Search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization are different forms of digital marketing strategies that are used by startups to enhance their visibility and generate leads. These two digital marketing strategies are often mixed up as one and the same. But in reality, search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization are two different strategies that can have a positive impact on a company’s lead generation campaign.
How To Integrate SEO And CRO For A Definitive Lead Generation Strategy
It goes without saying marketers around the world have one thing in common, and that is getting more leads. As all leads are not good some may even be downright unqualified. Eventually leads drive businesses, and we as internet surfers are accountable for generating most of them. Amongst all the other lead generation strategies, it is observed that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) are particularly effective. Scroll down to know how to integrate SEO and CRO for a definitive lead generation strategy.
How does traffic affect our website?
You’ve probably heard of SEO, or search engine optimization, and CRO, or conversion rate optimization, and how they go hand in hand. SEO is a process of improving the visibility of your websites on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This includes things like getting links to your website, creating content, and optimizing your site for search engines. CRO, on the other hand, is a process of improving the conversion rate of your website. This includes things like improving calls to action, using heat maps, and testing a variety of different things on your website. The question is: how do the two things go together? Well, improving your SEO can lead to an increase in your conversion rate, while improving your CRO can lead to an increase in your SEO.
SEO And CRO: Why Both Go Hand In Hand?
Being visible on the web has become more crucial than ever. If you miss your chance to be found by a prospective buyer/surfer, there’s a possibility you may lose a lead and give a free hit to your competitor. Additionally SEO is more than a buzzword. It’s a key to driving traffic to your website and boosting your brand’s growth. Although, traffic solely doesn’t help you generate revenue. SEO brings users to the website whereas CRO converts them. To put it simply, traffic with zero conversions is just a vanity metric whereas CRO is what ties it together. CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization is the process of optimizing a web page where a lead/user is steered to their choice of action.
“To fuel your inbound marketing engine it is mandatory to have a stellar SEO strategy that brings new potential buyers/users to your site regularly.”
Be Intentional About Your Content
It’s not a hidden fact that content and SEO go hand in hand. When a user searches for something, they are actually looking for content that brings answers to their question. As a marketer, your aim lies in curating content that matches the buyer-specific query. This can be done through extensive keyword research and on-page optimization. This ensures every piece of content that goes online, may likely rank on page one. Although, this kind of content creation is only effective while generating organic traffic.
On the other hand, CRO doesn’t only apply to land pages or core solution pages. There are multiple elements of CRO that apply to long-form content inclusively. While strategizing topic ideas or doing keyword research you may assign goals to every content piece. For example; what action do I want the buyer to take once they land on this page? You may consider this and build goals accordingly in the content calendar and incorporate them as CTAs. Make sure to be mindful of the reader/users in their position. Also, a good CTA will always be helpful hence, it is vital to curate functional and not ineffective CTAs.
“When you work through this process you are coercing to think beyond just traffic, you’re automatically focusing on conversions even before you publish a piece of content.”
Test Your Content, Optimize It, And Repeat
User experience is the key to both SEO and CRO. If you have a faulty website that is difficult to navigate you’ll lose both traffic and conversions. Hence, your goal should lie in refining the website to ensure a hassle-free browsing experience. Now the question is, how do you offer a frictionless browsing experience? The answer is split testing.
Split testing or A/B testing is a method of testing several variants of a web page to establish which one converts at a higher rate. It is a core practice for marketers who specialize in CRO. You can test amongst different kinds of lead forms. It can be copy variants, CTA buttons, and page layouts inclusively. Some SEO practitioners hesitate to run split tests. Their primary concern is it might harm organic rankings. Although, the truth is, that Google encourages testing and it even has its tool that helps run split tests. Furthermore, there are also multiple online tools available to run split tests like VWO, Optimizely, etc.
“If you’re following Google’s webmaster guidelines, you may not see any major negative impact on the organic traffic while split testing.”
Identify Marketing Funnel Gaps
While looking at the big-picture goals of inbound marketing, SEO and CRO can be a great help to identify and fix funnel gaps.
For example: If there’s a product ranking #1 (based on the keyword) that generates huge traffic. Although, if only a few percent of it is actually moving to conversions then this might be a red flag. This can go vice versa too, there might be pages with high conversions but it may be a low-trafficked page on your site.
So, if something works on Google doesn’t mean it must be working for the target group as well. Furthermore, if your case is similar to the above you must consider re-optimizing if you don’t want to miss out on potential prospects. Lastly, if there’s something you’d want to take away from this blog is to cohesively use SEO and CRO efforts while curating lead generation strategy.