How To Optimize Your Website For Seo And Conversions
If you have good SEO, you can attract more traffic and get more opportunities to convert potential customers.
And a website optimized for conversions usually has better metrics, such as time spent on the page and bounce rate, which means Google could rank it higher.
The following tips and strategies, inspired by expert Neil Patel, the co-founder of Crazy Egg and Ubersuggest, will teach you how to optimize your website for SEO and conversions to get the two best worlds.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” This is the process of increasing your website traffic through search engine results.
This allows your website to become more visible. When potential customers search for terms related to your brand, they have a better chance of discovering your website and becoming a customer.
Imagine you have a fitness business. You offer diet and workout tips on your website.
You also have an article on weight loss. With good SEO practices, a person searching for a keyword like “how to lose weight” might have a better chance of finding that item, and therefore your brand.
This is the power of SEO.
5 Reasons Why You Need to Optimize Your Website
There are many reasons to learn how to optimize conversions and SEO in tandem.
First, you need to know how they work together to create a lighter and more productive website.
Let’s look at five specific reasons to optimize your site immediately and continually optimize your site over time.
1. Make your website useful for your specific audience
Marketers sometimes feel like they disagree with Google. The search engine fails to rank its best content, for example, or it sees a huge drop in traffic after an algorithmic update.
In reality, however, your goals and those of Google are the same:
- Serve the best possible content to your audience
- Create a positive website user experience
- Prioritize content that delivers significant value
You do it in different ways. Google analyzes millions of websites while you analyze the behaviors of your specific audience.
Google uses more than 200 Google ranking signals to decide which pieces of content will appear on the first page of search engine results. The algorithm pays close attention to the signs that a particular web page will provide researchers with the information they are looking for.
When you focus on SEO, you choose primary and latent semantic keywords related to search intent. You write content that people like to read and be sure to provide meta information to help Google better understand copying.
If you’re optimizing your website for conversions, you’re focused on directing visitors toward a specific goal, whether it’s joining your email list or buying one of your products. Just like Google, you want to give your audience exactly what those consumers want.
Knowing how to optimize your website for SEO and conversions simultaneously helps achieve both of these goals and creates a better relationship between your site and search engines.
2. Increase your organic traffic
The average company spends about 1% of its total revenue on advertising. If your business brings in $1 million a year, you could spend $10,000 on advertising.
While this may seem like a small percentage, it adds up. Some industries, such as retail, spend much more on ads.
However, attracting organic traffic via SEO is free. You have to pay to develop and promote the content, but it’s not as expensive as pay-per-click.
When you compare the closing rate between searchers who arrive at your site via natural search and those who come through paid ads, the results are illustrative. The organic search ends at nearly 15%, while paid search ends at less than 2%.
Invest your time and, if necessary, your money to increase your organic traffic. It may take longer, but the results last longer and lead to more conversions.
3. Capitalize on existing traffic
When people visit your website, you don’t want them to take a tour and leave. Instead, you want to make a lasting impression and encourage them to come back.
Learning how to optimize your website for conversions requires an understanding of the user experience. Learn how visitors navigate your site, whether they scroll down the page, and how often they click on your calls to action (CTAs).
If someone signs up for your email list, you can contact them at a later date with offers, incentives, and more. You can also encourage visitors to follow you on social media, visit your product pages, and read your blog posts.
Capitalizing on existing traffic helps improve your conversion rate, as a higher percentage of your organic traffic will convert. You know which offer your audience will respond to and how to present it attractively.
4. Force your website to work harder
Anyone can create a website – even a beautiful website – but far fewer can create a website that reliably produces conversions. After all, the average conversion rate in all industries is less than 2.5%.
You want your audience to convert at much higher rates. To do this, you need to carefully study your audience and give them what they need and what they expect.
If you’ve done the research and applied the data to your site, you can expect an increase in conversion rates. People who visit your site quickly find what they need and appreciate your brand for providing it. Brand loyalty results.
SEO always comes first, though. Without traffic, you can’t have conversions. Create a site with valuable and sticky content and plenty of conversion opportunities for visitors.
5. Give your audience what they want and expect
Imagine this scenario:
You have an e-commerce site that sells shoes. A customer needs a new pair of running shoes and performs a Google search on the best shoes for runners. You’ve written a long, detailed blog post about choosing running shoes, including brand recommendations and information for different types of runners.
The visitor reads the article. In the end, you have a lead magnet that offers a free sizing and adjustment chart for runners. All the visitor has to do is sign up for your email list.
You immediately send the lead magnet to the visitor. A few days later, you send a promo code for your online store as well as images of running shoes. The customer realizes that you have what meets their needs and the discount encourages an immediate sale.
As you can see, SEO and conversion rate optimization work hand in hand. If you meet your audience’s expectations and help them find what they want, you’ll secure a customer.
How to Optimize Your Website for SEO in 8 Simple Steps
To begin with, you need to increase your website’s SEO to attract more traffic.
Here are the ones that will allow you to succeed in your SEO (You can then focus on conversions while continuing to update and publish new content):
1. Analyze all the data on your website
A piece of data in itself may not tell you anything, but when you collect a lot of data, you start noticing patterns.
If a few people visit your site and don’t click on your CTA, you might not have a problem.
However, if a large percentage of visitors ignore your CTA, you may need to make some adjustments.
Google Search Console’s user behavior and traffic data reports help paint a clear picture. User behavior reports, for example, show you how people behave once they arrive at your site, while GSC data tracks key metrics, such as number of sessions, number of unique sessions, bounce rate, and more.
Analyze data for specific models. Reference sources can tell you a lot about your audience. How do people find your site? Look for pages that drive more traffic and conversions than others. Reverse the success of this page to replicate it on your site.
