Maximize the Value of SEO: Our Easiest Conversion Optimization Tips

The ROI of SEO activities is ultimately generated by conversions. When users discover your website through organic search, engage with your content, and convert, your efforts have directly generated value for your brand.

But what if your top-ranking content doesn’t seem to get much attention? What can you do to bolster the value of content that attracts traffic but fails to generate any actual conversions?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the key to maximizing the value of your SEO investments.

The Nexus team thinks about CRO constantly—after all, it’s how we ensure our clients see concrete value from their SEO engagements with us. We’ve got a few tried-and-true CRO best practices that we incorporate into our content creation process, and we’ve rounded them up in this crash course:

What counts as a conversion?
Effective calls-to-action
Eye-catching titles
Conversion copywriting basics
Success stories
What you’ll need

What counts as a conversion?

A conversion occurs when a web user takes the specific target action on your website that you’ve asked them to.

These target actions can take many forms depending on the circumstances and your marketing goals. For B2B marketers, conversions often occur when users:

Request a demo
Contact your business for a quote or to learn more
Download a lead-capture resource
Sign up to receive email updates
Visit a specific product or service page
Visit another specific bottom-funnel page on your site

Each page on your website should serve a conversion purpose. CRO is the process of determining this purpose and then making tactical improvements to your web pages so they can better support their conversion purposes.

The only rule of thumb to keep in mind is that marketing conversions should represent a meaningful step forward in the sales journey. Requesting a demo is a late step in that journey, while clicking through to a strategically important bottom-funnel page could count as an earlier step. Signing up for emails would be an even earlier step towards an eventual sale by allowing you to stay in touch with casual visitors.

This concept relies heavily on the sales or marketing funnel framework that you, as a savvy marketer yourself, likely already think about every day. Brush up on the basics if you feel a bit rusty!

Understanding user intent

In SEO and CRO alike, user intent is a critical concept. It can be thought of simply as what a user wants to accomplish when they search a particular keyword.

To rank well and create a positive user experience, your content and its conversion elements must align with the user intent.

User intent is generally broken down into three categories:

Educational

The user wants to learn more about a topic. They have a problem to solve or gap to fill but are just starting to address it, so they’re at the top-funnel stage of their buying journey.

Commercial

The user has an idea of what products and services could solve their problem, so they want to learn more about their options and compare providers. Keywords with a commercial intent typically fall into the mid-funnel range of the buying journey.

Transactional

The user knows exactly what they want and explicitly look for a product/service or more information about it with the intention of making a purchase.

The user intent of a keyword should shape the content in several ways: its format, length, level of detail, tone, and the conversion tactics that it employs.

By understanding user intent and funnel position, you can more thoughtfully align conversion asks and how to frame them for a page’s particular audience. Try answering these key questions:

1. When someone searches for this page’s keyword, what are they hoping to accomplish?

2. How ready are they to make a purchase?

3. What can you offer to nudge them further along?

4. What are my business goals for this page?

This exercise will help you pinpoint a page’s unique intersection of user intent and funnel position, which will then allow you to more strategically build a conversion strategy.

Quick steps for developing a B2B conversion strategy

How do we determine ideal conversion recommendations for our clients’ content? Here’s an abridged version of our process:

Determine the primary conversion ask.
- For most SEO-optimized content, this means a demo request or contact form.
- Even for top-funnel content, it’s important to create an opportunity for direct conversions. Not all visitors will be ready to convert, but some might be, and simply creating that opportunity can boost your ROI on your SEO investment.
- For all the other users not ready to convert, you’ll use a secondary conversion ask to generate additional engagement and nudge them towards converting later.
Determine the keyword’s position in the sales funnel and user intent.
Based on the content’s specifics, choose a secondary conversion ask (or determine if one is warranted at all).
- The goal is to keep users engaged. Find the right resource or page on your site that aligns with what the user is trying to accomplish. For top- and middle-funnel pages, these might include:
  - Newsletter sign-ups
  - Webinars
  - Downloadable resources
  - Readiness assessments
  - Case studies
  - Product comparisons
  - A product landing page
- For bottom-funnel content, focus solely on the primary demo or contact request.

Of course, this is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The ideal process will vary from business from business depending your niche, audience, sales/web collateral, and goals.

The key takeaway is simply to be thoughtful.

