10 Ways to Improve SEO Conversions
Many SEO’s think that it is necessary to sacrifice usability and basic good business practices for the purpose of achieving search engine ranking. This is a grievous mistake that is not only not necessary but downright foolish. Here are some simple tips you can use to increase your conversion rates and search rankings at the same time.
1. Don’t sacrifice usability for SEO
Sure on-page optimization matters. But a site that ranks well and doesn’t capture customers/visitors is like an umbrella on a sunny day.
2. Call to action
Give your visitors something to do. Adding buttons and links that tell your customers what they need to do and when they need to do it is a great way to engage visitors. Other techniques in this genre are creating time sensitive offers.
3. Design
This is by far the most basic and least utilized aspect of conversion in the SEO world. Humans have a certain way they read things, so cater to that. Create a good, clean and easy to use design and your visitors are sure to stay.
4. Social Proof
Validate yourself by creating proof that other visitors think your product or service is worth investigating. Things like best sellers, customer reviews or recommended items can help you accomplish this.
5. Be available
Customer always want to be able to contact you. If creates trust because you are out in the open and exposed but it also it can give visitors an opportunity to tell you how to improve your operations.
6. Be legitimate
Many sites fail to recognize the importance of security seals, encrypted shopping carts and so on. Having something as simple as an SSL certificate or a “Hacker Safe” certificate can greatly increase visitors trust in you as being a legitimate site.
7. Analytics
Sure SEO’s use analytics to track SERP success but what about improving obvious holes and problems with the site? Tracking bounce rates, exit pages and abandoned shopping carts can help you identify why and where your visitors are leaving your site.
*FYI bounce rates affect your search engine rankings
8. Give freely
The basic theory of capitalism is to create value which in turns brings you prosperity. Give your visitors something that is genuinely valuable and they will continue to visit your site. Promotions, give aways, free resources and tools are great ways to get and keep online visitors. They can create some great backlinks in the process.
9. Keep your visitors in the loop
Make sure to send out newsletters and personal emails whenever possible but try to avoid spamming. Mass e-mails are impersonal and in some cases may damage your reputation more then it helps it. Newsletters are a great way to keep visitors informed and aware of whats going on with your site.
10. Visitors are good for business
Any way you can attract visitors (aside from devious reasons) can help your site. Sure non targeted traffic will not increase your sales however when you use the tips above you will be increasing conversions and attracting traffic. This traffic is key to showing search engines that your site is popular and worthy of a front page ranking.
More Reading:
SEO Conversion Testing: Advanced Search Engine Optimization
Increasing Your Landing Page Conversion Rate
How to Combine Conversion Optimization with SEO
Improve Your Website Conversion Rate
