Conversion mistakes we’ve made. And how conversion affects SEO. With Rand Fishkin from Moz.

Learning from your mistakes is expensive. So learn from ours.

Below, you’ll find the slides and video from a webcast we co-presented with Rand Fishkin, the co-founder of Moz. Rand is one of the web industry’s most innovative thought leaders. His company’s values—embodied by the acronym TAGFEE—are well worth reading; they are bold and innovative. In addition to being an expert in search engine optimization (SEO), he has extensive knowledge of conversion rate optimization (CRO), having contributed a whole chapter to the first edition of Marketing Sherpa’s Landing Page Handbook.

Dr Karl Blanks is the co-founder of Conversion Rate Experts, a consultancy that has designed pages for more top-500 websites than any other company. He has the benefit of having grown almost every type of web business.

What you’ll get from this page

How CRO affects SEO. Many companies worry that CRO will damage their search-engine rankings. Rand explains how to increase your conversions whilst keeping—or even enhancing—your organic rankings. (The section “Does CRO mess up SEO?” which starts at 13:57 minutes is a must-see.)
Strategic and tactical mistakes that Conversion Rate Experts has made and seen when optimizing for conversion. It’s likely that your company is making some of these mistakes right now, and can easily fix them. The mistakes are
1. The “Kaigai Keitai” Problem
2. The Cinema-Foyer Effect
3. Why returning customers cause noise
4. Not having ADA on the project
5. Switching to the beauty track (this section, starting at 37:25 minutes is a must-see)
Q&A: Rand and Karl answer the attendees’ conversion questions, most of which were about the SEO implications of conversion rate optimization.

The slides

The slides from the talk, some of which may be confusing without the audio (see the video below).

A video of the talk

The talk in podcast format

To download the audio of this talk, and others, subscribe to our podcast.

A transcript of the talk

This talk was converted into the following two articles:

How much did you like this article?

Conversion Killers: The Definitive Guide

Five interesting conversion mistakes we’ve made and seen

What’s your goal today?

1. Hire us to grow your company

We’ve generated hundreds of millions for our clients, using our unique CRE Methodology™. To discover how we can help grow your business:

Read our case studies, client success stories, and video testimonials.
Learn about us, and our unique values, beliefs and quirks.
Visit our “Services” page to see the process by which we assess whether we’re a good fit for each other.
Schedule your FREE website strategy session with one of our renowned experts.

Schedule your FREE strategy session

2. Learn how to do conversion

Download a free copy of our Amazon #1 best-selling book, Making Websites Win, recommended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Moz, Econsultancy, and many more industry leaders. You’ll also be subscribed to our email newsletter and notified whenever we publish new articles or have something interesting to share.

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools and techniques. Many readers tell us they have doubled their sales by following the advice in these articles.

Download a free copy of our best-selling book

3. Join our team

If you want to join our team—or discover why our team members love working with us—then see our “Careers” page.

4. Contact us

We help businesses worldwide, so get in touch!

Schedule your FREE website strategy session

On your free video call consultation, one of our experts will discuss the following:

Your conversion goals.

How our methodology (the same process we use for Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Dropbox) could best be applied to your business.

The questions and insights you need to double your sales.

The cultural, practical and technical considerations that are most likely to be preventing you from growing quickly.

There’ll be no commitment or obligation to use our services.

Our gift to you: a FREE copy of our bestselling book, plus other goodies

Making Websites Win is an Amazon #1 bestseller in 15 categories.

A goldmine of the best conversion advice, it has been recommended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Moz, Econsultancy, and many more industry leaders.

Right now, it’s available for purchase, in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle. However, as our gift to you…

It’s yours for FREE, when you subscribe to our incredibly useful newsletter.

(Plus, as an added bonus, you’ll also get our CRO Toolkit, packed with persuasion techniques, advanced tips, million-dollar landing pages, and more.)

Our gift to you: a FREE copy of our bestselling book, plus other goodies

Subscribe below to instantly download the entire book—all 354 pages—in your preferred format. Plus, the bonus resources.

Making Websites Win is an Amazon #1 bestseller in 15 categories. It’s a goldmine of the best conversion advice packed with easy‑to‑implement ideas. It has been recommended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Moz, Econsultancy, and many more industry leaders.

In Making Websites Win, you’ll discover:

What successful web businesses do differently (and others get wrong)
How to easily identify your website’s biggest opportunities
A treasure trove of proven solutions for growing businesses

Right now, it’s available for purchase in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle. However, as our gift to you…

It’s yours for FREE, when you subscribe to our incredibly useful newsletter

We’ll gift you a copy of our book, which normally retails for up to $18.99 in bookstores.

Subscribe below to instantly download the entire book—all 354 pages—in your preferred format.

The most successful enterprises use us. (And the fastest-growing startups too.)

…and helped to grow many of the web’s most sophisticated companies (including Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Dropbox). Plus, we’ve grown many smaller companies in 40 countries in 11 languages. How can we help you?