Take the time to think through the unique position of your content—its keyword, user intent, funnel position, your goals, and your value proposition.

Ask for direct conversions (demos/contacts) whenever possible, but don’t neglect the power of easier asks (sign-ups, downloads, case studies, etc.) to engage audiences with your brand.

Effective calls-to-action

So you’ve determined what you’ll ask your page visitors to do. Now how will make that ask?

Calls-to-action (CTAs) are the explicit asks that you include in your content and that trigger conversions by leading users directly to the relevant form, page, or resource.

CTAs can be linked graphics, buttons, or plain linked text. They occur throughout the content, most notably near the top of the page and at the bottom, although they should also be sprinkled throughout the middle of the content in strategic spots.

CTA strategies must be focused. Never distract the reader with multiple big asks. This means emphasizing your content’s primary conversion ask. Any secondary ask should occur more naturally throughout the content.

How to develop an effective CTA

Once you’ve determined the key conversion goals of your content, you’ll need to craft the actual asks of the CTAs themselves. To phrase them effectively, we recommend taking a moment to answer these questions:

What is the reader looking to accomplish?
- The user intent for the page’s keyword
What are we asking readers to do?
- The primary conversion ask
Where are we sending them to do it?
- The location to accomplish it
Why should they bother?
- Your value proposition—why are you the best choice to help accomplish their goal?
What else can we offer?
- Secondary asks (downloads, sign-ups, etc.) that will further help and engage the reader

Working through these questions will help clarify the general angle of your ask. CTAs should resonate with readers as relevant to their goals while emphasizing you as the helpful next step they need.

Best practices for crafting CTAs

What are the logistical and copywriting best practices to keep in mind for CTAs? Here are some rules of thumb that have served us well over the years:

Placement

The ideal number and placement of CTAs will vary based on the content’s length and funnel position. The shorter and more bottom-funnel the content, the more direct and concise the CTA strategy. For longer, higher-funnel content, your approach can be more expansive and incorporate secondary engagement-boosting asks.

The first CTA should always be included at the end of the intro and above the fold (i.e. visible before the reader needs to scroll). You can’t always count on readers sticking around or exploring long enough to see all of your content, so make sure they’ll be exposed to your CTA at least once!
Mid-content CTAs can take several forms depending on the target page and context. In longer content, these secondary conversion asks help drive engagement to lower-funnel content, email signups, case studies, and more. They should be visibly less emphasized than the primary CTAs, usually formatted as buttons or plain in-text links.
Bottom CTAs should be large and emphasized. Link users straight to the place to convert. If you’re asking for a contact or demo request, consider embedding the relevant form directly at the bottom of the page—we’ve seen this approach work well in many cases.

Note: Contextual relevance is key. CTAs should not be haphazardly placed.

Primary CTAs should fit cleanly between section breaks in the content. Secondary CTAs should clearly offer more value to readers based on the surrounding content. For example, link to case studies when discussing metrics or results, or link to a deeper-funnel article that’s about a specific concept that was mentioned.

Language

The language that you include on a CTA graphic or button does the heavy lifting. Follow these best practices:

Keep the copy clear and simple.
Don’t use jargon or unnecessary synonyms for more impactful words.
Prioritize “power words” that catch the eye and immediately show readers that the ask is relevant to their goal or pain point.
Strategically use questions and the second person (“you”) to quickly connect with the reader’s goal and communicate relevance.
Evoke a sense of urgency or exclusivity when possible (but don’t lie).
Frame your ask as a benefit. What will the reader get out of converting?

That last point is especially helpful. Understanding features vs. benefits can transform your appeals and CTAs into conversion powerhouses.

Simply put, features are the describable, distinguishing characteristics of your product/service. Benefits are the positive impacts that those features have on your customers or clients. There’s a time and place for using both types of appeals, but benefits will usually be most effective since they more clearly tap into why a user is looking at your website in the first place.

Length

Aside from keeping the language on your CTAs short and to-the-point, there aren’t any concrete rules to follow. That said, we’ve found these rough guidelines helpful:

For CTA graphics that appear at the top of and throughout content: Roughly 7 words or a single line of text
For buttons and links throughout content: 5 words maximum, but the fewer the better
For large CTA graphics at the bottom of content: 1 headline of 5 words or fewer, another line of roughly 8 words maximum to convey value/benefits, and a clear ask at the end (“Download here,” “Claim your free demo,” “Reach out to our team,” etc.)

