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Although search engine optimization (SEO) and conversation rate optimization (CRO), are two very different and unique disciplines, they complement each other in ways that both improve the user experience as well as boost your bottom line.
Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), each overlap in a way that offers a lot of synergies, with one enhancing the results of the other in varying yet impactful ways. Before we can get any deeper, let’s first briefly touch on what these two subdisciplines are and how you can use them to improve your business.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization is an aspect of digital marketing where an SEO specialist optimizes your website (on-page and off-page), to help search engines such as Google understand your content and return it in the search results when a user makes a query. SEO is “organic” which targets people already searching for something on the internet as opposed to a paid ad online. Proper SEO deciphers your website’s content for search engines and helps your website rank higher in organic search results.
SEO strategy is an increasingly important aspect of digital marketing, with data as far back as 2016 demonstrating that search engine results influence a whopping 58% of all buying decisions. Today, that number has grown to between 80-97% depending on the source of the research.
What is CRO?
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a strategy aimed at increasing the conversion rate of a website page. In context, CRO is most often associated with landing pages or sales pages Landing pages are often used with paid ad campaigns and are pages designed for one purpose: to drive action. That action is called a conversion such as a purchase, opt-in, or lead gen.
Conversion rates refer to how many people take the action of buying, signing up, or opting in on your web page. For example, if your landing page gets 10,000 visitors, and 500 of them convert (i.e. complete the desired action), your conversion rate would be 5%.
SEO aims to satisfy search engines by targeting specific intent(s) behind user queries; CRO aims to tap into your website visitors’ emotions, pain points, and the like and spur them to take an action. Utilizing unique selling propositions and product solutions shows the visitor how taking the desired action can solve their problem, improve their situation, or result in a more favorable outcome.
Should CRO Be Used for SEO or Just Landing Pages?
That depends. You have to ask yourself, “What is the goal of earning or paying for visitors to that particular webpage?” This will vary drastically depending on the page. For a landing page, the answer is generally quite obvious: to convert that visitor to a buyer or generate a lead. As for other web pages on your site, that answer might be more difficult to answer. Not all webpages are conducive to, nor designed to convert visitors or get them to take a specific action (for example, your homepage is usually not a great candidate for conversion optimization).
Let’s look at a couple of examples where your SEO and CRO efforts might clash.
Press/Media Pages
These pages often highlight a specific news update about the company or its involvement in an industry-relevant issue. These news pieces don’t overtly seek to convert visitors directly but can be important tools for establishing the authority and credibility of a brand in its respective vertical, as well as instilling trust.
Technical Pages or Guides
Created to help provide guidance, support, and information, these pages may not be appropriate for CRO. For example, technical how-to guides as part of a knowledge base often presume that the customer has already made their purchase, with the content designed to offer post-purchase support on how to best use the product.
As you can see, the intent and purpose of your webpage, be it for SEO or a landing page, matters. That said, the vast majority of web pages designed to earn organic traffic can benefit from melding CRO with SEO to encourage visitors to take some kind of action…even if that action is as simple as signing up for a company newsletter or following them on social media.
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A Strong Case for Using CRO For Both SEO and Landing Pages
You’re already putting in the work to earn those visitors (as is the case with SEO), or paying for those visitors (as is the case with PPC/paid ads). Imagine being able to convert more visitors and generate more sales without the need to increase ad spending or allocate more resources to SEO.
By increasing your conversion rate, you can effectively achieve a greater ROI without spending more money on earning more visitors. The term more bang for your buck comes to mind.
When CRO and SEO Don’t Play Well Together, Bad Things Happen
Think SEO pages and landing pages should each receive differential treatment? Think again. Here’s what can happen if you focus too much on SEO or too much on CRO, without finding a balance that makes the most sense for you and your target audience.
The Issue with Focusing Only on CRO
Focusing on CRO can make sense for landing pages that are not designed or intended to earn organic traffic from Google or other search engines; however, for those landing pages where a brand or business would like to supplement their paid traffic with organic, focusing to heavily on CRO can be a major bottleneck for performance.
CRO teams are known for A/B testing or split testing and utilizing conversion and behavioral data to guide the changes they make on-page. Although great for driving action, when done in a vacuum, these changes can be in direct opposition to SEO optimization.
A few examples of how this can hurt SEO:
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Removal of semantically related keywords relevant to enhance context
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Organization of content in a way that is overtly promotional or sales-driven may violate Google’s best practices for webmasters and lead to an increased bounce rate
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CROs may trim the SEO fat, removing content necessary for ranking higher
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CRO optimization bypasses on-page factors including both content-based and technical (code) that are required for the optimization of a page for Google search
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CRO may add on-page elements like videos, lead gen forms, and more that increase loading time and decrease SEO performance
The Issue with Focusing Only on SEO
On the opposite side of the spectrum, focusing on SEO might be good for search engines and increase both ranking and traffic, but if CRO is neglected, that traffic may be of little value.
Search engine optimization by itself isn’t particularly concerned with getting visitors to take action. Rather it is focused on manipulating code and content in such as way that it helps Google’s search crawlers better understand and interpret the content on-page, its value, and how that content may be useful to visitors about a particular search query.
Investing in SEO can help brands and businesses earn free traffic, greater exposure, improved brand recognition, trust, and more. But without CRO, this website traffic may not provide as much value as it could.
A few examples of how focusing too much on SEO can hurt CRO:
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Too much information on a page can cause indecision and detract from the main call to action (CTA) of your page
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A focus on information and solutions may fail to direct the visitor on the next steps necessary to solve their problem (be it making a purchase, seeking more information, opting into a newsletter, etc.)
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SEO-optimized pages are often large, causing a disconnect between the attention span of a potential customer and their desire to take the next step in the buyer’s journey
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A lack of CRO in SEO efforts may result in search traffic producing a low ROI and as such limiting the number of resources that can be dedicated to driving more traffic to the site or webpage(s)
Closing Thoughts
In today’s hyper-competitive digital landscape, savvy businesses and marketers are taking a multidisciplinary approach to optimization on all fronts (be it SEO, CRO, or both), melding together the best practices from each to help earn a higher ROI on traffic.
Whether from SEO or paid ads, acquiring traffic takes considerable resources, making optimizing ROI from this traffic a key focus. Too often, pages earning traffic fail to convert, and pages with traffic from paid ads fail to earn free/organic visitors.
When combined, SEO and CRO strategies offer the one-to-two punch needed to get ahead of the competition, improve ROI from all traffic sources, and maximize the experience and value for the visitor as they work their way through the customer funnel, ultimately leading to more conversions, sales, and a better bottom line.