How to Combine SEO and CRO for the Ultimate Lead Generation Strategy
If there's something that the majority of marketers have in common, it's that we want more leads.
Sure, not all leads are excellent. Some are even downright unqualified. But leads are what drive organization, and as a result, many of us are held accountable for creating more of them.
Out of all of the list building strategies out there, there's one that I find particularly effective: search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO) collaborating.
While this might seem apparent, you 'd marvel how many marketing teams are really proficient at one or the other, however fail to discover the balance between both.
Below, I'll share why it's vital to find positioning in between SEO and CRO, and how to do it so that both of these functions collaborate to drive qualified leads for your organization.
SEO and CRO: Why you can't have one without the other
Being discoverable is more vital than it's ever been. If a prospective buyer can't find your service online, there's a good chance that you're leading them right into the arms of your competitors.
By now, the majority of businesses understand the importance of having a presence in organic search results page. SEO is more than just a buzzword, it's an offered. And it's vital to growing brand name awareness and driving traffic to your website.
But there's a catch.
Traffic does not amazingly turn into paying customers and earnings. Are your web pages enhanced to direct the user towards an action?
Traffic without conversions is essentially simply a vanity metric. CRO is the piece that ties it all together.
In other words, conversion rate optimization Homepage is the procedure of enhancing a web page to lead a user towards a preferred action. Generally, this action comes in the form of a conversion. This can be a demonstration demand, email newsletter sign up, webinar registration-- you get the essence.
The idea here is to entice the user to move even more down the marketing funnel in some way.
SEO is what brings individuals to your website and CRO is what gets them to convert.
It seems like a match made in marketing heaven, however accomplishing alignment is frequently much easier said than done.
Start with a strong SEO structure
I might write thousands of words on what it takes to build a strong SEO structure for your site, but that's not what this article is about. With that being stated, a discussion about the relationship in between SEO and CRO wouldn't be total without a mention of it.
Previously, I stated you can't have SEO without CRO. However this goes both methods.
While it's true that conversions are a significant standalone metric, you can't have conversions without web visitors. Plus, experimentation and screening is a huge part of what makes CRO so reliable. It can be hard to run tests if your site doesn't get a healthy amount of traffic. More on this later on.
A successful SEO technique fuels the incoming marketing engine to bring new prospective purchasers to your website on a regular basis. With SEO, your entire marketing team might be on PTO for a week and your website will still be producing traffic on its own.
If you're still working to develop an effective SEO technique, there are many SEO resources that are available to you.
Be deliberate about your content
Material and SEO go together.
When a purchaser goes to an online search engine, they want to discover material that brings them a response to their question.
As online marketers, we want to create that material and match it to a purchaser's specific search query. We do this through comprehensive keyword research study and on-page optimization to guarantee that every piece of material that's published has a possibility to rank on page one.
Although this method to content creation works at generating natural traffic, often we forget to think about how a piece can drive impact beyond simply ranking primary for a keyword.
CRO doesn't just apply to landing pages or core solutions pages. There are elements of CRO that apply to your long-from content as well.
When strategizing subject ideas and doing keyword research, designate an objective to every piece of material that you publish. Ask yourself, "what action do I desire the reader to take when they land on this page?"
Construct this goal into your content calendar and incorporate it as a call-to-action (CTA) on each page that you publish.
As always, bear in mind the reader and their position in the funnel. Someone that lands on "The Novice's Guide to Marketing Automation" probably isn't ready for a live demo simply.
Rather, guide that reader toward a less challenging action, such as registering for your e-mail newsletter. A great CTA should not feel spammy or overly advertising, it ought to provide extra worth to the reader in general.
Following this procedure forces you to believe beyond simply traffic-- you're focusing on conversions before you even hit the "publish" button.
Test, optimize, and repeat
User experience (UX) is at the heart of both SEO and CRO.
This is why split screening is so crucial.
Split screening, in some cases referred to as A/B screening, is the procedure of screening numerous variations of a web page to identify which one converts at a greater rate. This is a core practice among online marketers who specialize in CRO. You can test various types of lead kinds, CTA buttons, copy versions, and even page designs.
Some SEOs may be reluctant to run split tests since they worry it will adversely impact natural rankings. The fact is that Google not only motivates screening, however it even has its own tool that helps marketers to run split tests.
As long as you're complying with Google's webmaster guidelines, you should see no major negative impact on natural traffic due to testing.
It's also worth noting that you can't reach statistical significance in your split tests without a big adequate sample size. Simply put, you require traffic to have accurate test results.
There's no hard and fast rule for what counts as "sufficient traffic" however the general consensus is that your web visitors need to remain in the thousands, a minimum of. I suggest using this sample size calculator tool to get a much better concept of a number that's unique to your website.
This is yet another example of how carefully intertwined SEO and CRO truly are. Earlier we discussed how important it is to begin with a solid structure in SEO, now you understand how it fits into the larger image.
The common thread here?
CRO and SEO have a symbiotic relationship. What benefits one benefits the other. And both are working toward the same common goal of creating income.
Recognize marketing funnel gaps
When taking a look at the huge image of your inbound marketing efforts, SEO and CRO can assist you recognize and fix any spaces in your funnel.
Let's state you have an item page that ranks # 1 for its primary keyword and produces lots of traffic. But, when you dig into the conversion data, you see that only a little portion of users that arrive on that page actually transform.
This is a warning that something is off with the page.
It might be the messaging, the deal, or the lead type. Even if it works for Google doesn't mean it's working for your audience. And their viewpoint is the only one that matters.
This goes the other method around too.
Say you have an item page that's converting at a high rate, but you notice that it's one of the lowest-trafficked pages on your site. This need to notify you to revisit the content on that page and determine chances to re-optimize it. If you don't, there are likely numerous possible conversions that you're losing out on.
Final ideas
SEO and CRO is sort of like the digital marketing variation of the chicken and the egg. You can't be actually good at one without the other.
Realistically, it does not matter what preceded. What does matter is attaining alignment in between these two essential marketing strategies. By doing so, your site has the possible to become a major driver of leads and revenue for your organization.