You may have heard of conversion optimization but were worried that this fell somewhere into the practice of dark arts. Not so. Optimizing your pages and offers for conversion is the smart way to make the most of your current traffic, and be prepared for when you get even more traffic.

Conversion optimization is simply the practice of fine tuning various elements of your pages, offers and marketing for the best results possible. This isn't an overly technical task, but more of an adjustment (hopefully) to pieces you may already have in place.

With these goals in mind, let's take a look at some of the best methods to ensure your pages and offers are optimized.

What to Consider When Doing Conversion Optimization

Use the proper keywords – Making certain you are utilizing the proper keywords for the page the right way is essential for not only making sure you are found in search, but also social media and video. Optimize for one main keyword and a few select secondary keywords, so as to best focus your search results.

Testing – Test it all. Colors, headlines, calls to action, copy; it all plays a part in getting the clicks and conversions. Also, be sure to test one item at a time, and constantly tweak until you're happy with the results. Testing multiple items at once though expedient leaves doubt as to exactly which item is responsible for the improvement or failure.

Use videos – Lately, studies are showing that it's much more likely to get a conversion if the visitor has viewed a video. And it's only going to get more prevalent: by 2018 75 percent of all web traffic will be video oriented in some form or fashion. Get going with video now!

Be mobile ready – Since more than half of all Web search is now emanating from a mobile device of some sort, it's necessary to make sure your pages and offers are mobile-friendly. This is easy to get done, and can pay huge dividends. Also, make sure your hosting renders your mobile pages quickly, as mobile users are highly impatient.

Use social proof – Nobody wants to pull the trigger without at least feeling as though they've gotten some third party proof that this is a good idea. This is why 85 percent of people visit at least 1 one social network before pressing that buy button. Use social proof in your offers, and respond on social media immediately.

SEO for e-commerce is not that much different than SEO for anything else, but it does have some unique aspects you'll want to bear in mind.

With quite a few new players in the e-commerce game lately, the importance of getting your site noticed and ranked above the others is crucial.

The fundamentals of SEO, such as great content, quality inbound links and a good social media campaign, undoubtedly apply for e-commerce sites, too. But there are other important strategies that need to be applied in regards to SEO for e-commerce sites.

Related: 5 Hosted E-commerce Software Solutions

5 Best Practices in SEO for E-commerce

Unique content – Don't make the mistake that most newcomers to e-commerce make when building their product pages, that is simply copying and pasting an Amazon or other product description they find somewhere onto their pages. This doesn't sit well with Google, and you won't rank well. Make unique content for your pages!

Reviews and social proof – Very often the factor that tips the sale in your favor is the inclusion of product reviews and other social proof in the form of testimonials. These are gold: use them!

Use redirects on dead product pages – Too often when a product is no longer being sold, the page lives on, though usually in the form of a 404 error page. This is a bad on-site SEO signal to Google, and will hurt you. Instead, us a simple 301 redirect to send that traffic to new or current pages.

Related: 5 Mistakes That Can Kill Your Sales Conversions

Use unique imagery – Use unique images on your pages too. Like duplicate content in the form of text, using the same images found on Amazon won't help you. If you can tackle some image editing, it's simple enough to alter the images enough to make them unique, and perhaps adding a message of your own.

Use diverse content – Make an effort to use as many different types of content as possible. Infographics, customer video testimonials, and product demos can all lead to a richer customer experience in Google's eyes.

Using these small changes together with traditional on-page SEO can lead to your pages leapfrogging over the competition. All it will require is a little more work!

A short time ago Google rolled out the latest of their search engine algorithm updates, this one mysteriously dubbed Phantom. Many people still have no clue this occurred, and for good reason. It literally flew under the radar. Many search algorithm updates create quite a splash when they occur. Ask anyone who was negatively affected by Penguin or panda, and their subsequent iterations. Some entire businesses were lost, and certainly fortunes were deviated.

The good news is that most search algorithm updates aren't nearly that dramatic. Google says they perform between 500-600 updates yearly, and most are fairly insignificant, and go mostly unnoticed.

Let's look into what the Phantom has brought to a search engine results page near you.

The Google Phantom update – What was it about?

It looks like Phantom was all about poor quality pages. Pages that had a dependence on “clickbait” headlines, thin content, tons of poor user-generated content and old, out of touch and non-relevant comments were the first to feel this wrath of Phantom.

Some of the more well-known sites suffered with this update as well. Sites like HubPages, WikiHow, Answers.com and a few others took a significant hit.

Several specific things got their attention this time around. Some of them are going to sound familiar to many who got hit in other recent Google updates. Pages with “thin” content, meaning scant content on the page designed merely to get a click or another action, were targeted. Also high on the list were pages with “clickbait” headlines, and also lots of stacked videos, too much poor user-generated content, pages with lots of ads, or unedited curated pieces.

Key takeaways for your use

The first and best thing you can do is take a cold hard look at your site content by doing an audit. See which of your pages may have suffered a loss in rank possibly due this Phantom, and see if any of the above mentioned factors apply to it. Then you can either fix, update or junk it, depending on the age and relative current relevance of the content in question.

