Wikipedia defines Conversion Rate Optimization as follows.

It is a flawless definition for the side of CRO that I call "Onsite CRO". But did you know that the very first conversion your business makes happens before anyone even visits your website

Think about it for a moment.

How do people first find out about you online? Is it word of mouth, social media or a Google search? 

For someone to visit your website a mini-conversion has just taken place. It is then the job of your website to fulfill a full conversion into an email/live chat contact, in-store visit or phone call to your business. 

For this Conversion Checklist to be a complete guide it has to cover these Offsite CRO factors which we will look at now.

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• Do you have ​a list of researched keywords for your website?
• ​Are you ranking in the top 10 Google results for these phrases?​
  
• Do you have any negative pages about your business on Google?
  
• Have you claimed your Google My Business Listing?
• Have you optimized your website title tags?
• Do you have any negative pages about your business on Google?​
• Have you claimed your Google My Business Listing?
  
• Have you optimized your website title tags?
• Have you optimized Meta-Description tags?
• Have you registered your business on social media profiles?
• Does your social media profiles link to your website?
  
• Do these social media profiles have good images/banners?
• Do you have conversion scripts for dealing with leads?
  
• Does your website load in under 3 seconds?
• Do you have an email marketing database?
• Have you done a re-targeting campaign?

Let's now discuss these offsite action steps in more detail.

One thing you would have noticed from the checklist is that quite a few of the action items are related to SEO. This is deliberate because organic Google traffic is still the highest quality traffic you can get.

Even if you are getting tremendous success on other channels like social media or YouTube, you need a Google strategy otherwise you are wasting the investment of time and money you are putting into your other channels. 

And it's not complicated either for example for a YouTube star channel all you need to do is create a WordPress website with a new post per video you upload and the transcript of the video directly below it. People will love the video and Google will love the transcript and get you more viewers and this is not just theory either as one of my most popular pages uses this exact strategy.

Note: If you are just using social media as your traffic strategy that is a recipe for disaster as social media companies come and go and change the rules on you all time. If you're a social media influencer, I am really glad you have this report as it's imperative to get your brand presence up ideally using WordPress (it's free to use). 

So with that said let's discuss the Google action steps. ​

Step 1 - Keywords 

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Every time you write a piece of content you need to know what keywords relate to the topic or discussion your web page is about. To do this you will need a professional tool like Mangools KWFinder or AHREFS which has a $7 trial where you could do all this research and have content for the next year.

The reason this is important is because if you are not in the top 10 results of Google you are not going to get any traffic, And if you are in the top 10 of Google for a keyword that no one is searching for it's of no use to you either.

This guide is not intending to be a comprehensive SEO guide but it is here to reassure you that if you get this first step right it becomes so much easier to do well. 

The main reason that people think SEO is difficult is misinformation and because they are using the free Google keyword tool which is no longer relevant to people who are not paying Google for ads.

So with that said the best investment you can make is a $7 trial week to AHREFS or $29 for a month of Mangools KWFinder. You are looking for keywords that have high traffic of at least 500 searches per month combined with a low difficulty score or "KD" in the tools above.

My next recommendation is to not spend 5 minutes doing this. You are creating a content marketing plan for the next year so at a minimum you are wanting 12 content pieces with at least 1-3 pillar pieces. A pillar piece is an article of at least 3,000 words that aims to become the definitive voice in your niche - see mine at 

Your keyword research will also be used for your main pages like Home, about and services.

Step 2 - Your Article

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After you have done your keyword research you now can get down to writing your pillar article. 

This article needs to focus on one keyword with minimum traffic of at least 5,000 searches per month. Then have a look at the top 3 rated websites in Google and see how they address the topic and make yours even better and more comprehensive where you can.

Typing the keyword into Amazon books and looking at the negative reviews will give you an idea on the topics and questions that your audience want answers to.

Once you have written the article it is now time to promote it which forms step 3.

