AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT - MAY CONTAIN ERRORS
Introduction: SEO vs. CRO
Hello hope you're all well. So today I want to talk about, which comes first, search engine optimization. Or conversion rate optimization.
Understanding SEO
search engine optimization is making sure that our website is set up in a way so that we. Show up on Google and other search engines when people are looking for a solution to their problem that lines up with what we do.
So they're looking for a solution like ours or looking for some of the information. Maybe if we've created a blog post around a topic and we're that's all about setting our website up in a way that it aligns with those searches and it shows up in those searches and then conversion rate optimization.
Understanding CRO
Is making sure that when people do come through to our websites, that our website is set up in a way that it encourages them to take the action that we want them to take. So whether that is joining our email list or making a purchase, they take the action that we want them to. And our website is set up in a way that encourages that.
So it makes the most of the traffic that comes through to our websites and it ensures that people aren't just dropping off because our website isn't set up very well.
Which Comes First?
And the answer to this question, as in, which comes first is another one of those situations where it entirely depends.
It depends on the business. It depends on what you're trying to achieve. It depends on what, what stage you're at in your business and where you are in your journey to website success.
I talked about a chicken and egg scenario a couple of weeks ago in episode 17 of the podcast, and that was a slightly different chicken and egg situation.
So it was, which comes first, the content or the SEO. And that was one where. Yeah. It was a little bit more, I, I certainly had a bit more of a definitive answer to that one, because I think if you've got content, you've got some, some content on your website there, even if that is sales pages and things like that, then I would say focus on your SEO first for that.
But with this scenario, this is a slightly more of a. a chicken and egg where you need the traffic to have conversions. So you need people coming to your website to then have them take action. But then you also need to have your website set up in a way to optimize that traffic and make the most of those people coming through if you have got traffic coming through.
So either way, it kind of depends on what your priorities are in your business really. And I've got kind of three scenarios. I think that. I would say with this.
Scenario 1: New Domain, Little Traffic
So scenario one is if you've got a brand new domain with little to no traffic. So you've literally just, just bought a new domain name. You're within that first sort of six months period where there's, there's something called Google sandbox, which is where it's like an introductory period kind of thing where Google.
Will be more suspicious of domains that haven't been around for a long time. Once you get, once you get past two years of your domain, it definitely does make a difference to that level of trust. You're seen as, and that's not just two years of the domain actually, since you purchased it, is that actually having a website live and having some information on there that Google can understand.
Google then knows, or is more likely to treat you as a legitimate business. If you've got a domain that's older than two years, that's not. A definitive answer, you know, that's not something that is saying you can't rank a domain within the first six months or within the first two years, if there's not very little other content around there.
So if you're in a very non competitive niche, then you can, you certainly can. And I've had that with my own website, was able to get. Some content for FEA Create ranking very quickly on a domain. So yeah, there's, again, there's no definitive answer.
Google doesn't give us black and white answers to this. So there's a lot of people in the SEO world who would say that Google sandbox doesn't even exist and that, that, you know, that it doesn't matter, but certainly it's going to be harder because you're not going to have anything, linking to your website.
So if you've got a brand new domain, little to no traffic, you're not sending loads of traffic to that website yourself yet, you're not very active on social media, then I would say. First and foremost in that situation is to focus on the basics there and focus on getting some people to your site.
So I wouldn't necessarily be thinking about search engine optimization at this point. I would be thinking about, okay, is the website set up in a, in a basic way that encourages conversion, rate? So it's set up in a way that's. It's really simple for people to understand as soon as they land on the page.
They know what you do, how you're going to make their life better and what they need to do to get it. And then if you've thought about that, then making sure that you've also got clear navigation, the website is set up in a way that it. It's visually appealing and that's not saying focusing on the design or focusing solely on the design.
That's more about making sure that it's easy for people to use, easy for people to read, you know, you're not using tiny fonts, you've not got everything crammed in. There's not Loads of gaps and white space. You do want some nice white space, but it's a visually appealing website. That's easy to use, encourages people to take the action you want them to take.
