While both SEO and CRO have optimization common in their names, they share no other similarities. Let’s back up a bit here though, SEO stands for search engine optimization, which relates to higher ranking in the search engines. Think of it like this – 93% of experiences in the online sphere begin with a browser.

So you can’t afford to neglect SEO as the higher your site ranks, the greater the traffic it receives. On the flip side, CRO refers to conversion rate optimization. It relates to encouraging site visitors to take action.

As per Moz, “The CRO process involves understanding how users move through your site, what actions they take, and what's stopping them from completing your goals.” Of course, you can’t afford to ignore CRO as people failing to take a desired action means that your business model isn’t a sustainable one.  

So, how are these two factors linked? And how can you maximize your SEO impact with CRO tricks? Let’s dig in:

SEO and CRO: The link between the two

The aim of SEO is to drive people to your site. The more time people spend on your webpage, the higher it will rank considering the dwell time will increase, and the bounce rate will go down. The underlying aim of search engines is to improve user experience, which is what improves your ranking.

CRO works in a similar manner, which is where it connects with SEO. CRO is concerned with people buying from you, which is your conclusive goal. To ensure that people buy from you, though, you strive to enhance user experience. So, CRO works to test and alter landing pages to ensure that a larger portion of your traffic buys from you.

Hence, the connection between SEO and CRO is clear. Both work to boost user experience, driving traffic your way, and encouraging the traffic to take action.

Improving your SEO Impact with CRO steps in the right direction

Let’s now talk about ways you can improve your SEO and ranking by following these CRO hacks:

1. Include social sharing icons to your page

Social sharing icons are a win-win for both SEO and CRO. From an SEO point of view, social buttons indicate social signals by showing the number of likes, shares, tweets, and more on your content. In other words, these social signals show that the content is well distributed across the web.

From a CRO standpoint, social icons are trust-promoting factors for your page. Undeniably, trust is crucial for conversion optimization. And these social icons are powerful indicators of trust. In simple words, when users see that your page is trusted, shared widely on social, and followed too, it increases their trust in your page, and they are ready to buy.

Although adding social sharing icons to your webpages is a simple nut to crack, you can always ask your Digital Marketing Agency to help if you find it confusing.

2. Write engaging headlines

It’s easy to question how headlines can help improve your SEO, but they have a significant role to play. Powerful headlines can encourage people to click, which is the first step to buying from you. For instance, try to add power words to your headlines and copy, and you can note an improvement in your conversion by 12.7%.

As more and more people spend engaged time on your page, search engines take note and reward you by upping your ranking. On top of that, headlines are excellent for improving your SEO for more reasons too.

For one, the H1 header tag signals the browser that your site is structured. H1 tags are also among the first factors that search engines look at to index a page. Moreover, if the H1 header tag answers a searcher’s query, then the page is likely to show up in the search results.

Another important factor is that you have the opportunity of using keywords in your headlines. These keyword-packed reveals to the user that content contains the information he is looking for, which is great for CRO. Additionally, keywords can help you rank better. This shows how important headlines are for SEO.

3. Improve page load speed

Page load in another important hack that can help ante up both your ranking and CRO. The underlying reason for it is simply – a small delay in page load can discourage the user who, in turn, doesn’t take long to leave or abandon your site altogether.

The numbers speak for themselves here. When a page takes longer than one or three seconds to load, the bounce rate amps up by 32%. If the loading speed takes longer than 1-5 seconds to load, the bounce percentage boosts by 90%. This rate shoots to 106% bounce off if the page takes six seconds to load and so on.

To clarify here, the bounce rate is a measurement of people visiting your site and leaving instantly, without clicking anything or interacting with your page. So how does this all impact your CRO and subsequently, SEO?

The answer is straightforward. Any delay in the load speed discourages a person from staying on the page. This means that the visitor never comes close to clicking your CTA due to poor user experience. Furthermore, there is also the risk of the user going to a competitor.

This takes a negative toll on your CRO. With this decline in CRO, your SEO also goes down since the dwell time drops and bounce rate spikes, which Google sees as a sign of visitors not liking your site. Reverse all these factors, and you have better CRO and SEO. Therefore, improving your page load speed is another hack to take into account for improving your ranking.

Final thoughts

By taking steps to improve your conversion rate optimization, you can always boost your search engine ranking. Your ultimate goal should be to improve user experience. A/B test changes you make, whether to your design or landing page content and note what’s working. In the long haul, satisfying your site visitors and getting them to buy from you will assist in upping your ranking successfully.