The third and final part of Connections Marketing’s series on website SEO looks at a later stage in the sales cycle – getting your target user to complete an action that will lead them to make a purchase. The last blog focused on building on your brand’s web traffic, which is important to grab attention online. Once you’ve taken that step, doing what you can to improve conversions will be crucial to strengthening the larger SEO process so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Where Does Conversion Happen?
Today’s conversions ideally should take place in multiple spaces, starting with your website and extending to anywhere you are in the digital space. Checkout pages on your eCommerce site may be the clearest example, but many other actions that take place online can ultimately lead to sales. Areas where users fill out forms, text or call phone numbers, email sales teams or customer service, and take other steps connected to your calls to action should be among them.
Set Up Landing Pages to Convert Viewers Into Customers
Websites can have lots of these handy pages known as landing pages. Yours might have them, even if you didn’t think of them as spots where people end up after going through a process to get there. Ways you can get prospective customers to your landing pages:
- QR Codes
- Product Descriptions on Product Pages
- eBlasts (See Below)
- Web Searches
- Mobile Ads & Banner Ads
- Free Trials
- Demos & Tutorials
That said, these pages need to be written and designed with SEO in mind. Doing so provides them with a specific goal in which you connect the user’s action to something on your website. Doing regular content audits will help keep them fresh and effective.
Generate Leads for Your eBlasts
Make sure your website is set up to capture contact information where possible. Those contact forms people have sent can turn into promising leads. Their information will be added to your eBlasts so you can send out core messages tied to your next campaign to your new followers.
Boost Visibility in Search Engine Results with Keywords
One of the goals of effective content marketing is increased online visibility. And one of the best ways to reach that goal is to optimize web pages so that they rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs). To that end, you want to use language that is effective. Keywords and keyword phrases should be integrated sparingly into title tags, headers, and meta descriptions in a way that appears natural to the reader. Forcing them in awkwardly could backfire.
Research Long-Tail Keywords and Tailor them to Users’ Needs
To get these coveted and effective keywords, do some keyword research to identify phrases of three to five keywords that align with certain needs, struggles or interests of clients and people you hope to attract. There are ways to hone in on their desires. One is by asking them. Another is to enter different phrases online yourself and see what pops up.
For example, say you want to reach people ready to buy with the phrase,”best software for small business accounting” on your page. You could strengthen it to target other searches you anticipate by saying, “small business accounting software with payroll” or “small business accounting software with free trials.”
Include Links and Calls to Action in Social Media
Social media should also be telling people what you hope they will do – in a balanced way that doesn’t turn them off, of course. That said, you have to be making recommendations and linking in your posts to make it as easy as possible for viewers to connect with your offerings.
Improve Your Load Speed and Mobile Experience
It’s surprising when businesses looking to grow don’t take steps to improve their load speeds. There’s no faster way to turn off a prospective customer than a website that simply won’t load, and today’s shoppers are researching and buying on their phones.
Any business can look under the hood to make sure they are set up to optimize, not frustrate users on the other end. To further optimize your site:
- On mobile devices, compress what you can and eliminate unnecessary code.
- Use image types and sizes that are appropriate and take up less space.
- Don’t overdo it with videos and images.
- Test and improve what you can using a content delivery network (CDN).
- Use intuitive designs with clear, well-placed buttons, links and directions.
Find out what else you can do on the technology side of things to improve the experience of anyone who will be visiting, reading, watching videos, sharing their experiences with you, learning about your products and services, and buying them.
Connections Marketing Will Help You Improve Your Conversion Rates
SEO is an ongoing journey, even for the experts who live and breathe digital marketing. That’s why it saves so much time and effort to farm out content creation, social media, and other tasks to a team that can optimize your website and help improve your sales numbers.
Reach out to Connections Marketing to start improving your conversion rates today.