A high ranking in search engine results is critical for nearly all businesses. And rightly so: organic users are inexpensive, highly interested, and sustainable. But how should websites be designed so that they are easy to find with search engines?
Simply put, content and internal links are said to be the keys to success. How can websites be designed along these criteria without losing sight of conversions? From a usability (and conversion) point of view, a wall of text is just as undesirable as overhanging and unclear navigation menus. Are we stuck with the clash between SEO and conversion optimization?
To keep it short: no! Websites can be optimized for search engine crawlers as well as user conversion. Not only can they be optimized for both, but they should be. A full scope analysis, with both SEO and conversion optimization experts at the table, guarantees a user and search engine friendly website design. Conversion rate optimization is very important for a website’s success. The earlier this exchange takes place, the more time, stress, and unnecessary costs can be saved in the end.
Optimizing the conversion rate is crucial for a website’s success, because rather than taking the expensive and costly route of always buying more traffic, you can take advantage of streams of existing users. Reservations about conversion optimization are often heard, that tests influence Google rankings, or that changes can’t be made to the page without negatively influencing on-page optimization. This is somewhat short-sighted, since conversion optimization and SEO fit together very well.
Testing does not influence rankings
For Google and co., these tests are completely undetectable. All leading testing-tools work with JavaScript (AJAX) to replace the page’s original content with text content in the browser. Since the HTML source code is unchanged, the tests have no effect on search engine rankings. Furthermore, Google supports conversion optimization with its website optimizer and the Google Conversion Professionals program, and emphasizes somewhat that such JavaScript replacement are not interpreted as spamming.
On-page optimization for SEO and better conversion rates are not mutually exclusive
Websites with good conversion rates can be listed at the top of organic searches. When conversion specialists and experts work together for SEO, such as the case is with QUISMA, each new test variant allows for the best possible on-page optimization. Moreover, many SEO relevant adjustments can be made to conversion-optimized pages without affecting the conversion rate.
To take a closer look at overhanging menus from the introduction: for usability and conversion, a compact and well-arranged menu could be placed at the top of the page. Further down on the page, all of the subcategories can be listed and linked. This achieves a compromise where both goals are compatible with each other.
Finally, all traffic should be measured well to see if it leads to a good conversion rate. If new users gained by SEO don’t generate any revenue due to bad usability, then the search engine optimization was for nothing. Accordingly, holistically thinking SEOs will keep conversion rate in mind, and use the conversion rate optimization to ensure that the client benefits from good results in the end.
(Original article was published in German at Twoqubes.com)
The author
Jörg Dennis Krüger (Xing/LinkedIn) is Senior Manager Conversion Optimization at QUISMA – a GroupM company.
