by Cathy Gray | May 13, 2026 | Business, eCommerce, Marketing
Two companies sell the same products, to the same customers, in the same geography.
One gets roughly 2,700 organic visitors at its peak. The other gets 58,800 consistently.
I pulled their website data side by side. The gap isn’t random.
Branded vs. Non-branded Traffic
Branded search means someone typing in the company’s name, non-branded is everything else.
Company A gets 17.6% of its traffic from branded searches while Company B gets 3.3%.
What this means for Company A: Most of the people finding them online already know they exist. That’s not bad, it’s great, but it means the website is functioning more like a business card than a sales channel. It’s not bringing in new customers. It’s serving the ones they already have.
What this means for Company B: Almost everyone finding them had no idea who they were before they searched. They looked for a product or a solution and Company B showed up. That’s how online revenue grows, strangers becoming customers.
Comparing the two companies: Company A has a stronger brand recognition, while Company B is lacking in this area. Neither are bad by the way, only areas to improve. If Company A’s business plan is to grow, they would need to concentrate their marketing efforts to gaining new customers through their website. Company B wants to grow, then they will need to work on brand recognition for repeat business.
Real Estate Space On Google
Beyond the standard list of links, Google serves AI Overviews, featured snippets, and other answer features that appear before anyone scrolls. Showing up in those placements means more visibility on the same page.
Company A appears in AI Overviews 0.2% of the time. Company B appears there 2.2% of the time, eleven times more often. Company B also captures 7.2% of Other SERP Features compared to Company A’s 2%.
What this means for Company A: They’re showing up in the standard link list and not much else. Every search results page has more real estate than that: featured boxes, AI-generated answers, quick-answer panels. Not being in them means competitors who are take up more of the page before a buyer ever sees Company A’s name.
What this means for Company B: They’re getting found in more places on the same page. Not just a link in a list: also in the AI answer, the featured box, the quick panel. More placements per search means more chances to get the click.
Comparing the two companies: Company B has a clear advantage here, but this is also the area that changes fastest. AI Overviews and SERP features are relatively new. Company A isn’t locked out, they’re just not there yet. Getting into these placements requires the kind of content that answers specific questions, which is a solvable problem.
Keyword and Customer Intent Breakdown
Keyword and customer intent describes what a searcher is trying to do. Informational means they’re researching, they have a question and want an answer. Navigational means they’re using Google to find a specific company or page they already know about, essentially using the search bar as a shortcut instead of typing a web address. Commercial means they’re comparing options and getting close to a decision. Transactional means they’re ready to buy right now.
Company A has 57.1% of its keywords in the Commercial category (1,700 keywords) but only generates 164 visits from them. Navigational sits at 2.6% with 78 keywords and 81 visits. Company B’s largest bucket is Informational at 69% of keywords, driving 14,000 visits. Company B’s Navigational is 0.9% with 146 keywords and 710 visits. Company B earns 4,400 visits from commercial keywords compared to Company A’s 164.
What this means for Company A: They’re targeting the right searches, people close to a buying decision. The problem is they’re showing up on page 5. The keywords are right. The authority to rank for them isn’t built yet, so the traffic isn’t coming. The navigational traffic is small but functional, people who already know them can find them. That’s the floor, not the ceiling.
What this means for Company B: The informational content came first: articles, guides, answers to questions buyers ask before they’re ready to buy. That content built credibility with Google over time. The commercial traffic followed. Company B’s navigational traffic drives 710 visits from only 146 keywords. The people who are looking for them specifically are finding them without friction.
Comparing the two companies: Company A went straight for the buying-intent terms without building the foundation. Company B built the foundation and the commercial rankings came with it. On navigational, both companies are relatively small in this category as it grows naturally as brand recognition builds. It’s a byproduct of doing the other things right, not something you chase directly.
Where Their Rankings Actually Sit
Organic position refers to where a page appears in Google’s search results. Position 1-3 means top of page one. Position 51-100 means page 5 through page 10. Who really scrolls that far for what they are looking for?
Company A’s rankings are concentrated in positions 51-100. Only 52 keywords sit in positions 4-10. Company B has volume across all position ranges with meaningful presence in positions 1-3, 4-10, and 11-20.
What this means for Company A: The majority of what they rank for is buried. Less than 1% of searchers go past page one. If most of a company’s keywords live in positions 51-100, they’re essentially not ranking from a traffic standpoint — the content exists, Google has indexed it, but it’s not being seen.
What this means for Company B: They’re in the game. Page one and page two are where clicks happen. There are still plenty of keywords in lower positions, which means there’s room to grow. The foundation is there and traffic is coming in at the positions that matter.
Comparing the two companies: This is the most direct reflection of the content strategy difference. Rankings don’t move overnight and they don’t move without a reason. Company B earned those positions over time. Company A’s path forward is building the content that justifies better positions. Google will follow.
