SEO On-Air: Conversion Rate Optimization and its Significance for SEO Campaigns

In this episode, we cover:

Today, we are talking to Lance Bachmann, known throughout the industry as the Digital Lion, is an American digital marketing expert, and founder of one of the country’s leading digital marketing firms, 1SEO.com Digital Agency. Lance is also the co-founder of Shock I.T. Support and the former Vice President of AT&T and founder of the YellowPages.com Premise Division.

In this episode, he will discuss conversion rate optimization.

Stay tuned for the next podcast episode, where our guest, Joe Robledo, speaks on featured snippets and Increasing no-click results.

Show notes

• [01:14-02:20] How closely are SEO and CRO linked?

• [02:34-03:17] Does conversion mean a sale every time?

• [03:19-04:48] What metrics should the e-commerce site owners look for? 

• [05:11-05:42] A lot of people are now using the skyscraper technique for their content, but the problem is, when you get all the information in a single place, you don’t tend to explore other web pages. Can we consider it a contributing factor to a high bounce rate?

• [05:47-08:00]What are some of the common CRO mistakes e-commerce store owners make? 

• [08:24-09:10] What is the effective A/B testing that you’d suggest people do? 

• [09:59-12:16] Can you recommend some tools for complete CRO exercise? 

• [12:32-13:30] If an e-commerce store sees up to 70%-80% bounce rates, what do you recommend them to do as an immediate action?

• [14:02-15:30] Is it the right strategy to drive all traffic to a particular page only?

• [15:35-16:20] Which section should startups focus on for their site content? 

• [16:22-17:06] What type of content do you recommend for these sites? 

• [17:10-18:52]  Is there any success story that you can share with our users?

• [19:09-19:46] What do you recommend for small e-commerce sites to get more reviews?

Show Notes Explanation

Hey guys, this is Senthil. Welcome to another episode of SEO On-Air. Imagine you own a store that gets hundreds of customers a day, but in the end, when you reconcile, you see an empty register. This is the case with most sites that get tons of traffic from various sources but fail to make any conversions.

We are here today to speak on conversion rate optimization and its significance for SEO campaigns based on popular request. To talk about this, we have Mr. Lance Bachmann, the Founder, President, and CEO of 1SEO.com. Welcome to the show, Lance. 

Time Stamp: 01:14-02:20

How closely are SEO and CRO linked?

• Many people use SEO to rank, but they don’t realize that you might rank, but if nothing is converted, it doesn’t matter.
• So conversion rate optimization says, “how do I get my end users the best transactional content so that take actions when they’re on my e-commerce site or service page.” So they go hand in hand. 
• Google can see your analytics metrics, whether you have it integrated on your site or not. If you give people a terrible experience, you’ll lose any traction that you gain.

Time Stamp: 02:34-03:17

Does conversion mean a sale every time?

Not necessarily. Conversions could be anything. From video views to get somebody into your funnel so that you can remarket back to them. So it’s all about how you keep people coming back to your site and make transactions.

Time Stamp: 03:19-04:48

What metrics should the e-commerce site owners look for? 

• Number one is the bounce rate. If you have a high bounce rate, then the amount of traffic you receive doesn’t matter. Your audience is leaving your site as soon as they are coming to it.
• You have to work on improving the dwell time on your web page because that’s when the conversions start happening. 

Time Stamp: 05:11-05:42

A lot of people are now using the skyscraper technique for their content, but the problem is, when you get all the information in a single place, you don’t tend to explore other web pages. Can we consider it a contributing factor to a high bounce rate?

Absolutely. If somebody has 2000-3000 words on a page, you could use heatmaps to track whether they are going all the way down to read it. It’s better to analyze than to speculate. 

Time Stamp: 05:47-08:00

What are some of the common CRO mistakes e-commerce store owners make? 

• The biggest mistake I see is people run the market with no strategy. They don’t know their marketing budget, ideal buyer, or the ideal market. 
• Identifying your ideal buyer is a huge task; you need to run A/B testing for that. That’s what most people don’t commit to. 
• They don’t do heatmaps to understand what’s going on or use the sales recording to understand the behavior of the people on their site.

Time Stamp: 08:24-09:10

What is the effective A/B testing that you’d suggest people do? 

It depends on your budget. If you build two great landing pages, the change of CTA and the color can make a big difference to your page performance.

Time Stamp: 09:59-12:16

Can you recommend some tools for complete CRO exercise? 

• There are tons of tools out there that can help you with it.
• The biggest issue with cart abandonment is that you need to know why. 
• If you are a lot higher on price than your competitors, you’ll have a lot of abandonment issues. 

Time Stamp: 12:32-13:30

If an e-commerce store is seeing up to 70%-80% bounce rates, what do you recommend them to do as an immediate action?

• I’ll check from what channel that paid traffic is coming from.
• Then I will check which section of my site is causing the most bounce rate. If it’s my blog, I’ll try to make it more engaging and interesting. 
• So, first, I’ll analyze the channel, and they work myself step by step way down. 

Time Stamp: 14:02-15:30

Is it the right strategy to drive all traffic to a particular page only?

• Well, it depends if you’re testing things. A nice way to drive traffic to one or two pages that you are testing is to remarket back using tools like Adroll to everyone. 
• I’m not a big fan of not overdoing it. So, take one or two pages and test how they are performing. 

Time Stamp: 15:35-16:20

What type of content do you recommend for these sites? 

• I tell people to write for two things: the end-user and transactional content. 
• Write according to the end-users intent, add great CTAs, and optimize the content for conversions. 

Time Stamp: 16:22-17:06

Which section should startups focus on for their site content? 

If it’s a startup, I’m going to see which pages are performing well and then work my way down. 

Time Stamp: 17:10-18:52

Is there any success story that you can share with our users?

• We changed the color of a cigar company site from hard brown to light blue and doubled its traffic. 
• I can give you a hundred different examples, where we changed the position of logos or added a testimonial section, which doubled the traffic. 
• We ask ourselves, “how do we build trust and credibility so that people convert right away?” and work towards it. 

Time Stamp: 19:09-19:46

What do you recommend for small e-commerce sites to get more reviews?

• It’s so easy. Just ask from these tools like Trustpilot and Podium. All reviews on these tools will help you.
• It hurts to see how people don’t do the basics of asking about their experience.