Cynics like to say that SEO doesn’t actually drive sales. Those folks have a point. Kind of.
To be clear: organic search traffic is an investment that can yield returns for years on end… but only if you’re able to convert that traffic into sales.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tried-and-true method for generating that targeted traffic. The rest of the journey requires a different set of tactics and metrics. That’s the realm of conversion rate optimization (CRO).
So the cynics are partially right: SEO alone doesn’t drive sales. Which begs that question: why pursue SEO at all if you’re not also going to implement CRO?
What’s the point of organic search content anyway?
Here’s what I think we’re trying to do with organic search content, and maybe all marketing content:
- Consolidate and refine all of our ideas about a product and what it can do. (Product marketing is integral to content marketing in this way.)
- Create content that illustrates those ideas in a way that connects with our target audience (i.e. buyers).
Here’s how I think that content (ideally) connects with buyers:
- Educating them about a problem they have.
- Providing a persuasive lens for thinking about the problem.
- Showing them how they could be solving the problem.
The best content is immediately useful to buyers while also bringing them into the buying process.
SEO is fundamental to those content marketing objectives
Organic search is a channel that people use to find answers to specific questions and solutions to specific problems.
As marketers, you’re using the channel of organic search to provide answers and solutions that people find useful. This organic content brings people to our website so we can provide that information and teach those people about our product.
On the most basic level, the buyer’s journey looks like this:
- They don’t know who you are. But they search Google for some info and one of your blog posts appears in the search results.
- They visit your site. And when they visit, they actually stick around. They read that initial page, at least.
- They engage. They click on another page. They explore the site. They share some contact info, download some more detailed information, and peruse the demos.
- They use the product. Whether it's open source or enterprise, they’ve converted.
SEO is crucial to those early steps: getting your brand on their radar, getting the buyer to your site, setting the stage for a relationship. SEO strategy can guide you to success pretty consistently in that way.
But SEO will not keep buyers on your site. That’s where CRO comes in.
Transitioning from SEO to CRO in the buyer journey
CRO picks up where SEO leaves off.
SEO optimizes your content so that people notice it and follow it from Google to your site. CRO optimizes that same content so people will stay engaged on your site – and deepen their engagement.
In practice, CRO strategy can include a variety of actions:
- Improving visual design and page experience to keep visitors oriented and excited.
- Cross-linking so visitors read something else that will be helpful to them.
- Refining CTAs so that visitors explore specific product features that are most relevant to their personal needs.
CRO and SEO: methods of “engagement optimization”?
The buyer’s journey is the through-line here. When we keep our focus on the buyer, we can see that SEO and CRO are really just two phases within that one unified journey.
In that sense, we might think of CRO and SEO as two parts of a broader optimization strategy: engagement optimization.
SEO as engagement optimization
It starts with selecting topics to write about for organic search. You’re selecting those topics with the buyer in mind.
(👆Use the Topic Explorer tool in the ércule app to search any topic phrase and find related keywords.)
The ideal topic is connected to your ideal buyer’s needs and your product’s value proposition at the same time.
In other words: you’re trying to craft a narrative that engages your target audience on the SERP. (Clicking on your page link is, arguably, a micro-conversion).
CRO as engagement optimization
The conversation around CRO usually centers on getting visitors to click specific links – signing up for demos, submitting their contact info in exchange for demos, those types of transactional modes of engagement.
But in order to reach that transaction, you first need to win their interest. In that sense CRO is also tasked with ensuring softer types of on-page engagement.
- Web design that is welcoming
- Blog content that is logically structured
- Value propositions that are clear and compelling
These are factors that keep a person on your site long enough to ultimately click on a typical conversion link. You can quantify and optimize each of them, but that kind of engagement data requires more than just click metrics.
The best content engines integrate SEO and CRO
At ércule, we help marketing teams develop a content marketing engine. That is: a consistent, repeatable, effective system for generating sales leads through organic content.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tried-and-true component of a content engine. The fundamentals are well known (if not always practiced) by marketers – as are the means for measuring results. But SEO is only one part of a content engine.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is another, equally important component. It’s newer than SEO, and the methods are not so solidified. It’s more daunting. But if you want the engine to run properly, you need to make sure all components are functional. You can’t shrug off CRO just because it’s more complicated.
It is, of course, pretty complicated. But there are simple ways to get started with CRO. Want to chat more about it? Drop us a line.
