What is the difference between CRO and SEO?

CRO and SEO are simply two completely different marketing functions. Search Engine Optimisation is the practice of optimising your website to rank higher in search results, to gain more organic traffic. Whereas, Conversion Rate Optimisation looks at the behaviour of the traffic on a specific page and rely on data and meticulous testing to convert those who land on your website.

You’ll see the greatest results when you use both SEO and CRO in unison for your marketing campaign, however, most businesses will focus solely on SEO to drive more and more organic traffic. 

But what happens to that traffic? If you’re putting all of your energy into a killer SEO campaign but pay no attention to what happens when they land on your website, you’re setting yourself up for failure. 

A core part of SEO is ensuring the content on your page answers a question.

Let’s say a lot of people have clicked through from a search term you rank well for, but upon landing on the page the messaging is not clear or doesn’t answer their questions they’ll eventually (if not immediately) bounce. 

This will result in your page being ranked lower due to not being relevant to the keyword or search term. However, by implementing a strong CRO strategy, you can monitor the behaviour of the users and begin testing variations of the elements on the page, such as: the heading(s), the CTAs, the placement of content etc. 

This will in turn improve the experience of the page, encourage users to engage more with your website and ultimately convert. Those conversions will result in your page ranking higher, as it’ll be clear it serves the purpose of answering the user’s question. 

Therefore, while CRO and SEO are entirely different functions, they complement one another perfectly and can amplify your current SEO campaign.