How To Lead Website Visitors To Water AND Make Them DrinkThe Complimentary Relationship of SEO and CRO

Agenda

• Intro to SEO and CRO• The Buying Cycle• The Four Personalities• How Personas and The Buying Cycle Influence

Search Keywords• Five Pillars of Conversion Optimization• Continually Improving Your Website

Great Websites Are Like Great Sales People

Websites are not Marketing.Traditional Sales & Marketing Roles

– Marketing Drives Traffic (Search Engine Optimization)– Sales Converts Traffic (Conversion Rate Optimization)

Websites are SalesHow do Great Sales People really work?1. Figure out who they’re talking to.2. Make them feel Comfortable3. Discovers their needs & motivations4. Help Them (Provide Information & Options)5. Asks the Buying Question (When its most effective).

What does she do with Marketing Collateral?

Organic Results

Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click

seOverflow Client

What Is Search Engine Optimization?Doing things to get your website as high as possible in the search results

What Is Conversion Rate and CRO?The percentage of visitors that take a desired action. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the process of increasing

that percentage.

• If your website does not convert well, the money you spend on generating traffic is wasted.– SEO– Affiliates– Content Marketing– Paid Search, Display

• It is cheaper to increase conversions on existing traffic than to buy more traffic

The Financial Impact of Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion Rate 2%

Visitors 20,000

Total Sales 400

Monthly Revenue $80,000

Conversion Rate 3%

Visitors 20,000

Total Purchases 600

Monthly Revenue $120,000

Average website order size = $200

Moving from 2% to 3% conversion rate equals almost $500,000 more in annual revenue!

Why Do SEO And CRO Work Well Together?

• Organic traffic tends to be “good” traffic with higher rates of “intention”.

• SEO can be expensive, and CRO ensures that ROI is maximized.

• With recent changes to Google (Panda), some conversion rate factors are now search ranking factors.

The Buying Decision Process

4 Dimensions Of A Sale

4 Personality Types• Competitive

– Why are you the best?– What can you do for me?

• Spontaneous– How can I get what I need fast?– Can you help me narrow down

my choices?• Humanistic

– Who uses your products?– Who are you?

• Methodical– How does it work?– What proof do you have?

Quick

Vs.

Slow

Logical vs. Emotional

Intersection of Personalities & Buying Decision

Search Engine Traffic and the Buying CycleYour Keywords Matter

Keywords Are The Foundation Of SEO

• Keyword research• Keyword and site architecture planning• Keyword rich content• Keyword rich links

80/20 Rule For Keywords

• 80% of keywords are Informational– searching involves looking for a specific fact or topic

• 10% of keywords are Navigational– searcher seeks to locate a specific web site

• 10% of keywords are Transactional– searcher looks for information related to buying a

particular product or service

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030645730700163X - Penn State Study

Keyword Value

(thanks to Aaron Wall of SEOBook for this image)

A Google Study On Converting Keywords

Source: http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/ads/techb2b_news.pdf

When Creating Your Keyword Strategy

• Use keywords relevant to various stages of the buying cycle– A user captured early in the buying cycle can be

nurtured into a sale – most likely Informational type keywords.

– Make sure the ‘intent’ of the target keyword is represented in your content

Conversion Rate OptimizationMaximize ROI From Your Website Traffic

The Secret To Increasing Conversions

• Reduce “Friction”

• Answer the Basics FIRST– Who are you?– What do you do?– What does it mean to you.

• Make the Website a Sales Person

The 5 Pillars of Conversion Optimization

• Usability• Persuasion• Design• Navigation and Information Architecture• Content

Usability

10 Usability Questions for EVERY PageFrom a User’s Perspective

1. Does it load quickly?2. Is the purpose clear?3. What does the user call it?4. Is it consistent?5. Is it standard?6. Do I have a good reason for straying from the standard?7. Does it work?8. Are elements displayed in priority order?9. Is there a clear call to action?10. Is it confusing?

Avoid common pitfalls

Pogo sticking

Roach motels

Linkitus

Windows a plenty

Visitors don’t know where the links lead; they click around to find what they need

Visitors get lost with too many separate windows

Visitors get frustrated with dead end pages with no way to go back (PDFs)

Visitors can’t find what they need; they return to the home page to try again

Does content display?

• Before you optimize content, do cross browser testing to make sure people can see it

• Great resource: http://crossbrowsertesting.com/

Do pages load quickly?

• Even tiny lifts in page load times impact conversion– Amazon sales fell by 1%

for every 100 millisecond increase

• Great resource: http://www.webpagetest.org/compare

Form Usability• 12% of people try to

submit “Site Type” without selecting an option

• 25% of “Dropped Forms” occur at “Site Type”

• 40% of submits are without a utility.

