The purpose of a search engine optimization campaign is to conduct activities that will capture the attention of the search engine spiders, and in turn get your website content to rank prominently in the search engines for related keyword search terms. If you are able to improve your search engine presence, you can generate more clicks over to your website, which should generate more conversions in the form of attaining contact information via a lead form, more calls to the phone number listed on the website, or a direct sale from the site if there is an ecommerce component. Yet, sometimes all doesn’t go as planned.The SEO campaign is in full swing, visitors to the site from the search engines have improved, but the conversion rate of the site has remained steady.
So, what’s the problem? When a website owner starts to see that upward trend in visitors from SEO efforts, it’s exciting but there is also this expectation that more SEO visitors automatically will translate to more leads, sales, etc. but what needs to be understood is that SEO is not responsible for conversions on the site. SEO will get more visitors to the page, but then at that point it’s really up to the quality of the site content and the layout and navigation of the website that will get that visitor to convert.
Here are a few suggestions to improve the conversion rate of an optimized website:
# Make it easy to navigate:
Once a visitor lands on your website, it’s likely that they will click around on the site in order to learn more about what you have to offer. The navigation should be user friendly and intuitive. Include the most important pages within the top navigation and also in the footer. Provide multiple pathways for people to find the pages that are the most relevant to their needs.
# Include a lead form on every page:
Visitors could be on any page of the site when they decide that what you offer is in line with what they need. You don’t want to make them go looking for a place to get in touch with you. By including this form on every page of the site you are improving the chances that you will get this information. Always make things as easy as possible for your website visitors. Remember, they expect immediate gratification on the web, anything that takes too long to do won’t be done.
# Include call to actions:
You can’t always expect that website visitors will know what steps to take once they’ve landed on the page. Guide them in the right direction by including clear, concise call to actions in the right locations that will encourage the conversion.
Of course, these are conversion recommendations at the most basic level. If you are still struggling with conversions but the website traffic is up from SEO efforts, it is worthwhile to consider hiring a conversion expert, which is different than an SEO expert. They can look at your website with a trained eye and point out areas that can be improved upon.
