How to Combine SEO and CRO for the Ultimate List Building Method
If there's one thing that most marketers share, it's that we want more leads.
Sure, not all leads are great. Some are even downright unqualified. However leads are what drive service, and as an outcome, many of us are held responsible for generating more of them.
Out of all of the lead generation techniques out there, there's one that I find especially effective: search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO) collaborating.
While this might seem apparent, you 'd marvel how many marketing teams are truly good at one or the other, but fail to find the balance between both.
Below, I'll share why it's vital to find positioning between SEO and CRO, and how to do it so that both of these functions collaborate to drive certified leads for your business.
SEO and CRO: Why you can't have one without the other
Being discoverable digital marketing agency - ionline.com.au is more vital than it's ever been. If a prospective buyer can't discover your company online, there's a good chance that you're leading them right into the arms of your rivals.
By now, most companies understand the value of having an existence in organic search results page. SEO is more than just a buzzword, it's an offered. And it's vital to growing brand awareness and driving traffic to your site.
There's a catch.
Traffic does not magically turn into paying consumers and earnings. Are your web pages optimized to direct the user towards an action?
Traffic without conversions is essentially just a vanity metric. CRO is the piece that ties it all together.
In other words, conversion rate optimization is the process of optimizing a web page to lead a user toward a desired action. Normally, this action is available in the type of a conversion. This can be a demonstration request, e-mail newsletter sign up, webinar registration-- you get the gist.
The idea here is to attract the user to move even more down the marketing funnel in some way.
SEO is what brings people to your site and CRO is what gets them to convert.
It seems like a match made in marketing heaven, but achieving positioning is typically simpler said than done.
Start with a strong SEO structure
I might compose countless words on what it requires to build a strong SEO structure for your website, however that's not what this short article has to do with. With that being said, a conversation about the relationship in between SEO and CRO wouldn't be complete without a reference of it.
Previously, I said you can't have SEO without CRO. This goes both methods.
Plus, experimentation and testing is a big part of what makes CRO so efficient. It can be challenging to run tests if your website does not get a healthy amount of traffic.
An effective SEO technique fuels the incoming marketing engine to bring new potential purchasers to your website on a regular basis. With SEO, your entire marketing team could be on PTO for a week and your site will still be generating traffic on its own.
If you're still working to build an effective SEO strategy, there are numerous SEO resources that are available to you.
Be intentional about your material
Material and SEO go together.
When a buyer goes to an online search engine, they wish to discover content that brings them a response to their question.
As online marketers, we want to create that material and match it to a buyer's specific search query. We do this through comprehensive keyword research study and on-page optimization to make sure that every piece of content that's released has a possibility to rank on page one.
This method to content production is efficient at creating natural traffic, sometimes we forget to believe about how a piece can drive effect beyond simply ranking number one for a keyword.
CRO doesn't simply apply to landing pages or core solutions pages. There are components of CRO that use to your long-from material also.
When strategizing subject concepts and doing keyword research study, designate an objective to every piece of material that you release. Ask yourself, "what action do I want the reader to take when they arrive on this page?"
Construct this goal into your content calendar and integrate it as a call-to-action (CTA) on each page that you publish.
As constantly, bear in mind the reader and their position in the funnel. Somebody that lands on "The Beginner's Guide to Marketing Automation" probably isn't all set for a live demonstration just.
Instead, guide that reader towards a less challenging action, such as registering for your e-mail newsletter. An excellent CTA should not feel spammy or excessively marketing, it must provide extra value to the reader in general.
Following this procedure forces you to believe beyond simply traffic-- you're focusing on conversions prior to you even struck the "release" button.
Test, optimize, and repeat
User experience (UX) is at the heart of both SEO and CRO.
If your site is sluggish, glitchy, and tough to browse, it's going to adversely impact both traffic and conversions. The objective is to constantly refine your website to make sure that anybody who arrive on it has a smooth browsing experience-- consequently increasing their possibility to transform.
This is why split testing is so important.
Split screening, in some cases referred to as A/B screening, is the procedure of screening numerous variants of a websites to identify which one converts at a greater rate. This is a core practice among marketers who concentrate on CRO. You can check different kinds of lead types, CTA buttons, copy variations, and even page designs.
Here's an example of a split test between a single and multi-step lead form:
Some SEOs may be hesitant to run split tests since they fret it will adversely affect natural rankings. The fact is that Google not just encourages screening, however it even has its own tool that assists marketers to run split tests.
As long as you're abiding by Google's webmaster standards, you need to see no major negative influence on natural traffic due to testing.
It's likewise worth keeping in mind that you can't reach statistical significance in your split tests without a huge sufficient sample size. Simply put, you need traffic to have accurate test results.
There's no hard and fast guideline for what counts as "enough traffic" but the general consensus is that your web visitors need to remain in the thousands, at least. I advise using this sample size calculator tool to get a much better concept of a number that's distinct to your website.
This is yet another example of how carefully intertwined SEO and CRO genuinely are. Earlier we talked about how essential it is to begin with a strong foundation in SEO, now you understand how it suits the bigger image.
The typical thread here?
CRO and SEO have a symbiotic relationship. What's good for one is good for the other. And both are pursuing the very same common goal of producing earnings.
Determine marketing funnel spaces
When taking a look at the big picture of your inbound marketing efforts, SEO and CRO can assist you determine and repair any spaces in your funnel.
Let's say you have an item page that ranks # 1 for its primary keyword and generates great deals of traffic. When you dig into the conversion data, you notice that just a small portion of users that land on that page really convert.
This is a warning that something is off with the page.
It might be the messaging, the offer, or the lead type. Just because it works for Google does not imply it's working for your audience. And their opinion is the only one that matters.
This goes the other method around too.
Say you have an item page that's transforming at a high rate, but you see that it is among the lowest-trafficked pages on your site. This ought to signal you to review the material on that page and identify chances to re-optimize it. If you do not, there are most likely hundreds of possible conversions that you're missing out on.
Final ideas
SEO and CRO is kind of like the digital marketing version of the chicken and the egg. You can't be actually good at one without the other.
Reasonably, it doesn't matter what came. What does matter is achieving alignment in between these 2 essential marketing tactics. By doing so, your website has the prospective to become a significant driver of leads and revenue for your service.