Originally published August 30, 2021 , updated on August 30, 2024

There are two fundamentals that companies need to boost online business and increase sales – SEO and CRO.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. In a nutshell, SEO is everything you do to get visitors to land on your website. CRO, on the other hand, stands for Conversion Rate Optimisation. This is everything you do on your website for users to convert their visit into a sale. Both of these factors are highly valuable to boost your business online. 

In this article, we offer advice on both aspects – optimising for search and for conversion. Let’s start with getting people to your website. 

Why Do You Need SEO to Boost Online Business? 

A simple look at the stats around search is enough to explain the importance of SEO. 

• According to ahrefs.com, close to 70% of web browsing activity starts with a search engine and search results.
• A 2019 report by BrightEdge Research found that over 50% of organic traffic to a website comes from search results. 
• This report also notes that Google is responsible for 92.96% of global website traffic across apps and websites such as Google Maps, Google Search and Google Images.  

These numbers and figures clearly show that you’re missing out on website traffic if you aren’t optimising your content for search. Unless you pay for advertising or marketing using other methods, it is almost impossible to be found organically without SEO.

Here are three quick tips to boost your online business with SEO.

1. Create a Variety of Online Content Pieces

Don’t just rely on your product descriptions and service pages for SEO. Create other types of content too. Here’s where you can get creative. It could be in the form of blogs showcasing the benefits of your offering or educating your customers on how to best use your products and services. Alternatively, look at creating how-to guides, white papers or even ebooks. Be sure to have a variety of content on your website and update it regularly. 

Websites that are updated with new content on a regular basis are crawled by search engine “crawlers” more often. Also, if you don’t update your website often, search engines view your website as inactive, and you won’t get ranked as a result. 

Remember that your website content must be relevant to your business. Don’t upload unrelated articles for the sake of new or newsworthy content. Search engines will notice this and penalise you. 

2. Use Keywords 

Do thorough research on keywords associated with your industry and business. Look at what people are searching for based on your business. Then use these keywords in your copy. For example, if your business is an e-commerce platform for small businesses, people who need your services might search keyphrases like “online tools for small businesses”. As such, this phrase should be incorporated into your copy.

There are a number of online tools you can use to find the best keywords for your business. This includes Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends. Use these tools to find out the words and phrases that would work best for you. That said, you can’t insert keywords and leave them for months. You need to constantly update your website keywords to rank well in search results. 

3. Link Internally and Externally 

When you create copy for your website, be sure to link to other parts of your website. This keeps people on your website longer and lets search engines know that people enjoy your content. 

While the first prize is getting visitors to stay on your website for the content they need, external links are important for SEO. These are links to other, high-authority, high-ranking websites that will improve your SEO.

Now that you know how to get people and potential customers to your website, you need to keep them there and convert their visit into a sale. 

Why Do You Need CRO to Boost Online Business ? 

First, let’s take a look at some stats around CRO. 

• Only 2.35% of people who land on your website will convert into a sale. 
• More than 40% of marketers are happy with their conversion rate. 
• Using the right CRO tools can increase ROI by over 200%.

Clearly, more CRO techniques and tools are needed. Here are three quick tips to boost online business with CRO.

1. Make Sure Your Content Is Relevant and High Quality

Content relevance is essential for CRO as well. If website visitors are not impressed with your content, you will not get a sale from their visit and suffer a high bounce rate. Ultimately, relevant content, or rather irrelevant content, affects both SEO and CRO. 

Also, make sure you produce high-quality content. Your copy needs to be clean, easy to read and engaging, while your images need to be high-resolution and professional. You could always enlist the help of a professional content writing agency for help with the writing. At the same time, a number of stock image libraries should have great images that you can use for free or subscription. If you are selling a product, be sure to take professional product shots instead of stock images. Using stock images for products will give the customer a bad impression and likely avoid making a purchase.

2. Ensure Your Website Is Optimised for Desktop and Mobile

There are literally billions of people using their phones to browse websites. If your website is not optimised for mobile devices, those people will jump right off. Mobile users account for a high percentage of shoppers, so you should make your website as user-friendly and seamless as possible. 

Take a look at how your website appears on a desktop and mobile device. If it’s not looking great on mobile, make it a priority to improve this experience. 

3. Have a Call-to-Action to Boost Online Business

Without a clear call-to-action, potential customers cannot proceed with the sale. Ensure that you have your call-to-action near the top of the page so it cannot be missed. You can even mix up the copy for your CTA. 

Try “buy now” or “add to basket” and see which one works. Alternatively, switch between “sign up” and “I want to know more”. Make it personable and fun, too. 

Both SEO and CRO play a critical role in boosting your online business. Don’t just focus on one area and implement measures to be better at both. 

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