Understanding the link between SEO and CRO
Both SEO and CRO are integral in boosting the performance of your site, so understanding how they link can change how you use them effectively. It especially works hand in hand with e-commerce SEO, which generates traffic to your online store, and CRO then turns this traffic into conversions.
The practices are different and have their own individual KPIs, yet they align in many ways that could help your organic performance. If you want to improve your site to the best it can be to achieve the most conversions possible, it is essential to consider implementing CRO alongside your SEO strategy.
Investing in both gives your site a real advantage, but why? We’re here to tell you.
What’s the difference?
Despite having the same aim, there are key differences to note.
The aim of SEO is to get your site to rank highly in the SERPs by optimising the performance of your site to receive organic traffic.
CRO then follows the work of SEO. CRO aims to turn this organic traffic into conversions. To do this, it identifies the process of a customer journey. This journey is then used to identify where a route can be added so users are more likely to make a desired action.
Even though implementing SEO practices can improve conversion rate, this isn’t its primary purpose, but it is CRO’s. CRO can test and hypothesise different user journeys to recognise which produces the highest conversion rate.
How do SEO and CRO work together?
SEO and CRO have overlapping benefits, so implementing both practices within your SEO strategy can have extremely effective results. While they operate independently, combining them can amplify each other’s impact.
Here are just some of the ways in which SEO and CRO can work together:
User experience
A positive user experience is central to both. With SEO, a good user experience involves optimising mobile friendliness, site speed and the content overall. With CRO, these elements are optimised for a user’s journey towards performing a desired action.
CRO can also provide useful data about the user experience that can then be used to determine SEO practices. Things like research phrases and the specific journeys taken can help to create a more user-focused web page that aligns with the standards of Google.
Some of the data that CRO can provide you includes:
- Drop-offs through the user journey via funnel tracking
- Click-through rate
- Usability testing
- Session duration
- A/B testing results
The information it can provide is endless, so it truly is the gift that keeps on giving.
Conversion tracking
By tracking conversions, the SEO elements that are benefitting your site can be identified. If you’ve made changes to your SEO strategy, there’s no need to stress, as tracking conversions through CRO can reassure you that these changes have been worthwhile.
CRO also involves A/B testing. This determines which version of a webpage has a more successful conversion rate. In turn, this can tell you which SEO elements have been successful in improving the user journey.
Conversion tracking allows SEO experts to show clients the impact of their choices, validating any changes made to the strategy. The user data provided by CRO gives solid proof to show off to clients while also allowing clients to look in on how a strategy has played out.
Optimisation of content and keywords
For visitors to turn into conversions, there must be CTAs embedded in your content. Whether this is an instruction or a clickable link, it should drive the user to perform the desired action.
Answering the initial search query is still key, however. This is so a high ranking can be retained as Google recognises the relevance of your page. After this, products and services can be introduced. SEO optimises content to improve search rankings while CRO optimises the content to encourage a user to take action. This is a perfect demonstration of how they both work in tandem.
The two strategies can work in harmony if you optimise your keyword strategies in alignment. For SEO, your keywords should be optimised for the search engine and user intent.
For CRO, your keywords should drive conversions. By ticking both boxes, you have an optimised site that works effectively for both strategies.
Are there any risks of using both?
While the relationship between the two should be smooth and compatible, you may be wondering, are there any risks of using both SEO and CRO?
The risks only arise when something implemented to benefit CRO could damage the SEO strategy or vice versa. For example, modifying CTA’s or prioritising conversion rate over user experience risks damaging the progress made by SEO.
The key is to find the perfect balance between the two- if your CRO seems to relentlessly try and convince your users, there’s a risk of them leaving the site, in turn increasing the bounce rate. If you’re clever with how you utilise the two, they become the ultimate pairing.
How we can help you increase conversions
At Embryo, our SEO experts can find the perfect balance between SEO and CRO. We understand the importance of turning traffic into conversions, and it’s not just about the money either. No matter whether your conversions are purely engagement, products in baskets, or forms filled- you name it, and we can achieve it.
A seamless user experience is our priority, and creating a bespoke, effective strategy is at the heart of what we do. Get in touch with the team today- We’re happy to help no matter your query!
FAQs
Answered by Dan McCartney
How do I analyse CRO?
CRO stands for Conversion Rate Optimisation, so you’d want to focus on metrics aligned with Conversion Rate in your first-party tools, such as GA4. A good starting point would be to identify any pages where their conversion rate is lower than others, or where in your user’s journey are they “Bouncing” (or leaving) the website.
Is SEO linked to domain or website?
Both. The age, location and server where your domain is hosted does hold ranking factors, as well as your actual website itself where your SEO efforts would be on the three pillars: Technical; Content and Authority.
Is the biggest factor in SEO?
There is no “biggest factor” when it comes to SEO, it’s circumstantial. For example, a website might have great Technical SEO but lack Content, others might have terrible Technical SEO but have great content. These two circumstances would have entirely different needs for SEO, and the “biggest factor” would be different.
How does web design affect SEO?
Web design affects SEO as there are certain factors that are controlled by the design and setup of a website. For example, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals – some are built with this in mind, others aren’t and require further optimisation.
