We talk about, live and breathe SEO – it’s even our middle name: Seattle SEO Consultant. But we’ve found that many clients aren’t sure what SEO really means or whether it’s even quantifiable. In fact SEO is measurable because we can track improvements in traffic to your website, clicks, sign-ups and sales. And when it comes to results, one of the most important aspects of SEO is conversion rate. In this blog, I’ll explain why this is a critical statistic you should be concerned with and how Seattle SEO Consultant can work with you on conversion rate optimization.

What Is a Conversion Rate?

For years, all people talked about was getting traffic to their websites. Counters clicked off each time a visitor landed on a webpage and businesses were inordinately proud of how high that number grew. But here’s the catch – if those visitors aren’t buying, they don’t count for as much as you may think. Consider website traffic as cars pulling into a parking lot in front of a store. Unless they get out of their car, go into the store and buy, they may as well not have stopped by at all.

The conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors that actually transact with you. These are the people that get out of their car, go in the store, pull out their wallets and spend. These are the site visitors you want rather than the window shoppers that never act or don’t need your services or that can’t afford what you’re selling.

Why Is Conversion Rate So Important?

Because only those website visitors that transact drive the conversion rate, they are a direct correlation to revenues generated by your web presence. There are plenty of scam services and cheesy tactics that can drive junk traffic to your site to make your counter click, but this is not what you want because it won’t result in significant sales, won’t benefit your business and won’t improve your bottom line.

In the simplest terms, conversion rate equals dollars in your pocket. It’s the statistic that really matters when it comes to SEO and website development. If you have 1,000 visitors to your site and only 10 transact with you, that’s a 1% conversion rate. But 500 visitors resulting in 25 transactions is a much preferable 5% conversion rate and a better result despite the traffic being half as much.

How Does Conversion Rate Optimization Work?

To improve conversion rates, we employ a variety of proven strategies. Here are some of the ways that conversion rates can be improved through techniques that make your website more appealing and attract quality traffic:

• A/B testing – This is simply trying things out comparatively (A versus B) to see which works better. Changing placement or phrasing of calls to actions, sales links, where ads are on a page, size and placement of logos and other factors can all be tested to see which design encourages the most transactions. There are lots of opportunities for optimization with A/B testing.
• Copy optimization – This is a huge area of opportunity for improving conversion rates by preparing and presenting better copy. High quality content that addresses the problems, needs and pain points of your targeted customer can greatly improve the odds of a transaction. On the flip side, dull, unfocused writing can turn off potential buyers.
• Landing pages – This is an area that many companies don’t think to address. You assume your site has a landing page, an about us page, a products page, etc. The old wisdom was a page for a purpose. But now, multiple targeted landing pages can greatly improve conversion rates. If you’re a realtor, a unique landing page for each city you sell in can improve conversions.

These are just a few of the tools in our arsenal that we can put to work to optimize your conversion rates. We look at your existing site, your traffic, goals and starting conversion rates before we go to work on making your site the best it can be. Once we have the “before” statistics, we can measure the improved SEO as we work with you so that you can always see hard numbers on how consulting with us tangibly improves your website and your sales!

Contact Seattle SEO Consultant today for a free 30 minute consultation on your SEO to see what we can do for you!