Marketers face the challenging task of increasing online sales amidst a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Traditional SEO practices often focus on boosting rankings and traffic. However, with changes in AI technologies and consumer search behavior, these practices are becoming obsolete.
It’s time to switch gears and focus on what really matters – conversions and revenue.
For example, Fire Dept. Coffee, a veteran-owned small business run by active and retired firefighters. Their inspiring mission and community-driven approach caught Google’s attention.
But they didn’t stop at just creating blog content to drive organic traffic to their website. Instead, they established aggressive organic conversion and sales goals. Choosing the right goals to inform their SEO strategy was a game changer. They created influencer campaigns based on in-depth audience research. The influencer partnerships increased their search engine authority for relevant product searches and drove high-intent traffic. The result? $10M in organic sales annually (not just low-intent traffic).
Marketers need to adopt FDC’s revenue-focused approach to SEO.
Here’s a checklist to guide your conversion strategy for organic traffic:
1. Start with Customer Research: Ditch the obsolete practice of starting SEO campaigns with keyword research. To craft messages that resonate with your customers, you need to understand their unique needs and search intent. Tip: Review your website chat logs or customer emails to identify common questions or concerns.
2. Develop Conversion-Oriented Content: Your content strategy should aim to generate revenue, not just traffic. Choose content formats that have proven to convert organic visitors. This might mean writing fewer blog articles and more Q&A content, buying guides, or comparison content.
3. Focus on High-Intent Keywords: High volume keywords can generate traffic, but high-intent keywords bring in visitors who are ready to purchase. Identify these keywords through customer research and keyword analysis.
4. Address Purchase Intent Questions: Writing an FAQ is useful for customer acquisition, but what about an FAQ for customer acquisition? FAQ would feature the questions customers ask when making a purchase decision. For example, a company selling 3D printers for military contractors might find success by addressing specific technical questions about their printers.
5. Measure Success with the Right Metrics: Don’t focus on metrics like page load speed or domain authority. Instead, focus on the metrics that matter to your bottom line, like conversions and revenue.
The future of SEO is uncertain. To futureproof your campaigns shift your focus from rankings and traffic to conversions and revenue. This checklist will help you align your SEO strategy with your conversion strategy, ensuring improved conversion rates. Remember, the ultimate goal of SEO isn’t to rank higher—it’s to grow your business.
