Why Do I Need An SEO Strategy?

Do you ever ask yourself this question: what do top websites in your industry do that others do not?

Once you know the answer, it becomes easier to adjust your SEO strategy and improve future results.

Benefits of having a strategy

Regardless of company size, industry, or goals, nothing changes the fact that some websites in your space perform better than others.

A great SEO strategy is one that attracts traffic. It is one that provides visitors with a quality experience. And of course, it is one that helps the business reach its goals (which are often tied to revenue and profit).

If your online presence has fallen behind the competition, here are five strategies to implement in the near future:

1. Conversion Rate Optimization

Did you know that 63% of marketers optimize sites based on intuition and best practices? There is nothing wrong with optimizing based on best practices. Conversely, there is definitely something wrong with making decisions based on intuition alone.

Even if you are happy with your current conversion rate, there is always room for improvement.

Every aspect of your site can be tweaked, from the layout to the content to the color (and that is just a few ideas). Continually tweak and track these finer details, making note of which one generates the best results.

2. A/B Testing

This goes hand in hand with conversion rate optimization. If you want to make the most out of every site visitor, you need to have a clear idea of how to best suit their needs. This starts with A/B testing.

For example, you can test the layout of one landing page against another. Which one generated the most sales? Once you have a definite answer, you can test the “winner” against another idea.

There is an endless amount of A/B tests you can run. This is why so many companies spend countless hours and thousands of dollars drilling down each and every aspect of their website.

3. High Quality Content

You can have the best looking website in your industry. You can tweak the layout and colors until you are blue in the face. But unless you focus enough time and energy on content creation, you will continually come up short of the competition.

The highest performing websites, regardless of industry, have one thing in common: content that provides value.

Did you know that the length of your content can affect your conversion rate? Of course, this doesn’t mean you should write 2,000 or more words of fluff.

To get the most value out of your content, you should provide useful, targeted information that gives visitors what they are looking for.

Tip: just the same as other aspects of your website, you should continually test your content to see what performs best. Sticking with the landing page example, you could test the performance of 1,000 words against 2,000 words.

Longer may be better in terms of search engine optimization, but from a conversion perspective this may not hold true. You will never know until you run an A/B test.

4. Content Customization

Gone are the days when every visitor to your website has to be presented the same information. Commerce Sciences, for example, is a service that makes web personalization easy.

You can use this system, among others, to customize and personalize content for different types of visitors.

Maybe you own an online store. Do you want to present every visitor with the same offer? You could, but this won’t give you the highest return.

Here is one idea of what you could do:

Provide certain people with particular offers. Every time somebody lands on your site from a specific region, you can provide them with a “location specific” coupon code, such as for free shipping.

It is this type of personalization that can improve your conversion rate. Not to mention the fact that it goes a long way in improving the user experience.

Don’t worry:

This is not nearly as complicated as it sounds. You don’t need much, if any, technical knowledge to get started with content customization. One snippet of code and you are good to go.

5. Provide Social Proof

What are you doing to show your audience that your company is head and shoulders above the rest? Sure, you can tell them. You can discuss everything from your many years in the industry to how your product or service is best, but this is not often enough.

Here is another idea:

Use social proof to your advantage. In other words, show your audience why others rely on your company. You can do this in a variety of ways:

• Written testimonials from current and/or past customers.
• Video testimonials from current and/or past customers.
• Case studies that show how your company assisted a particular client.

You may not think it is important, but that is because you are familiar with your company and all that you have to offer. Your audience isn’t in the same boat.

They don’t know the finer details of your business. This is why social proof is so important.

Fast Company shared this example of social proof in a recently published article:

“Visitors referred by a fashion magazine or blogger to designer fashion rentals online at Rent the Runway drive a 200% higher conversion rate than visitors driven by paid search.”

This doesn’t mean the company will ignore paid search in the future. What it does mean is that it would be best suited to drive as much traffic as possible through industry publications.

It shows that people who hear about the service from a trusted source are more likely to buy.

Note: this article on social proof is one of the best you will find.

Final Word

Now that you know what high performing websites are doing that others are ignoring, answer these questions:

• Have you experimented with one or more of the strategies detailed above?
• What type of results did you achieve when using these strategies?
• Of these, which ones are your primary competitors using to their advantage?

You cannot expect to reach the top of your industry by sitting back and hoping for the best.

The only way to achieve great success, the only way to become a high performing website, is to tweak your approach and continue to track your results.

Remember this: you never know when one change could yield enormous results.