And it's really clear how you're actually going to help them. So I would say, focus on that first, focus on making sure that you you've got sort of the basics in place with the conversion rate optimization, and then focus on getting some traffic there in, in slightly. Faster and easier ways. So that can be sharing things on social media.
And when you, when you are then using social media, if you're using social media, making sure that you were always thinking, okay, how can I encourage this traffic to come back to my website? And I often find that traffic that comes through social media. isn't the best kind of traffic. time and time again in client sites, I see it where people are spending a lot of time on social media and they are getting some visitors to the website, but the actual time that people spend there when they come through social media is a lot, lot, lot less than when they come through search engines.
And that makes sense because people that are looking for something in Google, if they come through to your website, then they're likely, unless it immediately is clear that that doesn't align with what was showing up in Google, They're going to spend some time there because they're looking for us for that particular thing and you are showing up as the answer to that.
So that's where I find every client that I look at their Google analytics stats, social media always drives traffic that is less likely to stay engaged and stay on the website. And that's just part of it. That's part of social media that it.
captures our attention and is encouraging us to come back to it. And that's why I like finding other ways to promote your business aside from social media. But yeah, if you're in that scenario, so what we're trying to do here is drive some traffic to the website, make sure the basics are set up. The other thing I would say with that is making sure that you are actually telling people about your website as well.
So that's why having it set up in the basics is good because it, you then don't feel embarrassed to share it as a lot. Oftentimes if people create a website themselves. Then they don't share it because it's, and there's often that scenario of people not wanting to put their website live in case people find it.
And it's not good enough, but actually getting people to our website, it's one of the hardest things to do. So if you can just encourage people to go there, if you're networking, if you're, even if you share it with your own friends and just ask them to go and take a look at your website, the more traffic that you get to the, to your website, traffic that stays there and has spends a little bit of time on your site.
Then the more likely Google is to understand that this is a site that's worth visiting.
Scenario two.
Scenario 2: Existing Website, Little Traffic
Is if you've got an existing website, your website has been around for a while, maybe sort of six to nine months plus, ideally, ideally a site that's been around for longer than that, but you've got very little traffic there.
And I do see this quite a lot with clients as well. people have a website, but they've kind of been ignoring it a little bit. So they've not really been focused on. Is what I'm doing actually making a difference to my website? Is it bringing people in? Is my website even even indexed in Google? Can Google even read my website?
So I would say if you've got that, if you've got an existing website with little to no traffic, focus on how you can get some traffic there. So focus on the foundations of SEO. First, making sure the content you've got there already is optimized for the foundations and the basic basics of SEO so that you can get people coming to your site.
You can get Google to start understanding about your site and understanding about your business and your content and what you do. And also make sure that you are sharing it in those other ways as well. So the way that I've talked about sharing it for your, if it's a brand new domain, that also applies for if it's an existing domain, keep thinking, how can I get people to my website?
Rather than thinking, how can I get more followers on social media? How can you get people to your websites? And if you're, if you've got an email list and you're emailing your list regularly, having something in those emails that encourages people to come back to your website basically,
one of the things I've found is that when I'm sharing the podcast, part of my goal with my podcast is, is to grow it without promoting it on social media. And so I, I find that I am really focused on what I can do.
To share my podcast, but I don't share a direct link to my podcast in Buzzsprout. So if I'm ever sharing my podcast, like when I send out an email each week about my podcast, I will share the link back to go back to my podcast page on my website because I want to drive that traffic to my website and it's working.
I'm finding that I'm getting more and more traffic coming through to my website. And because I tag my traffic as well, I can see that that's directly people coming through the podcast, whether that is coming through the footer or the show notes or coming from my email, I can see that in there. And it's pretty good to be able to see that stuff is actually working as well.
And I tag it with a particular episode so I can see which, which episodes are actually bringing people through to my website. So yeah, focusing on the SEO part of it, and, just getting those foundations in place, encouraging traffic to come through to your website in as many ways as you can, then making sure that you've also got that basic conversion rate optimization there as well.