• 202% lift form leads• Their next ¼ results

Persuasion

Persuasion is a “Conversation” between the website and the visitor that convinces them to take action.

Website.com– “Register for a 30-Day Trial of our Software”

Visitor – “I get a lot of SPAM. Why should I give up personal info? How hard is it to set up?”

Website.com– “Simple to Install & Configure with Full Trial Support. Used by 2000 small & medium sized businesses. View our Privacy Policy”.

Design (Look & Feel)

Look and Feel relates to the overall visual impression people have of our website. – People judge books by their covers. – We have a few seconds after they land on our

website.• Five Elements of Look and Feel

– Design– Color– Graphics & Photos– Layout– Sound & Motion

Navigation & Information ArchitectureNavigation relates to all the buttons and links people use to find

information on the website.

• Greatest source of “Friction”

• Improve Navigation by Asking These Questions– Can I tell if it’s “hot”?– Is it clear what I will find if I click?– Is navigation consistent across pages?– Does my navigation use my target audience’s words?– Is my navigation persuasive?– Do people know where they are on the website?– Do I have important & relevant information when its being looked for?

Content

Orient, Inform, Satisfy then Sell.

• Is copy scan-able and skim-able?• Is grammar & spelling correct?• Does copy address my target personas’ needs and questions?• Does copy lead through the buying process?• Does copy incorporate SEO keywords?• Do links create interest and pull people through my site?• Are calls to action relevant and clear & well placed?• Does copy match the brand & marketing message?• Does copy focus on benefits instead of features?• Does copy “we we” all over itself? • Jargon much?

Other Conversion Optimization Assets• Chat• Reviews• Forms• Cart• Testimonial Videos• Live Demos• Recorded Webinars• White Papers• Data Sheets• Case Studies• Customer Service

Use Hindsight As A Super Power !

Quantitative– Analytics– Heat-maps– CRMs

Qualitative– User Testing– Surveys– Screen Recordings

Start with bigger impact items

1. Reduce clutter2. Make headlines more relevant3. Strengthen copy that appears closest to images4. Try a more compelling offer5. Test trust factors (e.g., testimonials, awards,

security badges, phone numbers, etc.)6. Ensure calls to actions follow best practices (i.e.,

copy, placement, contrast and color)7. Use more engaging imagery

Start With ‘Entry’ Pages Start with Bounce Rate of top 3 entry pages.

Need to answer 3 questions is 3 seconds:1. Who are you?2. What do you do?3. What does it mean

to me?

Watch the fold, but don’t be afraid of it.

15% Bounce Rate & the majority of clicks are belowthe fold.

Bottom-up Approach

Bottom-up ApproachWhen Cart/Form Conversions Look Bad– The Straw effect?

When Cart/Form Conversions Look Good– Weeded success?

20%

65%

Continuous ImprovementConversion Optimization is good, performed on a continuous basis, it is better! • Seeks "incremental" improvement over time.• Site user experience is constantly evaluated and improved.

Q1 Q3 Q1 Q3 Q1 Q3 Q1 Q30

0.51

1.52

2.53

3.5

2 Sucessful RedesignsContinuous Improvement

Continuous Optimization con’t • Avoids Crisis (Good, Fast &

Cheap)• Shows an immediate

benefit• Doesn’t disrupt customers • Costs less with cost spread

over time.• Tested & optimized along

the way.• Agile & flexible

Continuous Improvement Case Study

• Organic Search Conversion Rate Increase: 167%

• Overall Conversion Rate Increase: 63%

Continuous Improvement Case Study

• Conversion Rate Increase: 129%• Cost Per Acquisition Reduced: 48%• Homepage Bounce Rate Reduced To: 15.62%

Some Tools For Conversion Optimization AskYourTargetMarket.com Attention Wizard Bounce BTBuckets Chalkmark Chartbeat Clickheat ClickTale Clixpy Crazy Egg CrossBrowserTesting.com Crowd Science Ethnio Feng-GUI Five Second Test

Flash Feedback Formalive.com GazeHawk Google Trends Google Website

Optimizer Gutcheckit.com Kampyle Kiss Insights Kiss Metrics Live Person Loop11 Mechanical Turk Omniture Test &

Target

Open Hallway Optimizely Optimost Plainframe.com Reedge See Why Silverback Simple Mouse Tracking Usabilla UserFly UserTesting.com UTest Verify Vertster Visual Website Optimizer Yield bot

Mike Belasco @belasco• seOverflow – SEO Agency

www.seoverflow.com@seoverflow

mike@seoverflow.com Starting at $1250 per month

• ConversionIQ – Conversion Optimization Agencywww.conversioniq.com@conversioniqmike@conversioniq.comStarting at $695 per month