2. Conduct in-depth keyword research
Years ago, you could pick a keyword out of nowhere, write a 300-word article, and rank for that keyword the next day. SEO doesn’t work like that anymore.
Tools like Ubersuggest (or other tools to generate keywords) help you find keywords related to your business and niche. Use it to find long-tail keywords that match the user intent of your potential customers. Think about why they would search for a particular keyword and what they hope to find on a page about it.
Start with a broad keyword. For example, you may be offering a dog boarding house, so you start with a keyword like “kennels.”
Ubersuggest will provide you with a list of keywords that you can filter in several ways. You’re looking for long-tail keywords that you can use to attract a specific audience.
Do this again and again when you create more pages for your site. Write long, in-depth articles that provide as much information as possible on the topic.
3. Produce long, value-rich content
According to Buffer, the ideal length of a blog post is 1,600 words. But this is just a starting point.
Before deciding on the optimal length of your content, search for your main keyword in Google and check out the top 10 SERPs. Do any of these pages exceed 1,600 words? Then yours should be too.
Length is not everything. However, this sends a signal to Google that you are providing more information. If a lot of people spend a lot of time on this page – reading to the end – you’re more likely to rank higher.
4. Optimize for on-page SEO
On-Page SEO tells you how to optimize your website when you create specific pages. Factors such as titles, subtitles, URL slugs, and meta tags fall into this category.
Use your main keyword in your title, preferably as close to the beginning as possible. It must also appear in the slug and at least one subtitle. Throughout the body copy, aim for 0.5% to 2.5%. Try not to go beyond the high-end to avoid looking like a keyword stuffer.
Sprinkle your main and related keywords into your body text, subtitles, and image alt text. Include plenty of context for each so that Google understands precisely what you’re talking about.
5. Optimize for off-page SEO
Off-page SEO (like links and domain authority) – also known as off-site SEO – refers to the ways you optimize your website through external means. Guest blogging, social media activity, influencer marketing, and brand mentions can all improve your site’s SEO.
We’ll talk specifically about backlinks a little later, but links, in general, can make a big difference in SEO. You don’t want to get links from small low-authority sites. They won’t help (and they can hurt). Instead, you want to target well-respected posts when searching for backlinks.
6. Optimize the website for mobile
With more and more people accessing websites through mobile devices, you don’t want to leave those potential conversions behind. In addition, Google has launched the mobile-first index, which means you could rank higher if you focus on mobile-friendliness.
Responsive design offers the simplest solution. You can download free and premium WordPress themes with a built-in responsive design, which means you don’t have to worry about adding extra code.
7. Speed up pages
Page speed is important for SEO and conversions.
If you’re visiting a website that takes forever to load, you’ll probably click the “Back” button and look for something else. Similarly, if you fill out a form that refuses to submit it due to the slow speed, you will eventually give up.
Google’s PageSpeed Insights or gtmetrix gives you valuable insight into how fast your site loads across all devices and what specific elements you can fix to make your site faster.
8. Get quality backlinks
Backlinks are a key factor in helping your site rank better.
When high-quality sites link to yours, Google interprets the link as a signal of your site’s credibility. As you create a solid backlink profile, your pages will climb the ladder.
Getting quality backlinks takes effort, but you’ll see results. Consider sending emails to influencers and other blogs in your niche. Share your article with them and direct them to a page where you have shared some of their content.
Can SEO improve your website’s conversions?
Now that we’ve covered improving your SEO, what happens to your conversions?
You won’t see the results right away. Ranking creation takes time, especially with the plethora of online content, so you have to work hard to create quality content, attract backlinks, and establish your credibility with Google.
However, you need to start preparing conversions now. If you know how to optimize your website, you can immediately see larger conversions even if your traffic is low.
SEO improves conversions by directing the right searchers to your content. If you specify the purpose of a page, Google can rank it accurately based on the consumer’s search intent.
In addition, writing longer, more value-oriented articles increase a visitor’s chances of conversion. They recognize the value of what you have shared and become intrigued. As long as you present them with an attractive offer, you increase the chances of winning conversions.
Optimize your website for conversions – Improve the user experience
User experience simply means how people perceive your site with navigation and find what they want. A good user experience leaves the visitor satisfied and grateful.
To hook more conversions, focus on the smallest details. For example, look at your homepage and identify each element, from your logo and the top navigation bar to the widgets in your sidebar. If you removed any of these elements, would you be harming the user experience?
If not, get rid of it. Focus on driving your traffic to the action you want people to take.
Try user behavior tools to analyze what needs to be improved
Guesswork only goes that far when it comes to user experience. You might think that an element of the page is necessary, but user behavior reports do not confirm this.
Running reports on user behavior gives you a unique insight into what people are doing when they arrive at your website. Heat maps, for example, show you where the most clickable activity occurs so you can position your most important elements on the page.
Conclusion
SEO can be extremely complex, but knowing the basics will give you a good start.
Start by collecting as much data as possible and do extensive research. Write content that’s right for your audience, but make sure it’s better than your competitors.
Create separate campaigns for on-page and off-page SEO. Make sure your site loads quickly on desktop and mobile and that you attract backlinks as much as possible.
Then find out how to optimize your website for conversions so you don’t waste all that good traffic.
Focus on the user experience and patterns you detect through user behavior reports. Over time, you’ll see traffic and conversions increase based on your hard work.
Plus, even older content can continue to work hard for you. Don’t overlook your efforts as being only relevant at this time.
If you write solid evergreen content, you can attract traffic — and drive conversions — for years to come.
READ MORE : Tips to optimize the natural referencing of your site