So it's something that I would say with all of these, it does go hand in hand really, but the basics are, as I say, Making sure that it's really clear what you do, how are you going to make people's life better and what they need to do to get it. And just making your website a pleasure for your clients and potential clients to use as well.
And then you would develop that later in terms of what the further conversion rate optimization that you could develop then later.
Scenario 3: Existing Website, Decent Traffic, Low Conversions
So the third then scenario is if you've got an existing website that you've got a decent amount of traffic coming but low conversions. So whether that is traffic coming through from just basic SEO.
So even if you do nothing with your SEO, Google will develop an SEO. Um, what's the word? It's probably not a strategy, but yeah, an SEO plan and an SEO. Um, I don't know what the word is I'm trying to think of. So basically your SEO will be being formed in the background. Even if you're doing nothing about it, Google will begin to form opinions of your website based on what's there and whether that is confused and you're showing up.
for the wrong kind of things. And that happens a lot. You'll see random things coming up in your , searches where you're being linked to really random phrases. I can't remember, there was one that came up on my website not so long ago that I can't remember what it was, but it was completely nothing to do with anything.
of what I do, but it's just something where you may have mentioned something on your website somewhere and Google is then associating that with your site, which is fine. There's no problem with that happening, but if all there is is confusion on your site in terms of , what terms Google is associating with your site, then that can be a real problem.
But either way, if you've got existing traffic, you've got traffic coming through to your website, but people aren't converting, then most likely the best thing to focus on is Google. Conversion rate optimization, especially if you can find out if the people that are coming through to your site are the right kind of people.
So if you can see that you're showing up for the right things in Google, that's driving traffic to your website, that people are not taking the action that you want them to, then focusing on conversion rate optimization is going to make the most of the traffic that you already have. And the other scenario for driving traffic to your website, which I haven't mentioned in the other two, but this could still apply is if you're using paid ads.
And I think if you're using paid ads, it's even more critical to make sure that your pages are set up for conversions. And that would be something where I think that would trump all of these situations. If you're planning on running paid ads and spending money, getting people through to your website, you want to make sure at least that landing page that you're getting people to come through to is well optimized.
Otherwise you're just throwing money down the drain, really. The whole goal with conversion rate optimization is to make the most of the traffic that's already coming there. So you could have the same a hundred people coming through your website, and if it's optimized for conversions, then you're going to make the most of those people.
You're going to make sure that you're getting more people taking the action that you want to want them to take. And the way that you can do that is again, making sure those basic, Basics are in place that you've got what you do, how you're going to make people's lives better and what they need to do to get it, but also making sure that it's really clear.
You've only got one call to action. Ideally on, on each page, each page has its own individual job of what you want it to do. So whether that's what you want it to show up for in Google or what action you want people to take. And that's not to say that you can't have multiple pages on your site. Ask, you know, if the action is getting people to sign up.
For your email list, then you might have all of your blogs or most of your blogs that actually that's the action that you want people to take. You want 'em to download a freebie, or you want them to sign up for your email list directly, but it's making sure that you're not asking them to do multiple things on one page.
And the only exception exception to this is really your homepage or maybe if you've got a, a main services page that links to all of the different services or all the different categories of what you sell. But other than that. Ideally, we just want one call to action on each page if we can. And then you, so once you've got those conversion rate optimizations in place and you, and you've sort of focused on that to begin with, then it's thinking about what can you do to continue growing that traffic coming through to your website and to maintain the traffic that's coming through already as well.
So the ideal scenario. Is to combine those both together.
Combining SEO and CRO
So we're making sure that your web website is set up for both search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization. I think this is where I am slightly different in the way that I work to other SEO agencies, where they often do just focus on traffic.
So they'll say, Oh yeah, we've brought traffic through to your website, but aren't necessarily thinking about what you want to happen when you do that. When people come through to your website and your website is just part of the process. You've also then got to think about what happens behind that, whether you are emailing your list, how your sales situation is set up, what you're doing, even leading into that, that's bringing people in in the right way.
