I recently wrote an article called “Rankings or CRO”, which are the two things that businesses focus on most when it comes to their websites. In that article I had explained a little bit about why clients and SEO’s need to start focusing more on “Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)” rather than “organic” rankings. I want to ensure that no one misinterprets the content of that post. In no way am I saying you should ignore your organic rankings but to simply not let that be your only focus.
http://rich-page.com/seo/seo-and-cro-how-to-make-them-unbeatable-together/
http://www.bluecorona.com/blog/important-elements-on-page-seo
The SEO industry has changed drastically over the years and will continue to do so. With social networks flooding the web, Google is slowly changing the way it ranks your content. As you may or may not know, there are over 200 ranking factors that Google uses to rank your website organically. Google is always changing which ranking factors will have higher impact over others. Now that social has such a massive influence on the content user’s view Google will be taking this into consideration.
Here is an overview of some of Google’s ranking factors:
http://www.searchmetrics.com/wp-content/uploads/seo-ranking-factors-2014.png
http://www.searchmetrics.com/wp-content/uploads/us-ranking-factors-2013.png
So what does this mean? The amount of traffic you get on your site is in fact one of Google’s 200 ranking factors. As I mentioned before, one of the best ways to get traffic to your site is through social platforms. This also means that you have to develop strong relative content that users actually want to see. You also have to engage your users. Don’t keep your social accounts all about business. Post some light, fun and interesting things. It doesn’t have to be all about business all the time, develop a casual relationship with your users.
You are now probably asking, “How does Google know if users actually like my content? If they see a lot of traffic to my site is that not all I need?” The short simple answer is no. Google uses metrics such as “Time on Site”, and “Page views” to monitor user behaviour on your website. If users are spending more time on your site, viewing more pages, and engaging in the content then Google will see this as a positive thing. So now you have all that going for you but what now?
If you recall in my “Rankings or CRO” post, I mentioned that driving traffic to your site is great but that doesn’t make you money. You need to convert your traffic to leads. Conversions! There are many ways you can accomplish this. Let’s start with these: the casual posting on social networks, engaging with your market, responding to mentions, tweets, posts, and comments. These are all ways that you can engage your users and build trust and light relationships. People are more likely to use a company that is personable, trustworthy and fun. Use social media to market your product/service in a fun way. I know the article is somewhat dated but check out http://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2009/dec/08/socialnetworking-digital-media. Just an example of how a company makes money from Twitter.
The next thing you need to do is offer something to your potential customers. People like free stuff. They like discounts on stuff. When you give you get. Let’s say you had to make a choice between two different companies in which you needed/wanted to do business. Both companies are friendly, offer what you need and you trust both of them but, one of them was offering a 5% or 10% discount. Which company do you think you would choose? That’s right, run promotions, everyone loves promos.
So I will leave you with this. If you only focus on “organic” rankings you will see your site rank and you will see traffic of course. What are you doing for your users business when they get to your site? If you have not already done so you should check out my previous article mentioned or even go back and re-read it. Valuable information is everywhere, it’s what you do with it that counts.