Step 3 - Build Links

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The simplest strategy here is to again go to the top 10 results in google and see who linked to them. Using the tool AHREFS or Mangools KWFinder will show you this.

Then all you do is email the people that linked to those top 10 results and tell them why your article is better and what additional topics you covered. Something like.

I see you linked to XYZ. I have written about this topic at <insert link> and have added <this information> which they didn't cover in their article.​​

Some will link back to you, some won't but if your article is higher quality than the top ranking websites, you may not need the same amount of links to rank.​

SEO Conclusion

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By following the three steps of 

1. Keyword Research
2. Writing Pillar Content
3. Building Links

You will be so far ahead of the majority of other online businesses out there and you will see your website dominating the front page of Google.

Rinse and repeat this process at least monthly with new content and you will experience levels of traffic and leads you never imagined possible.

And now you have completed stage 1 of this conversion checklist.

​Next up Onsite CRO

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• Do you have a customer avatar document?
• ​Do you have different landing pages for different traffic?
• Does your website have a visual focus?
• Does your website have too many distractions? Navigation, drop downs. pop-up exit forms, too many call to actions?
• If running an online shop have you got a simple checkout process?
• Do you have a value proposition headline on the homepage?
  
• ​Does your copy value benefits over features?
• Do you tell stories in your web copy?
• Do you have a clear call to action on your homepage?
• Do you have testimonials and a system to collect more?
• Does your website copy address buyer concerns and objections?
• Do you have a guarantee?
• Do you use other social proof?
• Do you have a lead magnet?
• Do you use quizzes or tools as part of your website?
• Have you used Google optimize to A/B test a headline?
• Are you using too many form fields on your website forms?
• Do you have a favicon installed?
• Are you using image sliders on your website? Don't...
• Do you have pictures of your customer testimonials?
• Are you using precise numbers in your copy? 
• Incorporate a trust seal at checkout (Can even design your own)
• Is your website messaging consistent across pages and ads?

• Ask your best clients where they almost tripped up in checkout?
• Do you use offers like free shipping or coupon codes?
• Is your website mobile responsive?
• Do you have external reviews on sites like Yelp, Google and Facebook. Link out to them.
• Is your call to action in the view port of your users? Z or F pattern.​
• Do your web pages have large blocks of text and nothing else?
• Do you break up text with bullets, images and video?
• Do you display your phone number on the website?
  
• Do you prominently display hours of operation on your website and Google My Business?
• Are you using soft language like "If you are interested in?"
• Are you distracting potential clients during checkout with drop down menus and other links?
• Are your videos on sales pages taking people away to YouTube for example?
• Do you use live chat?
• Are you using a visitor feedback tool like Hotjar?
• Have you ever done a website usability test?
• Have you done a click mapping test with CrazyEgg?
• Have you done a customer survey?
• If you have sales people listen to how they close sales and use that for your website which really is just your e-salesman.
• Have you written down your top 5 points you want to communicate to your website visitors?
• Do you have a standard (price sensitive consumers) and premium pricing model?

• Do you have testimonials or features from the media?
• ​Are you testing the wording and design of your call to actions?
• Remove any distracting links that go to places you don't want
• Put captions under your images
• Are you using easy to understand language in your copy?
• Have you tested different fonts to make your page more readable?
• Near the end of copy have bullet points to summarize benefits
• Adding either audio or video to your website is effective for selling products
• Repeat your offer or main benefit on checkout page
• Don't ask for too much information on order forms
• Remind customers of guarantees during checkout
• Have thumbnail photos of products in carts
• Consider using auto suggest text fields like typing to find the correct state or country
• Add trust logos like credit cards you accept and SSL security you use
• Test a new version of your about page with a more friendly personal approach to copy and visuals
• As soon as you make one sale, offer another recommended product or service
• You can use the order confirmation page for this cross sell
• Do you view your website on different browsers?
• Does your site search work and integrate to Google Analytics?