Design

Visual design plays the crucial role of catching the eye of the user. Remember, we all skim and have learned over the years to visually gloss over what we perceive as ads or irrelevant page elements. For your CTAs, be intentional about how they look and present themselves to users.

Here are a few best practices we rely on:

CTA graphics should stand out on the page. Don’t make them too small, and double-check on the frontend of your content that CTAs are appearing at the correct size.
Use a high-contrast main color on CTA graphics and buttons that aligns with your brand’s color scheme but doesn’t fade into the background or perfectly match other graphics on the page.
Include photos or illustrations on your larger CTA graphics. Ideally these should be of people or photos/mockups of your actual product, not generic pictures of computers or clipboards. Even worse, don’t use vague abstract illustrations of graphics and data.
Text on CTA graphics and buttons should also be high-contrast and clearly legible. Don’t get too creative with the font, and make sure the text is sized larger than the main content of the page.
Ensure that CTA graphics and buttons don’t appear too visually jumbled or jammed between blocks of text. Give them some buffer space to help them shine.
If your CMS/website builder allows you to create modular CTA or banner sections within pages, play around with this feature. These are excellent for ensuring mobile responsiveness.

Key takeaways

- Place CTAs in textually relevant spots.
- Keep your CTA language simple and clear.
- Express your value proposition or distinguishing values.
- Understand features vs. benefits when crafting your ask.
- Use bold design that catches the eye for CTA graphics.

Oh, look—here’s a CTA now:

Eye-catching titles

The titles of your SEO-optimized pages play essential roles in converting users for a simple reason—they attract users to visit your site in the first place.

When you search for something on Google, you likely don’t immediately click on the very first result. Instead you might skim the titles and descriptions of the first three or so results to quickly see which one most aligns with what you’re looking for.

Effective titles improve your clickthrough rates on results pages, helping you secure a bigger chunk of the traffic searching those keywords.

But a title can also prime the user to be more engaged once they arrive.

Try the “So what?” test

Titles should give readers an instant window into the purpose of the page and what benefit they can expect from visiting it.

When you draft a title, put yourself in a user’s shoes and ask, “So what?” Why is a reader searching that keyword? What can they expect after reading your title? What will they get out of it?

By aligning your title with the user intent, really anticipating the user’s needs, challenges, and reasons for searching, you can better encourage users to engage with the whole page and click through your CTAs to convert.

Reliable title formats

We rely on a handful of tried-and-true title formats to help us craft effective titles for content:

How-To
- Why it works: For some keywords and user intents, how-to titles immediately show users what they’re looking for.
- Example: How to Develop a Donor Recognition Strategy: Complete Guide
Why
- Why it works: Why titles can also tap straight into the user intent to answer users’ questions.
- Example: Why Donor Recognition Matters and X Ways to Master It
Questions
- Why it works: These reflect the same questions that users have, which is why they’re searching in the first place.
- Example: How Do You Know if Your Recognition Strategies Are Working?
Direct Response
- Why it works: Speaking straight to the user’s pain point shows immediate relevance.
- Example: Retain More Donors: X Donor Recognition Essentials
“Best”
- Why it works: Using superlatives like “best” grab attention and assure users you have what they’re looking for.
- Example: The X Best Donor Recognition Strategies Nonprofits Need
Numbers/statistics
- Why it works: Numbers are proven to catch the eye, and in some cases showing that you have a lot to offer can entice clicks.
- Example: XX Donor Recognition Tips to Drive Retention

Title best practices

Keep your titles concise.

Conciseness is key. Titles of roughly 8 words or fewer and between 50-60 characters will both quickly show users what you have to offer and ensure the content shows up as intended in search results.

Use snappy language that taps into emotional motivation.

“Power words” are immensely helpful for grabbing attention with titles.

But don’t forget that you can go a step further to align your title with user needs and pain points by reflecting their emotions or motivations. In B2B contexts, this might feel a little silly, but remember that every search is driven by some kind of motivation. Here are some examples:

Fear and anxiety
- Use words like “mistakes” or “pitfalls”
Energy and excitement
- Use words like “thrive,” “win,” and “fearless”
Desire and greed
- Use words like “free,” “inexpensive,” and “profit”
Security
- Use words like “guarantee,” “foolproof,” and “proven”
Curiosity
- Use words like “little-known” and “behind the scenes”

Consider the full context of your keyword and why users are searching it. What are they looking for? Why do they need answers?