AI Search: The Next Layer
AI visibility measures how often AI tools, ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, AI Mode, and Gemini, mention a company and cite its pages when answering questions. Cited pages is the number the AI is actually pulling from as a source. Since both of these companies are eCommerce, this is important because you want your products to show here.
Company A: 129 total mentions, 76 cited pages. Company B: 258 total mentions, 440 cited pages.
What this means for Company A: When someone asks an AI tool about the products they sell, their content isn’t what gets pulled. 76 cited pages means the AI has a narrow view of who they are and what they know. As more buyers start using AI to research purchases before they ever visit a website, being absent from those answers is the same as being absent from Google page one was five years ago.
What this means for Company B: They’re being used as a source. 440 cited pages means AI tools are pulling from their content when they answer questions in a product category. That’s not luck. It’s a direct result of having published content that answers real questions.
Comparing the two companies: The mention count is 2x. The cited pages gap is nearly 6x. That gap traces back to the same root cause as everything else in this comparison: content volume and content type. Company B answered more questions. AI tools have more to cite. Company A can close this, but it starts with the same step: creating content that answers what buyers are actually asking.
What This Actually Means
Company A has a keyword strategy. They know what terms matter in their category. They haven’t built the authority for Google to rank them where those terms pay off.
Company B made one decision early that changed everything. They answered questions before asking for the sale and that content became their rankings. Those rankings became their traffic. That traffic is now their AI citations.
This is a sequence problem, not a volume problem. You can’t skip the foundation and rank for competitive terms. Google doesn’t work that way. Neither does AI.
The traffic gap between these two companies isn’t about budget or luck. It’s about order of operations. That gap is going to widen, not close, without a content investment.
If you see your business as Company A, Company B, or somewhere in between and want to grow, let’s talk. ☕
Contact Me or View My Portfolio
by Cathy Gray | May 12, 2026 | SEO, eCommerce, Marketing
Everyone’s Talking About AIO and GEO. It’s Still Just SEO.
There’s always something new in marketing. A new platform, a new acronym, a new reason to panic and wonder if everything you’ve been doing is suddenly wrong.
Right now, that thing is AIO and GEO.
AIO: AI Optimization. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization. Both are about showing up in AI-generated answers, the kind you see when you search on Google and get a summary at the top before any links, or when you ask ChatGPT a question and it recommends a business or product. The conversation around these has picked up fast, and part of why is that how people search has genuinely changed.
Searches are longer, more specific, and more conversational. People aren’t typing “plumber Atlanta” anymore. They’re asking “who’s the best emergency plumber in Atlanta that works on weekends.” The questions are more detailed because people expect better answers, and AI search is built to meet that expectation.
With that shift comes the usual wave of “you need to completely rethink your strategy.”
You don’t. Here’s why.
What AIO and GEO Actually Are
When someone types a question into Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, or any AI-powered search tool, the answer they get is pulled from somewhere. It’s not made up out of thin air. The AI is reading content, evaluating it, and deciding what’s credible and relevant enough to surface.
That process sounds new. The inputs are not.
AI tools pull from content that is well-written, clearly structured, and trustworthy. They favor sources that answer questions directly. They look at how a site is organized, whether it loads properly, and whether other credible sources reference it. They pay attention to whether the content actually matches what the user is asking.
Sound familiar? It should. That’s SEO. And more specifically, that’s user intent: understanding what someone actually wants when they type something into a search bar, and making sure your content delivers it.
The Fundamentals Haven’t Moved
Here’s the short version of what has always driven search visibility, whether you’re talking about Google in 2015 or an AI answer engine in 2025:
Answer the question people are actually asking. Write clearly. Make your site easy to use and navigate. Build credibility through real information and external references. Stay consistent.
User intent sits at the center of all of it, and as searches get more complex, intent becomes harder to ignore. People are asking layered questions now. They want answers that account for their specific situation, location, budget, or timeline. A generic page that broadly covers a topic isn’t going to cut it the way it once did. Someone searching “what causes low water pressure” is in research mode. Someone searching “plumber near me emergency” is ready to call. Someone searching “how much does a water heater replacement cost in Atlanta for an older home” is somewhere in between: comparing options, factoring in their specific circumstances, not quite ready to commit. The more specific the search, the more specific the content needs to be to match it.
That’s the customer journey. And the businesses that have content built for each stage of it are the ones holding up through every algorithm shift, AI-driven or otherwise.
If you want to see how this translates into actual strategy, here’s how I approach SEO work.
What This Looks Like in the Real World
Let’s say you own a plumbing company in Atlanta. A homeowner asks ChatGPT “who are the best plumbers in Atlanta for emergency calls.” That person is at the bottom of the funnel. They have a problem right now and they need someone they can trust immediately.
The AI isn’t guessing who to recommend. It’s pulling from business listings, review platforms, and content that speaks directly to emergency services, response time, and service area. If your website has a page that clearly explains what you do, who you serve, and what customers say about you: you’re a candidate. If your Google Business Profile is accurate and your reviews are solid: you’re a stronger one.