What you want to do here is come out of this with your best foot forward, showing Google and all who come to your pages that it contains the most relevant and current content you are able to provide. Do that and you needn't worry about Phantoms!

A lot of people have bought into the mistaken belief that SEO and content marketing are two separate animals. Perhaps that might have been somewhat true back in the day, these days the two are so intertwined as to be thought of concurrently.

What is necessary now is a marriage of sorts between the two. SEO can't exist without content, and content needs SEO to rank as well as it can.

It's time to understand the sibling relationship SEO and content marketing share, and start exploiting it for your site's success. Here are some ideas to get you started.

7 Tips on SEO for Content Marketing

#1 – Integrate keywords naturally (but with SEO in the back of your mind!)

Long gone are the days of keyword stuffing your way to top rankings, but they still play a vital role. Be sure you use your primary keyword in titles, in the front of your content, and other strategic places.

#2 – Still do on-page SEO

It's still very important, perhaps more than ever, to make sure things like SEO title tags, Meta data, image tags and H1 tags are crafted properly. If you're using WordPress, you can use WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin.

#3 – Write for your readers!

These days Google is all about satisfying searcher intent. This means you need to write for your audience, and keep technical SEO out of the equation for the most part. Since it's no longer necessary to hit X amount of keyword density on your page, it should free you up to write what you need to!

#4 – Get mobile ready

More than half of all traffic now is served to a mobile device of some flavor, making it imperative to make sure your pages are mobile friendly.

#5 – Use social media

Whether social signals count for much in the search algorithm is a widely debated topic, but one thing is sure: that's where the people are. Employ social sharing buttons on all your content and you might find some of them!

#6 – Employ visual content

People love to watch video and look at your images. It also serves a dual purpose of keeping them on your site longer, a Google ranking signal. You can search for images via Flickr or from our #1 source of free stock photos, Pexels.

#7 – Use expert wording

The more expertly you speak on a subject, the more favor you'll find in Google's rankings. They are delivering the best, most authoritative content they can come up with, and obviously you want that to be yours!

You've likely heard it or even said it a thousand times, “I can't get enough traffic!”

When you begin to realize that there are literally hundreds of tactics to drive traffic to your pages, you often go for the cheapest and fastest strategy you can find, in the hopes that you'll soon be swamped with visitors interested in what you have to offer.

This seldom turns out well. What you'll get, if anything, is a bunch of visitors who stay a few seconds each, seldom engaging or doing anything else worthwhile on your site.

This is primarily because you have neglected to figure out exactly what type of traffic best includes your audience, and how to effectively get it. What's really needed here is a plan that takes into account who your chosen audience is, and where they typically hang out. Then you can begin to craft a strategy. Let's look at what you need to do to make it happen.

Related: Here Are 7 Ways To Create Content That Drives Traffic

Building traffic with right audience

Before you go spending money or time, get great answers to these questions.

1 – Understand your audience

This is key to knowing how to advertise effectively, paid or not. Are they male or female? Young or old? Rich or poor? Create a detailed customer avatar that you know inside and out before you spend a dime!

Related: See How to Track your Website Data

2 – Discover where they hang out

Your audience congregates somewhere; it's your job to find out where. That might be on a social site, forums, or popular website. Get this intelligence and act on it!

Related: Learn Social Media Marketing For Your Business

3 – Tools you can use to help

Probably the best tool to use currently is Facebook's Audience insights. You need an ad account to use this, but it's free. There is so much available demographic information here it's downright scary. Another tool is Alexa.

Related: 7 Great Tips For Your Facebook Business Pages

Okay, next step?

Now that you've gathered your data, you have to decide what traffic method will work best for your given audience. That could be Facebook ads, or ads on LinkedIn, Pinterest or Twitter. Perhaps a content marketing campaign aimed at securing search rankings for your keywords. Or maybe a video marketing initiative.

Whichever method it ends up being, the point is to make sure you have targeted your audience as best you can BEFORE you begin to market. It's all about finding the best return on your investment you can!

Knowing how to write effective SEO title tags and headlines can be confusing these days. See you're not alone! Many struggle over making it SEO optimized while at the same time enticing enough to draw in the clicks, which is the main job of a headline, right?

Related: 7 On-Page SEO Tips that Will Help your Rankings

While at first blush the symbiotic relationship between title tags and headlines can seem at odds, but you need to be able to find a happy medium. Recognize first that one without the other leads to failure is a good first step.

Let's look at both needs and see where they intersect.

Writing Effective Title Tags and Headlines

What goes into a good SEO title tag?

The properly SEO'd title tag will be around 64 characters, and also have the page's primary keyword near the beginning if possible. That's not much space to work with, so we've got a challenge right from the start.

What's also important to Google these days is the intent of the search query. What's the searcher actually searching for? Google is getting better and better at reading this, and you need to write with this in mind.

If there is room, you can include additional keywords or LSI phrase, or modify the phrase in hope of ranking for corollary terms, for instance “best blue widget for sale today”. There are around 5 possible keyword phrases in there, in addition to the main term. You get the idea. But your intent should be to make it make sense.

