Starting and maintaining a website is a process that entails details and these details are not always covered in overviews. Some first will rather entrust the affairs of running their website to an ecommerce development company or a Magento Ecommerce Agency. This is for good reason as maintaining a website is in itself a serious duty that needs proper attendance. Since the inception of search engine there has been a craze about search engine optimization. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the online visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine’s unpaid results—often referred to as “natural”, “organic”, or “earned” results. (Source: Wikipedia). With search engine optimization, your business stands a higher chance of being seen. However, people can see your business without actually patronizing it. This is where Conversion Rate Optimization comes in. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that convert into customers, or more generally, take any desired action on a webpage (Source: Wikipedia).
If your SEO strategy is increasing overall site traffic but not translating into conversions, something is wrong. It typically means that users are getting lost or bored on their journey through your site. The goal of CRO is to increase the percentage of your site visitors that perform a specific action, which can be anything from filling out a contact form to purchasing products through your online store. It is important to note however that CRO does not substitute for SEO, instead it complements SEO. As a matter of fact, you need SEO for your business as much as you need CRO. This is besides the fact that SEO precedes CRO. Below are 5 reasons SEO is fundamental for CRO.
It is traffic that brings conversion
There is no way people will patronize a business that they do not know of. Before a business can be tagged a good business, it must have proven itself to be a good business. It can only prove itself to be a good business if people have tried it. People can only try it if they know it and giving your business popularity on the internet is what SEO does.
SEO is the foundation of all digital marketing campaigns
The fact that digital market is based on the internet and is aimed at gaining traffic makes it reliant on SEO. Be it an email marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing and so on, you need to build your campaign on an SEO laid foundation. Without an SEO foundation, your digital marketing strategy may end up being able to draw attention not to talk of catching the attention of the right audience.
SEO is the foundation of all digital marketing campaigns
The fact that digital market is based on the internet and is aimed at gaining traffic makes it reliant on SEO. Be it an email marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing and so on, you need to build your campaign on an SEO laid foundation. Without an SEO foundation, your digital marketing strategy may end up being able to draw attention not to talk of catching the attention of the right audience.
An SEO based website keeps visitors engaged
A high ranking SEO website signifies that a number of factors are present. One of them is quality content. This is one factor that is geared towards encouraging conversion. With quality content, you will be able to keep your web visitors engaged, enlightened and wanting more. With quality content, you will also build a relationship based on trust and professionalism. This factor is something CRO can build on to thrive.
An SEO based website signifies fast loading webpages
One of the major principles of the internet is speed and it will do you good if you don’t joke with it. Imagine your website takes almost twenty seconds to load? No amount of effort you put into CRO will be effective. This is because no web visitor will wait for that long to view what is on your website. With an SEO foundation however, the case will be different as your website will load within two to five seconds.
An SEO based website signifies quality backlinks
You must have heard of the saying that “everybody wants to mingle with a successful person”. This is because they want to benefit from the value he/she has and the same goes for quality content. One way to build quality backlinks is to have quality content. With it, you will not need to go the extra mile to get backlinks. The reason I am emphasizing on backlinks in because of the fact that they command authority. You can control what is on your website but you can’t control what is on the website of another web operator. When you have quality backlinks, you website will ooze of authority and this will help drive your CRO strategy.
Though they may be a little different, they are more like different sides of the same coin. SEO strategies in their own way help to increase conversion but CRO is a notch higher as it is more focused on increasing conversion.