Search engine optimization professionals often consider that their work is done after the click is earned on the search results page. It is at this point that the user experience and the optimization of the conversion rate get the upper hand. But if it affects the business figure, the SEO should also address the conversion aspects.
What is the optimization of the conversion rate?
How do visitors navigate your site when they enter via a natural search? What are their motives and how are they seeking to consume information? Are they looking for information differently from those who enter via other channels? What next steps do they want to take?
All of these questions, and others like these, explain how to convert buyers when they enter by natural search – to entice them to perform an action on your site other than just clicking on the page next or leave the site.
Each page is a potential landing page, but not all pages are ready to convert information seekers into customers. The content of the article is one of the main drivers of the visits, and these visitors are notoriously difficult to convert without appearing dishonest. But there is usually a way.
For example, someone looking for information on how to build a retaining wall – there are about 6,600 of those searches in an average month, according to Google's keyword planner – may not not seem like an ideal candidate for an online sale. But Lowe's uses a shopping list of tools and materials (below) with links to category grid pages to help information seekers buy the products. they need to complete the project. This is a useful way of encouraging the transition from information to e-commerce that does not look like a bait and switch to the consumer.
Sales are not the only opportunity for immediate conversion. You can also track signups via email, creating new accounts, store bookings, saving recipes or articles in a list of favorites and other actions. Each of them will have its own set of conversion paths and its own opportunities for CRO.
CRO neglected?
Pouring buyers, who are often new visitors, from the natural search at the top of the marketing funnel attracts more people to a site.
The conversion of these visitors into customers is a more difficult task for many SEO professionals as it does not match the optimization of search rankings, that is, the search engine. sending signals to the search engines regarding the relevance and authority of the rankings.
Part of SEO has always targeted good prospects by analyzing the types of things people are looking for and discerning the intent. We can deduce that people who are looking for "rings", for example, could dream of jewels that they want to own one day. But people who are looking for "pear-shaped pink gold engagement ring" are probably much closer to making a purchase depending on the specificity of their search phrase.
We want to put our marks before the dreamers, but we must attract buyers to the right page that contains the right products for their very specific search query. This is a solid part of SEO because it talks about capturing this researcher directly from the search results page.
What happens next is the CRO stage. It should also be part of the SEO because it affects the revenues of this channel. And revenue should be included in every ecommerce SEO goal. Revenue keeps the lights on and pays the bills. Income keeps your boss at night. Therefore, it is your most important SEO key performance indicator. E-commerce merchants should do everything in their power to improve it.
If your company does not have the budget or expertise in CRO, start with the person responsible for the user experience. It usually has the types of testing and surveying A / B and other methods to determine what customers want and how they want it. Start by analyzing the conversion data from your existing natural search entry pages.
Even though you can test conversions from SEO efforts, work with your colleague from the user experience so that the tests do not invalidate each other. Work together to determine where goals and information needs overlap, to see where coordination can answer more questions jointly than separately.