert. But anyone who’s ever tried designing a website knows it’s easier said than done. No matter how powerful your SEO strategy is or how well your content is written, a poorly optimized website can drive away all of those potential conversions.
This is why the best SEO strategies rely on CRO. SEO focuses on getting people to the door, and CRO focuses on improving websites so users stay and convert. A website with solid CRO shortens the sales funnel for potential clients and inspires their trust and confidence to act. Building a high-quality website is only half the battle. True CRO success requires a deep understanding of your audience’s needs and expectations.
Every CRO will look different because every website and industry is different. But there are some guiding principles to every successful CRO strategy.
Gather Information
As a business owner, anticipating your customers’ needs starts with tracking how they actually interact with your brand. Some of the best tools to gather information on what clients are looking for are heat maps and focus groups. Heat maps, like those offered by Microsoft Clarity, Hotjar, or Crazy Egg, allow you to see where clients are focusing their attention on your website. They can also expose where clients get lost or distracted in the purchasing process. This knowledge is key to ensuring your clients convert.
Example of what a heat map would look like after gathering data from website visitors.
Another great resource is hiring focus groups. Companies like UserTesting, Userbrain, or Lookback will provide guidance and allow you to select testers from various demographics that resemble the client base. The testers then navigate through your website to perform simple tasks, like checking out on an e-commerce site or signing up for a newsletter. After testing the functionality of your site, they pass on their feedback. These testing groups can let you know what tasks were easy to complete, where they got stuck, and how trustworthy the site felt throughout the process.
This can be especially beneficial for small businesses! With this type of feedback, they can build more trust with their clients.
With this key information in hand, we can move on to optimizing the site.
Make Conversions Easy
One of the biggest issues most websites have is making the purchasing process more difficult than necessary. Every website should have a quick, easy way to convert. If you’re a plumber, your customers should be able to click one button in order to call you. If you’re a dentist, clients shouldn’t have to fill out over 20 form fields to schedule their first appointment. Conducting a CRO campaign can expose and solve these issues quickly.
Some easy tips for success include putting all relevant contact information in the website’s header, contrasting key info with the rest of the website, and keeping form fills nice and short. Hover-state call-to-action buttons (CTAs) draw the eye and create movement that is more likely to convert.
You should also ensure that your pages are tailored to convert their visitors appropriately. If you’re creating a blog, you’ll want to guide clients to subscribe to a newsletter so they can find out more. For product pages, clients should be able to contact you directly for an instant purchase or satisfy the user as quickly as possible.
A/B Testing
Now that we’ve gathered specific information on clients and implemented the basics, it’s time to experiment! A/B testing is simply changing one aspect of your website and observing how clients react to the change. You typically create two versions of the same webpage to see which one gets more results. For best results, you’ll want to change one thing at a time to see how it impacts traffic and conversions. This helps narrow down what changes made the most impact.
An A/B test can be as simple as changing colors on a button. One of our clients noticed that their site had heavy traffic and people went to the right pages, but they weren’t converting. After performing a simple A/B test, we found out that changing the color of their request-for-quote (RFQ) button resulted in more conversions.
Not every A/B test will be so easy or straightforward. But investing in A/B testing from the beginning can prevent frustration and stagnation later on in your campaign.
How do CRO and SEO Work Together?
A good SEO strategy brings clients to your website; CRO ensures they convert from your website. A proper SEO strategy naturally includes CRO in every step of the process. Many marketers assume that CRO campaigns should only be performed when something is wrong with their site or their campaign is stagnant. On the contrary, CRO audits should be performed whenever your SEO strategy changes.
With each new page created on your website to support your SEO campaign, you have a chance to optimize for conversions. Whether it’s multiple rounds of A/B testing or just sticking to best practices, CRO should always be at the forefront of your strategy – not a last resort.
Conclusion
Without CRO, SEO is just expensive traffic. While keyword research and content development are vital, CRO is just as important to ensuring conversions and success. Most importantly, you don’t have to wait for a reason to optimize: a CRO campaign is both a diagnostic tool and an experiment, focusing on what’s working well and what can be improved.
If you’re looking to take your SEO campaign to the next level or if it’s in a rut, CRO will both expose the problem and provide you with solutions. That’s why we at Upward Engine rely on CRO and its underlying principles to ensure client satisfaction. Reach out to our SEO/CRO team if you would like to elevate your business to the next level!
Meta Title: SEO Without CRO Is Just Expensive Traffic
Meta Description: Learn how combining SEO and CRO can improve your website’s traffic and conversions, leading to increased customer satisfaction and business success. Contact us today!
