Does an SEO company offer conversion rate optimization?
Some do and some do not, so read the proposal rather than assume. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the work of getting more of the visitors who reach your site to take the action you want, such as calling, booking, or buying. It sits next to SEO but draws on different skills: user experience, analytics, and structured testing. A company may include it in its SEO service, sell it as a separate service, hand it to a partner, or not offer it at all. Each can be legitimate, as long as the proposal says which one applies and who is responsible for turning visits into results.
Where SEO ends and CRO begins
SEO brings people from search to your pages. CRO works on what happens after they arrive. Some work serves both: a page that answers the search clearly is what searchers came for and what visitors need before they act. But changing a form, testing two versions of a page, or reworking a checkout is CRO, and it needs someone who can design a test, read the results honestly, and change the site.
The ways companies provide it
- CRO included in the SEO retainer, which may be limited to recommendations on the pages the SEO work targets.
- CRO as a separate service with its own fee, testing tools, and staff.
- CRO through a partner the company coordinates, with the partner named in the proposal.
- No CRO, with the company saying so plainly and the gap left for you or another provider to fill.
The first option is the one to read most carefully. “Conversion recommendations” in an SEO retainer can mean a short list of suggestions with nobody responsible for testing or building them.
What the proposal should say
If CRO is included, the proposal should name the conversions being optimized, how the current rate will be measured before anything changes, who chooses what to test and on what evidence, which testing tool will be used, who makes the changes on your site, and how results will be reported, including tests that fail.
The tool line is worth checking. Google’s notice on the Google Optimize sunset states that “Google Optimize and Optimize 360 are no longer available as of September 30, 2023.” A proposal that still lists Google Optimize as its testing tool was not written recently, or not written with care.
Ask, too, whether your traffic is enough to run split tests on the pages in question. Where it is not, honest CRO work relies on before-and-after comparisons and user research rather than claiming test results it cannot produce.
If the company does not offer it
Ask who will cover the gap. The company may refer you to a CRO specialist or work alongside one you hire, sharing analytics access and agreeing who changes which pages. Settle that before work starts, so the traffic the SEO work earns does not arrive at pages nobody is responsible for improving.