We often come across the terms SEO and conversion rate in the world of web analytics and digital marketing. Knowledge and understanding of these areas are essential for a website’s traffic to be successful.
An important question is how can SEO contribute to the success of your website, as well as increase conversion rates?
Before I get to that, let’s clarify what we mean by SEO.
What is SEO?
Simply, SEO, Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving your website to get it as high as possible in the organic search engine results. So, the higher your website appears in search results, the more likely it is to attract new and existing customers to your website.
The process is not straightforward, as there are three types of SEO activity:
- Technical SEO: This is the basis of the whole process. Technical SEO shows how well the site is built technically. This includes site speed, user experience, mobile-friendliness, error handling, internal link structure, etc.
- On-Site SEO refers to the content of your website and how well it is optimized. It focuses on the content, i.e. how relevant the text is on the page, and how well it is optimized for keywords.
- And the Off-Site part of SEO covers activities that happen off-site but have an impact on our site. The quality and quantity of backlinks, i.e. how many links point to our website, is important, as is the quality of those links. These links are necessary because URLs form a kind of network on the Internet, linking websites to each other.
As you can see, SEO is a complex process, and a blog article is not enough to understand it. But let’s move on to how SEO can contribute to increasing your website’s conversion rate.
The relationship between SEO and conversion rate
These two concepts usually go hand in hand. In short and simple terms, you can say that if you have done the SEO process right, your conversion rate will increase, and if you have done it wrong, your conversion rate will stagnate or decrease.
Of course, this is not a law, as the evolution of SEO and conversion rates can depend on factors such as:
- The keyword is chosen and the level of competition for it
- The UX optimization of the website
- The activity of competitors
And it’s not only these factors that influence their evolution, but I’m going to share with you some ideas that can contribute to increasing your conversion rate.
1. The right headline and relevant content
The headline is what makes the first impression on your site visitors. If it carries enough information and interest, the visitor will likely click and continue browsing the page. It is important to be brief but precise about the main topic of the page in these few words. This process should not be rushed, as choosing a good headline can make a big difference to conversion rates. You should regularly analyze different headlines to find out which ones perform best and which ones don’t. I think it’s important to note that you shouldn’t always consider SEO when choosing a title, although we aim to rank as high as possible in organic results, but don’t forget your target audience either, because if your target audience is interested in a title, you can see a significant increase in conversion rates.
But you shouldn’t just analyze your titles, you should also analyze the overall content of the page. Knowing for sure who your site visitors are, so you know who your target audience is. Use preliminary analyses, such as heatmaps, to find out what content they are interested in. If your target audience is getting relevant content from your website, this can also increase your conversion rate.
If you follow these, you can easily make your website SEO-friendly, which will also organically contribute to an increase in your conversion rate.
2. Loading time
Site load speed is one of the most important aspects of any SEO campaign, as today’s society is used to instant gratification. People are not willing to wait several seconds for a page to load. This is the reason why page load speed plays a significant role in conversion rates. Most users report that they bounce if a site takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Load time is important for the user experience, which is why Google starts ranking pages based on it. You need to optimize your site to reduce load times to get to the top of search results. I recommend optimizing or reducing all graphics, using smaller home page images, and deleting unnecessary sub-pages or pop-ups. These can reduce load time and are more likely to increase conversion rates.
3. Use images and videos that match the content
Videos and images are more popular than ever for companies to showcase their skills and practices. Good images improve the user experience on your website. These images should depict the key messages of your website and anything that is not relevant or overused should be removed. This part can also be called the website design, which, if designed properly, can help improve the user experience of your website, which can lead to increased conversion rates. Furthermore, great design and the use of images and videos can help to increase certain metrics by improving the user experience. You can increase the time visitors spend on your site, increase the number of return visits, and also reduce bounce rates. All these factors will help improve your site’s ranking.
4. Mobile-friendly site
SEO makes your website more friendly for mobile browsers. Today, 42% of users use their smartphone or tablet while browsing for your services. If your site doesn’t convert well on a mobile device, they are unlikely to be willing to stay on your website. Check your site through the eyes of a mobile user. See how easy it is to use from a touchscreen, how quickly pages load, how readable and visible the content is, and how clear it is to complete a conversion.
5. Long-tail keywords coming to the fore
Keywords play an important role in optimizing a website, but you can also differentiate between them, for example by the length of words or phrases. Short, one-word keywords are usually very general, which means that many people search for them with different intentions. These keywords are useful for getting your site to show up for many searches, but they don’t always attract users who want to convert, so even years of continuous SEO work may not get you to the top of the results. Conversely, if you use longer phrases of three or more words, you can drastically reduce the number of searches, but you can target users with specific intent. With long-tail keywords, users get exactly the results they are looking for, improving both rankings and conversion rates.
6. Increase the time spent on your site
My final piece of advice for you is to aim to get users to spend as much time as possible on your site. The more time a user spends on your site, the more valuable Google will consider it to be. In the same way, the more time someone spends browsing a site, the more likely it is that their visit will result in a conversion. There are many tools available to help visitors spend more time on a site:
- Videos that users like to watch
- CTA tools: pop-ups, buttons, in-line anchor text, price tables, etc.
I suggest you use these tools boldly to increase your site’s organic traffic and increase your conversion rate.
Conclusion
You can see that increasing the conversion rate with SEO is not the easiest thing in the world. But don’t worry, there are plenty of options and software available to make the process work. If you just follow some of the strategies I have mentioned, I am sure that your site will become SEO-friendly and your conversion rate will also improve. Good luck!