CRO and SEO Working Together with Jason Fisher

Conversion Sciences

When CRO and SEO work together, there is a cycle of increasing advantages, according to technical search engine marketer Jason Fisher. Find out how Jason combines SEO and CRO for a one-two punch that delivers results. Jason Fisher and Brian Massey Subscribe to the Podcast iTunes | Spotify | RSS All Episodes What if you were Google Search’s therapist? You would be tasked with understanding the mind of Google’s search algorithm, simultaneously seeking to understand the Google mind, and trying to help it make better decisions about the world it manipulates. This, as it turns out, is the job of the search engine optimizer, or SEO. Maybe we should call them SETs: Search Engine Therapists. For they must not only understand the search algorithm, but they must also be able to help it make better decisions. And they must do this with the active resistance of Google. Like humans, Google secretly does not want to be helped. Our intrepid SETs will never have a complete understanding of the Google search mind. So, we are stuck with a simple mantra: “Take the best search traffic we can get and let the website sort it out.” I’m the guy that focuses on “sorting out” the traffic. Making a website better at finding the buyers in your traffic is called Conversion Optimization, or CRO. Here lies the delicate balance between making the search mind better at its job (SEO) and making the most of what comes your way (CRO). Google is a cantankerous patient who makes the therapist pay for the privilege of helping it. We need to use all our weapons to maximize this traffic source. This is why I invited Jason Fisher onto Intended Consequences. He is a search therapist who gets that the “sorting out” part of the equation is important. * * * Jsason Fisher has been doing search marketing for a long time. He cut his teeth on search engine marketing right at the beginning of the century, when search marketing was the like the Wild West. Some years later, he was working for a leading link development company, where he learned the power of back links. He is filling the technical SEO skills gap, primarily for agencies. And he's the kind of guy that throws around phrases like "competitor link graphs". I was curious how a guy like this sees conversion optimization in relation to his work. Here's what I learned. CRO vs. SEO: Advice to new online businesses. We do a lot of consultations with businesses that aren't ready for our conversion optimization services. My advice to them is this: Start working on your organic search strategy. Use search ads to begin bringing traffic. Then look at optimizing the site to maximize revenue. Organic search optimization takes 12-24 months to implement. It takes time to research, to create valuable assets, and to build relevant backlinks. But this cannot be easily taken from the business. Paid search can begin working immediately, but is subject to the bidding of your competition and the whims of the search engine ad algorithms. Of course, you don't have to put conversion optimization on hold during this time, especially if your paid search campaigns aren't yet profitable. What are the components of SEO? For established websites, Jason discusses four main components of an organic search program: Accessibility Indexability On-page Success Factors Off-page Success Factors Portion of a hamburger with label "On-page/Off-page Factors" These on-page and off-page success factors are the things the search engines look at to determine your authority for certain queries. Off-page Link Graph: The quality and quantity of links On-0page meta data: Title, internal and extermanl linking, etc. Host performance is an on-page factor. If you have a good tech stack, you should be good. Over-indexing and Under-indexing An often overlooked aspect of your search strategy is that the wrong pages are being indexed. Over-indexing and under-indexing are important CRO and SEO factors.