SEO vs CRO: Which is Best For You?
Search Engine Optimization Vs Conversion Rate Optimization
The difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO) is like comparing apples to oranges. Both are fruits; both are tasty; but, each has its own unique taste. The main thing that differentiates them is their approach to improving ranking in Google or other search engines. By doing this, you can reach the targeted audience who might be interested in your product/service, making sales easier for you.
If you want to choose one of two strategies, which one should it be?
One thing SEO and CRO have in common is that their aim is to increase the number of visitors. SEO does this by improving ranking positions. SEO aims to improve your search engine rankings by creating high-quality content, implementing SEO techniques (keyword research, SEO writing improvement, increasing backlinks), and adopting social media marketing (SMM) strategies (posting content on different social media pages). SEO aims to rank higher not only for targeted keywords but also for all other words related to these main terms.
On the other hand, CRO focuses on visitor-conversion rate (i.e. how likely visitors are to turn into customers). The thing that makes SEO strategies work is the fact that they do not focus solely on one keyword; SEO works for a whole set of related words. SEO states that you need to be visible for your key terms, but SEO will create visibility for all related words too. SEO does not ask you to sit and wait until a particular website converts a few visitors into customers; SEO is proactive in nature and also provides immediate feedback to show whether SEO efforts are working or not.
SEO can rank well for your targeted keyword, but it may fail to do so if the other keywords/terms brought up by SEO are not ranked well in search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, SEO will be able to bring traffic from long-tail searches only when the main terminal has been already ranked high in SERP. As mentioned above, SEO works for different words, not only for targeted keywords. It cannot provide immediate feedback: it needs time to improve ranking positions and deliver results. SEO is a long-term strategy and CRO is a short-term one; CRO can gain traffic immediately after implementing CRO strategies. Search engine rankings are SEO’s main priority while CRO focuses on achieving conversion rates through various methods such as A/B split testing, landing page optimization, and call-to-action color optimization. SEO works with the website design and its search engine compatibility while CRO does not consider these SEO factors directly because of its limited use of SEO techniques (mostly ignores SEO writing style).
In conclusion, SEO tries to get the maximum possible visitors by improving rankings across multiple keywords while CRO tries to convert as many visitors as possible into customers using SEO knowledge and CRO strategies such as A/B split testing. SEO is all about SEO, not CRO. SEO provides quick feedback by changing ranking positions immediately after implementing SEO strategies while CRO requires a lot of time to show results. SEO helps you reach targeted audience through long-tail searching by increasing the ranking of related terms and keywords, but SEO alone cannot bring traffic from long-tail searches if your main term is ranked low in SERP because SEO only brings organic traffic (and not paid). However, SEO will be able to help increase the visibility of your website for more intensive search terms when they are interested in buying your products or services. As mentioned above, it takes years of SEO efforts to bring SEO traffic that converts into sales. SEO is a long-term method, SEO alone cannot provide short-term results and SEO can often take years of hard work before it starts to produce results.
On the other hand, CRO provides instant feedback by testing different strategies on your website’s pages. SEO looks at ranking positions for targeted keywords while CRO tries to understand how visitors are behaving on your website once they land on your page after searching for certain terms in SERP. SEO does not consider landing page usability whereas CRO works with the design, layout, and content of web pages. SEO takes time to deliver results while CRO delivers quick results if the implementation process was done correctly using A/B split testing or any other CRO methods. SEO is a long-term SEO goal while CRO has been created to provide instant results in the form of conversion rate optimization.
In conclusion, SEO takes time to see any improvement in SERP positions because SEO alone cannot bring targeted traffic from long-tail searches that convert into sales. On the other hand, SEO can improve ranking positions for multiple key terms by using SEO strategies such as SEO grammar and keywords density while CRO works on improving visitor behavior on your website’s pages once they land on them for a certain search query. SEO helps you reach a broader audience through improved rankings across related words but SEO alone will not bring conversions if your main term is ranked low in SERP because SEO only brings organic visitors which are free of charge. SEO works with the SEO writing style whereas CRO does not care about keywords density and SEO grammar (because CRO ignores SEO). SEO takes years of effort before it starts to work while CRO provides quick results if the implementation process was done correctly using A/B split testing or any other CRO methods.
SEO is all about SEO, not CRO; SEO tries to get maximum traffic by improving rankings for different words while CRO focuses on optimizing conversion rate from visitors landing on your website for certain search terms. In conclusion, SEO gives quick feedback by changing ranking positions as soon as you implement it.