In the digital marketing industry, CRO and SEO are often viewed through separate lenses. 

In CRO, you want to improve the benefits you get from your visitors by converting them into long-term customers. At the same time, with SEO, you are primarily focused on generating quality traffic.

Despite their differences, the interplay between them cannot be overstated. This article delves into how CRO techniques can bolster SEO efforts, providing a comprehensive look at the synergies between optimizing for conversions and enhancing search visibility.

First, let's explain a bit about what CRO refers to.

Conversion rate optimization is the practice of increasing the percentage of users who perform a desired action on a website. Desired actions, also called conversions, can include purchasing a product, clicking ‘add to cart’, or filling out a form. Successful CRO strategies aim to increase conversions by focusing on the customer experience.

Source: https://www.hotjar.com/conversion-rate-optimization/ 

What about SEO?

In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines whenever people search for:

 - Products you sell.

 - Services you provide.

 - Information on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience.

Source: https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo 

Why should you focus on both CRO and SEO, not on just one strategy?

Focusing only on CRO will result in a better conversion rate per user, but you might need more traffic. Similarly, focusing only on SEO might result in traffic that does not convert as well as it could. Using both strategies could help with both having visitors and converting them.

So, what about CRO, which helps SEO?

• Firstly, the CRO process itself:

SEO wants to provide better traffic from organic sources. However, that traffic needs to be relevant and ultimately lead to sales. Doing CRO helps with the relevance of the SEO traffic.

• A more qualitative website: 

CRO works by improving the website, which is also one of the goals of SEO.

• Optimizing the texts:

In CRO, you can optimize the call-to-action (CTA) texts, descriptive texts, headings, etc. These also help the SEO process.

• Content marketing is more than writing texts: 

It's a process of examining more elements than just the text. Here's a definition: Content marketing is creating and sharing useful online content like blog posts, guides, and videos to attract and engage customers. Source: https://www.semrush.com/blog/what-is-content-marketing/ 

• A/B testing (experiments on the website):

There are multiple reasons to run an A/B test—some focus on CRO, others on SEO, others on user engagement, etc. But these tend to influence other areas, too. After implementing the results, a well-made CRO test will likely help with SEO aspects, too.

• Site speed:

This helps both CRO and SEO aspects.

• Mobile optimization:

A mobile-friendly website can lead to better user conversions, higher engagement, and improved rankings, which has both CRO and SEO implications

• Focusing on the most important pages:

For CRO, Landing Page Optimization helps focus on the most relevant pages to get results. This is also a good SEO strategy - to start with the most profitable pages. You must be strategic when choosing the pages you optimize for the website.

• Social proof (testimonials, reviews) can boost credibility, which helps with conversion rates:

For SEO, positive reviews and ratings (especially those left on third-party platforms) can enhance your site's reputation and visibility in search results.

• FAQs: 

CRO is sometimes focused on addressing visitors' fears. Using Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) sections or going very deep into topics addresses specific user questions (this helps with conversions) and allows for the natural incorporation of long-tail keywords and related terms for SEO purposes.

• Video content:

Videos can increase user engagement and time on site. These are beneficial for both CRO and SEO. Including video transcripts can also make the videos more discoverable in search engines.

• Cart abandonment (this applies to e-commerce sites):

Strategies and techniques to reduce cart abandonment (such as reminder emails or exit-intent offers) can lift conversion rates. You can uncover CRO and SEO issues by examining the reasons for abandonment.

• Analyzing data:

CRO and SEO teams need to analyze data to make pragmatic decisions about what to focus on next.

When assigning budgets, it might be a good idea to avoid mixing CRO and SEO and having them each have their respective budgets.

Remember that they go hand in hand, and one helps the other.

In conclusion, the mix of CRO and SEO strategies is beneficial and essential for the holistic success of your online presence. Focusing solely on one at the expense of the other can lead to missed opportunities for traffic and conversions. Businesses can achieve a more dynamic, effective online strategy by understanding and implementing CRO techniques that complement and enhance SEO—such as optimizing user experience, enhancing site speed, and creating content that serves search engines and user intent.