Related: How to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO

What constitutes a good page headline?

Conversely, your page headline needs to entice the reader to read on, to want more information. A lot of great headlines will invoke curiosity, promise solutions, and inject emotions.

Satisfying the needs of the reader is your primary aim here, and if you can do that in a short, pithy way so much the better.

“How to write a novel in 30 days and stay married.” This is a title you might click through to read. It makes a promise, delivers urgency and hints at humor.

Check out this infographic by Neil Patel from Quick Sprout about how to create better headlines.

Making the Two become One

Many times it's a choice you have to make: is this piece designed to rank well for the ages, or is it something that you may be using socially, or driving paid traffic to. It's not that you can't have both, but sometimes the intersect between SEO and enticing titles is quite small. Knowing your purpose for the piece can help you decide which route to take.

By Google's own admission, they make between 500-600 changes to the algorithm every year, so being aware of all of them and how they affect your site can be a full time job. If you're frustrated trying to keep up with all the changes that take place within the Google Local search space, then take heart, you're not alone!

If your head starts spinning at the mere mention of things like Pigeon, the Local Carousel, and MobileGeddon, then we have good news for you.

We've assembled a list of 7 local SEO best practices you can use when it comes to optimizing your pages for local SEO. Most won't require a huge technical effort, but can yield significantly better results for you if you get them done!

7 Easy to do Local SEO Best Practices

1 – Don't stop link building

But do it naturally! Make sure you are creating awesome content that is getting shared as widely as possible, and watch the links flow in. These are the best types of links you can acquire.

Did you know that Google warned us about link building?

Google's webmaster trends analyst, John Mueller, recommends you do not focus on link building and if you do, it may lead to more harm for your web site than anything good. ~ Search Engine Land

Watch this video, particularly at the 55 minute and 40 second mark, to better understand the statement.

Related: See How to Build Better backlinks in 2015!

2 – Be sure to GEO-target your pages

The Pigeon update was all about preferring local content over global when possible. Make it possible on your pages with local geo-modifiers.

Do you know what is geo-targeting? Learn more about geo-targeting from a post by Kissmetrics: Increase Conversions with Geo Targeting.

3 – Keep getting citations

These still matter, but it's again more about quality and accuracy than it is about the number. Strive for the best you can find.

4 – Solicit customer reviews

This is the highest form of social proof available, and studies are showing that the overwhelming majority (90%) consult product reviews before purchasing. Ask your present customers; they'll usually be more than happy to comply.

Related: Managing Unfavorable Reviews in a Favorable Way

5 – Use Google My Business

Google's local business tool suite is an remarkable tool you'll want to be fully invested in. There are so many ways this helps your business, but one of the main ones is being able to easily manage reviews.

Personally, we're using Google My Business. Please check out our BWM Google+ page.

6 – Use local images

Make sure you are using your own local images and that they are geo-tagged for your locations. This is a local ranking signal for Google, and will help you in a variety of ways with Google. Simply name your images properly and you're good to go.

7 – Be social

Yet another Google search signal, giving your audience the opportunity to share your content by including social media icons on your pages and content is a no-brainer. Give your content a chance to be seen outside your walls!

Using Google analytics can be a daunting experience for the inexperienced, and as such many business owners forego it altogether. This is a mistake. Making friends with this magnificent tool is the beginning of understanding how and why your website is performing the way it is, and gives you remarkable insight as to how to correct things moving forward.

Everyone has to start somewhere, so in order to keep things simple, we've knocked it down to 5 reports within analytics you'll want to watch. This is doable, and will give you a glimpse into seeing just how powerful this tool can be for you.

5 Google Analytics reports you'll want to view

1 – Search queries

Google Analytics reports used to show more keyword data than it does now, but a very useful way to get some of this intelligence is by viewing the search queries report. You should have your Google Webmaster account linked to your Analytics for this to work properly.

After you do that, you can see valuable data such as the keywords you are currently ranking for, the amount of impressions they get, and the click-through rate on that Google Analytics report.

2 – Mobile device use

If your site is not optimized well for mobile, and Google has given us plenty of warning about an April 21st, 2015 algorithm change that will hurt sites that are not; this report shows you which pages are doing well with mobile.

3 – Referring sites

Knowing which sites are sending you traffic (and links) on an ongoing basis is something you'll want to check regularly. If that traffic begins to dip, you'll want to know why, and see if there is a fix, such as a bad link, dated content or other reasons.

4 – Session information

Photo Credit: Flickr/Blue Fountain Media

A report showing you data detailing how much time a visitor spends on your site, and on which pages and how long they are there. Since time on site and page is a significant element in the search algorithm, this is highly prized information. Know how a session is defined in Analytics here.

5 – Raw page views and exits

This is how many times your pages are viewed. Closely related is the pages where visitors exit the site from: you want to know this and investigate why.

Keeping a watchful eye on these basic Google Analytics reports will help you stay informed as to how well your pages are doing, and go a long way toward helping you better optimize your business.