Of course, you don’t need to go all-out on strange clickbait titles, but you can pepper in a few strategic words that strike right at the heart of user motivations.

Differentiate your top-funnel titles.

Very broad, educational keywords often yield results with very similar titles – “The complete guide to X, “Everything you need to know about X,” “Learning about X.”

When you craft a new title, take a moment to scope out the competition on Google. What are their titles? What motivations and user intents are they tapping into?

The top-ranking titles for a keyword are certainly doing something right in the eyes of Google, but that doesn’t mean yours should be a carbon copy.

Learn from the other titles but then take a stab at differentiating yours. Look at the list of title formats above and try out a few variations.

Lead with a benefit for bottom-funnel titles.

For your bottom-funnel content like product/service pages, product comparisons, technical how-to’s that create natural pitches for your services, your title should lead with a benefit.

What’s in it for the user? What is the unique benefit they’ll get from your expertise and offerings?

For example, if you’re a capital campaign consultant for nonprofits, you’ll likely want a strong page on your website that targets the keyword “capital campaign consultant.” You could approach the title a few ways:

This content could have a very straightforward (and bland) title like “Why work with a capital campaign consultant” or “Guide to capital campaign consulting.”
You could also lean into a “feature” of the service: “Expert strategy from capital campaign consultants”
But the most effective options would instead lean into the “benefit” of the service—what the user wants to accomplish with campaign consulting. Examples include:
- Capital campaign consulting: Thrive with expert guidance
- Build lasting impact with capital campaign consulting
- Capital campaign consulting: Take the guesswork out of growth

The simple twists of “thrive,” “lasting impact,” and “take the guesswork out” in these examples tap into the deeper goals that nonprofits have when they search for campaign support. These titles would likely be much more effective at grabbing attention and clicks (and ultimately more conversions).

Conversion copywriting basics

“Conversion copywriting” involves using a range of strategies in the structure, style, and small language choices in your content to support conversion goals.

This goes beyond just using “salesy” language (that often turns off readers anyway). Effective conversion copywriting creates a smoother, more user-focused experience. It infuses the content’s copy, titles, meta descriptions, text on CTAs, and more to naturally encourage engagement and immediately convey relevance to readers.

Here we’ll review a few of the core concepts our copywriting team uses to enrich content and boost the conversion power of our articles.

Social proof

Infusing your content with social proof can be extremely helpful for driving conversions, especially on lower-funnel pages with commercial and transactional intent. These readers will be looking for reasons to trust what you have to say.

Social proof can take these forms:

Customer testimonials and stories
Impact statistics of your products/services
Case studies that combine stories and numbers

Even using more subtle language to imply social proof can be helpful – “join hundreds of other nonprofits..” “we’ve helped fundraisers like you..” etc.

Creating social proof resources like case studies and a testimonial page on your website is a very worthwhile investment of your time. We often recommend these activities to our clients and help create them, too. Once you have these resources in place, you can reference them and direct readers there to learn more, enriching the user journey and ultimately making more compelling asks.

Messaging hierarchies

Let’s say you’re creating a bottom-funnel page (like a core service or product page). How should you structure your page’s content and the case it makes for your offerings?

A clear messaging hierarchy structures the copy to proactively answer the questions or respond to the thoughts that readers will have.

Anticipating user questions/desires/expectations reduces the friction they experience and increases overall engagement, making them more likely to convert.

Here’s a messaging hierarchy that will put you in your customers’ shoes and help you generate more conversions:

What do you do? (Convey the key focus or offering.)
Why should I care? (Convey the key message relevant to their pain points.)
Am I alone in caring? (Offer some form of social proof.)
How do you do what you say you do? (Mention or discuss specific features.)
How will my life improve? (Emphasize key benefits relevant to their pain points.)
Why is it safe for me to believe you? (Provide credibility — results/case studies, customer support, industry partnerships, etc.)
I believe you, now what? (Call to action)

Here’s an example of how you might hone your messaging using this messaging hierarchy:

We make planned giving easy.

Scale your nonprofit’s planned giving program and secure more planned gifts without overwhelming your development team.

We’ve worked with hundreds of nonprofits to secure millions in new planned gifts.