So it's making sure that. That everything is set up, but focusing on the website part, making sure that it's set up for traffic and for conversion. So just making sure that your website is really working the best it can be for your business. So I think that they both go hand in hand together, search engine optimization, putting those basics in place in particular, making sure that the foundations are there.
And So that Google and that people most importantly can understand about your business and what you do and how you can help them and then conversion rate optimization is just taking away that thing of if you confuse you lose, make sure that it's clear to people. Don't make them burn mental calories to try and work out how to do business with you.
So, SEO is bringing in that targeted traffic. The good thing with SEO is that ideally people are coming in when they are looking for what you're doing. So you're not just interrupting their scroll. that can also work with paid ads as well if you're targeting the right people, but the conversion rate optimization then make sure that when those targeted people, when the right people are coming through to those pages, they actually do take the action that you want.
And this is going to lead to the best results in your business really. And one of the common problems I find with this is that people actually don't even know how much traffic they're getting through to their website. They don't really pay attention to what's with their website traffic and maybe look at their. subscriber numbers on social media, they may pay attention to those kinds of stats. And even with website traffic, it can be a little bit of a vanity metric. It's something as well that we need to pay attention to what's actually happening with that. So it's no good just looking at, okay, I had a hundred visitors from Facebook this week, but actually if you're not paying attention to the fact that those people spent two seconds on your website and then bounced away again, then that's not really going to be helpful to your business.
I think. So I would say if you don't know how much traffic you're getting. Look at your website builder. Some of these website builders do have basic stats built into them. I say that they, they tend to be a little bit unreliable to be honest with you.
Setting Up Google Analytics and Search Console
The best thing to do is try and set up Google analytics and Google search console.
Those are two free tools from Google that can be really helpful. They can often look a little bit overwhelming when you go into them. But I've actually got a little mini course on my website. So if you, if you haven't set them up and you want to find out step by step, how to do it without having to wade through hours of videos, then you can go and get that, that mini course that's on my website.
And that will show you how to set up both Google analytics and Google search console and how to use them, how to use the basics. Which bits to ignore and which bits to sort of focus on really. And the difference between them is Google analytics helps you understand what people do once they actually come into your website.
And it also shows you where they've come in from. So whether they've come from social or your emails or , from, , SEO or from paid ads, And then Google Search Console helps you understand everything that Google understands about your website. So it helps you to see what happens when people do a search leading up to the point that they come through to your site.
And they're both really helpful. And it's something I would say, even if you're thinking of not doing anything about your SEO for a while, it's good to have them running in the background because then you can see what's happening and you can see how, what the changes that you're making, you can see whether they're actually having an effect or not.
Conclusion and Final Tips
in conclusion. SEO is optimizing your site to get more traffic and more visitors, more of the right visitors coming through to your website. The people that are actually looking for what you do. And then conversion rate optimization is encouraging them to take the action that you want them to take.
Whether that action is, as I say, Making a purchase, booking a call, joining your email list, you're actually doing everything you can to make sure your site is set up in a way that that encourages that to happen. And that can be little things like trust signals, making sure that it's very clear what, what to do and what action to take as well.
The which comes first entirely depends on the individual situation. It's, it's one of those things that it will always depend really. But I think just putting the foundations in place of both and just understanding that they do go hand in hand is really important as well. And if you know, you've had a hundred visitors to your website or a hundred eyes on your web page, and nobody has taken the action that you want.
If you go and listen to episode three of the podcast, which is all about what to do, if you've had a hundred eyes, but no conversions, that'll give you some quick tips of some of the things you could look at to make sure that there's nothing major that's blocking people from taking the action you want them to take.
And I've got a free beginner's guide to SEO, which you can find from my website as well. So you can go to my website and download that free beginner's quick start guide to SEO. And whether you focus on SEO or conversion rate optimization or both, which is ideal. The goal is always going to be to get people through to our website and get them to take the action that we want them to take.
So I really hope that's helpful and I'll see you soon.
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