In the Internet Marketing world, the purpose of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to rank high with the ever-changing search engines so potential customers can find your site. This makes SEO one of the most talked about and sought after skills among Internet marketers. So much attention is paid to getting customers to the site, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is often low on the priority list - if it makes the list at all.
CRO is the one of the biggest things you can do to maximize your return on investment (ROI), why is it so underused? GottaLotta Marketing understands the intricacies of CRO and how to transform sub-par webpages into successful, well-tuned conversion Internet business.
CRO AND SEO: ALIKE BUT DIFFERENT
Like SEO, CRO is the process of refining web site content to lower the abandonment rate and lead the visitor to what you want--a customer. The process is very similar to SEO. We carefully analyze your analytics and make changes based on that analysis. Analytics are your best CRO resource but we have to dig deep to understand visitor behavior.
We look at your segments and perform in-depth segmentation analysis.
- How can we optimize each segment’s web site experience?
- Is there a better way to interact with each segment?
Shortcuts are not an option. We analyze, test and then do it again until we find the right combinations to convert visitors to customers.
In the end it’s all about the content. Sure the technical, behind the scenes parts are important, but, when it’s right, it’s seamless. Visitor’s see the value in your brand and have a great experience. Remember, SEO brings you visitors, CRO brings you customers.
YOU WANT ME TO PAY FOR IT?
One interesting aspect of CRO is that it works well with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. CRO and PPC, with a matching landing page, allow us to conduct pointed and specific tests the selected keywords. Using the test results we can find what works and what doesn’t work.
We test the content and change directions fast to find what works. Using PPC advertising, we target different audience segments with different ads. Understand that PPC advertising provides a highly controlled environment to test messages for different audience segments. Segmenting the audience allows us to target different groups within the overall audience. We break down the audience further and test to see if your traffic increases and your conversion rates go up.
Conventional wisdom says to avoid breaking up your content into multi-step pages but that may not be strictly true. It may make sense to have a two- or three-step landing page especially if we are targeting different audience segments.
If we are experimenting with landing pages or even running time-limited campaigns, we may not want search engine robots to index the pages. In that case, we use the robot META attribute, to avoid indexing. It can be confusing if a potential visitor finds old information, then goes to your site and can’t find anything to match what he saw.
CONVERSION IS WORK
The main purpose of CRO is to convert a web site visitor to a customer. To do that we have to reach something within that person; a dream, a desire, a goal, a need. SEO is the glitter on the outside to capture the attention, CRO is the substance that keeps the attention. Testing and retesting is what we do. Test usability, analyze metrics, refine the SEO and landing page content, optimize the entire web site. Then, we do it all again to get it right.