How? Our easy-to-use donor-facing tools, robust data and analytics features, and one-on-one support equip your nonprofit with everything it needs to build a thriving program.

Too many nonprofits struggle to devote time to planned giving despite it being among the highest-ROI forms of fundraising out there. Simplifying the process (for your team and your donors) makes it possible to truly prioritize planned giving.

Explore our case studies to see how real nonprofits have grown their planned giving programs.

Want to see our planned giving tools in action? Book a free demo.

From here, you can adapt your approach based on the context of the content (length, first vs. third person framing, the particular social proof you can offer, etc.). Combine and adjust the steps as needed to polish your message.

Just be sure you understand the reader’s pain point, the key message relevant to them, the features and benefits that support that intent, and how you can offer credibility.

This is a handy trick to have anytime you’re explicitly writing about your offerings. Try it out for your own business and see what you come up with!

Other writing formulas

Like a messaging hierarchy, a writing formula gives you an easy roadmap for writing smoother, more compelling copy.

AIDA

This classic writing formula remains one of the most effective ways to craft more engaging content that can encourage conversions.

Attention – Grab the reader’s attention with a hook relevant to their intent.
Interest – Tease their interest with a unique point or question.
Desire – Tap into the reader’s desire by acknowledging their pain point and intended outcome.
Action – Explicitly say what the reader should do to reach that outcome.

Use this formula in all kinds of contexts to create a more engaging flow in your copy and build up to your conversion asks more naturally. For example, here’s how you might use this formula to outline the beginning of an article about planning a capital campaign:

Your nonprofit’s services are hitting max capacity, your team is busier than ever, and you know that making some smart investments would take you to the next level. Could you raise $5 million for an important project?

Nonprofits tackle these big goals by conducting capital campaigns. They’re major undertakings, unlike any other campaigns you’ll conduct, and only come around once a decade or more.

But while they’re complex, successful capital campaigns are within reach of any nonprofit. Understanding how and why the capital campaign model works will give you the foundation you need to get started.

We’ll review all the essentials and background you need to start determining your nonprofit’s next steps.

This set-up acknowledges reader desires and concerns. It encourages engagement by framing the content as accessible and foundational. These talking points all pave the way to not just providing a positive user experience but also naturally framing conversion asks (like reading about consulting services or taking a readiness assessment).

For bottom-funnel pages or spots where you’re writing about your offerings very explicitly, you can expand the AIDA model to include “conviction” — social proof or statistics/results.

The 4 P’s

This model is helpful for writing much more concise conversion copy, like sections of your product/services page or the text of CTA graphics.

Promise – What’s the benefit?
Picture – Evoke a story or feeling.
Proof – Provide credibility.
Push – Call to action.

Understand your reader’s intent and pain point, then use the model to hit the essentials:

You can plan a capital campaign that will help your nonprofit thrive for years to come. Our network of coaches and fellow fundraisers are here to help. Contact us to start your journey.

Of course, these formulas aren’t hard and fast rules. Rather, they’re helpful additions to your toolkit. Understand how they work and why, and you’ll have powerful options to explore the next time you sit down to create new web content, draft a sales email, or engage with your customers in any other way.

Success stories

Combining consistent SEO work, high-quality web content, and CRO know-how can generate some amazing results.

Please explore our case studies to learn how our clients and partners have increased their leads from organic search:

Read the success stories here

A few of our favorite success stories about lead generation include:

DonorSearch – 10X revenue growth in organic lead generation
ShopRaise – 266.7% year over year increase in organic leads
Fionta – 100+% year over year increase in organic leads

What you’ll need to convert more visitors

So to sum it all up, what do you need to develop a winning organic online lead generation strategy?

1. Qualified traffic – The right eyes visiting your website.

2. High-quality content – Pages that will both rank and encourage engagement.

3. A CRO strategy – An understanding of what meaningful conversions mean for your business, pages to facilitate them, and tactics within the content to encourage them.

Brands of all sizes can effectively hit all these marks with the right approach and enough time and bandwidth.

For sustained results, partnering with an agency (like us) that provides technical SEO, content creation, and CRO expertise might be your best bet.

If you’re already a Nexus client or partner and want to improve conversions on any of your most important web pages, please get in touch! We can easily review your analytics and provide quick recommendations at both the site-wide and page-specific levels.

Have any questions or want to learn more about how we approach CRO?