Great CX = (Analytics + SEO + CRO) x Repetition

Understanding your audience is key

You want to analyse what people do on your site, how long they stay for, why they maybe didn’t stay, where they came from and understand why they took the actions they did.

Historically, a lot of businesses typically have taken this starting point and then had a view that they will have a look at Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) ‘if they have time/budget’.

The amount of times I’ve heard ‘We’re just launching our new site and then we’ll start to look at CRO’ – what if your new site isn’t as good as you think it is? What if the conversion drops off a cliff? If only there was a way to know for sure…

However, more and more businesses are now placing the same importance on implementing CRO principles, and are doing this in conjunction with SEO and Digital Analytics strategies.

These businesses will be typically more successful.

Think about it, CRO is quite literally about optimising the conversion rate of your website. 

How does CRO do this? 

By helping your visitors find what they came for as efficiently as possible.

It closes the loop. You know what your visitors searched for in the search engine and where they landed in your site.

You probably also know from your analytics where and why people commonly leave your site without undertaking the action you want them to take, be that making a purchase, submitting a form or whatever.

So why not test and deliver alternative experiences that may provide what they’re looking for, that will keep them on your site for longer, and allow them to progress further down your customer journey/funnel?

This becomes even more important if you’re also using PPC or other paid advertising to deliver traffic to your site, as for a lot of businesses this can be very expensive traffic, and you want to maximise the effectiveness of that spend by converting as much as you can to achieving your website goal.

Take the holistic view

The lines are becoming more and more blurred between SEO and CRO. Modern search engines require you to deliver a great user experience for customers and UX/CX has become a vital element of SEO.

So, a more holistic approach where each of these disciplines feeds into the others is key.

The more and more businesses taking this approach, combining all three disciplines, are becoming more efficient with their Marketing budget and strategies. And you might be left behind if you’re not doing it, but your competitors are.

Your technical SEO still needs to be optimal too, so you need to ensure your CRO platform is not causing you problems in this regard. For example, you want to ensure the tag loads quickly, the experiences are delivered instantly, and without flicker (I shouldn’t have to still say that in 2023, but I still see it…).

Working with an agency that does all of these three things well (like Hookflash) means the left hand is working in tandem with right hand and things don’t fall through the cracks or become disjointed. You can be sure all elements are aligned to the same goal.

It’s also an iterative process. You can't 'complete' these. Ongoing refinement in your analysis, SEO and CRO entails a systematic approach to testing and optimisation.

In conclusion…

Both SEO and CRO benefit significantly from a deep understanding of your target audience which you can get from your Digital Analytics.

By knowing your visitors preferences, behaviour, and needs, you can optimise your website, content, and overall user experience to attract more organic traffic, engage your visitors, and ultimately convert them into loyal customers.

By continually testing different variations of elements like headers, calls-to-action, forms, page layouts etc. to identify what resonates best with your audience, you can deliver continuous improvement.

Regularly analysing user data and feedback will help you refine your strategies for this continuous improvement and help you to always make data-driven decisions.

So as I said at the top of the page:

Great CX = (Analytics + SEO + CRO) x Repetition.

Ben Charlesworth is Marketing Director at Webtrends Optimize. Their full-stack testing technology and all-inclusive model allows businesses of all sizes to enhance their digital experiences without any restrictions - all tools and features are available, as standard, to all customers. There are no paywall features, no tiers, and no upgrades required to access anything.