But you also need content for earlier in the journey. The homeowner who isn’t in crisis yet, just researching, is searching things like “how to prevent frozen pipes” or “signs your water heater is failing.” If your site answers those questions, you build familiarity and credibility before they ever need to call someone. When they do need to call, you’re already the name they recognize.
That full-funnel presence is what AI tools are picking up on. Not just the bottom of the journey, but the trail of useful, trustworthy content that got someone there.
Same principle applies to B2B. A procurement manager searching Perplexity for “industrial hose suppliers in the Southeast” is likely mid-funnel: they know what they need, they’re evaluating options. The AI is going to surface suppliers who have clear product pages, defined service areas, and some level of authority built over time. A supplier who also has content explaining lead times, material specs, or how to choose the right hose for a specific application? That’s someone who showed up earlier in the journey too. That content compounds.
For eCommerce specifically, I covered the revenue impact of this in depth in SEO in eCommerce: Unlocking Revenue Potential.”
Structure: The Part Most Business Owners Haven’t Thought About
This is where it gets a little more under the hood, but it’s worth understanding even at a high level because it directly affects whether AI can read and use your content.
Header Hierarchy
Your website pages have heading levels: H1, H2, H3, and so on. Think of them like an outline. The H1 is your main topic, the H2s are your major points, and H3s break those down further. When AI tools scan a page, they use that structure to understand what the page is about and how the information is organized. A page with one giant block of text and no headers is hard for AI to parse quickly. A page with a clear, logical heading structure makes it easy to pull a relevant answer.
I documented a real example of this in a behind-the-scenes look at a site redesign, where reorganizing the navigation and content structure was part of the ranking strategy.
Most business owners don’t know this is happening. Their web designer built the site to look good, which is fine, but if the heading structure underneath is a mess, it’s working against you in search.
FAQ Sections
AI-generated answers are heavily triggered by questions. If someone asks ChatGPT a specific question and you have a page on your site that directly answers it in a clearly labeled FAQ section, you’re in a strong position to be surfaced. FAQ sections also tend to match the way people actually search now: in full questions rather than short keywords. Adding one to a service page or a blog post isn’t complicated, and the payoff in both traditional SEO and AI visibility is real.
Schema Markup
This one is the most technical, but the concept is straightforward. Schema markup is a small piece of code added to your website that tells search engines exactly what type of content is on a page. It’s like attaching a label to your content so there’s no guessing involved. A local business schema tells Google your name, address, phone number, and hours. A review schema surfaces your star rating directly in search results. An FAQ schema can get your questions and answers displayed right in the search result without someone even clicking through to your site.
You don’t need to write this code yourself: it’s something a developer or a marketing person handles. But knowing it exists and asking whether your site has it is a reasonable question to bring to whoever manages your website. If the answer is no, it’s a gap worth closing.
These three things, clear header structure, FAQ sections, and schema markup, have been best practices in SEO for years. They matter more now because AI tools rely on them heavily to decide what content is clear, credible, and worth surfacing.
So what else needs to change
Beyond structure, a few other things are worth paying attention to.
Match the intent, not just the keyword. A page optimized for “emergency plumber Atlanta” needs to feel urgent and action-oriented. A page targeting “how to prevent frozen pipes” needs to be genuinely informative. The words alone don’t win anymore. The content has to actually fit what the person is looking for at that moment in their journey.
Credibility signals carry more weight. Reviews, third-party mentions, directory listings, and backlinks from credible sources have always helped SEO. They carry even more weight now because AI tools are evaluating trustworthiness, not just relevance.
None of this requires starting over. It requires doing the foundational work well.
The Real Risk Isn’t Falling Behind on AIO
The real risk is getting distracted by the new terminology and neglecting the basics. Businesses that abandon a content strategy that was working to chase the latest optimization trend tend to lose ground, not gain it.
If your SEO foundation is solid: good content mapped to real user intent, a well-organized site, accurate business information, and credibility built over time: you are already set up to show up in AI results. You may need to refine a few things. You probably don’t need to blow anything up.
If your foundation isn’t solid, that’s the actual problem. And it was the problem before AIO and GEO entered the conversation.
The Terminology Changes. The Work Doesn’t
Every few years, the marketing industry rebrands the fundamentals. Sometimes it highlights a real shift in how people search. Sometimes it’s noise.
AIO and GEO are a real enough shift: AI is genuinely changing how search results are presented and how people find information. But the underlying question hasn’t changed. Is your business showing up where your customers are looking, at the right moment in their journey, and when they get there, does your content give them a reason to trust you? Getting found is only half the equation.
If the answer is yes, you’re in better shape than you think. If the answer is no, that’s the work: and it starts with SEO.
Getting found is only half the equation. What happens after the click is where conversion rate optimization comes in.”
Want to talk through where your site stands? That’s exactly the kind of thing I dig into
by Cathy Gray | May 8, 2026 | Marketing, eCommerce
A recruiter reached out about an eCommerce manager role. I did what I also do and did some research on the company’s website.
It loaded fine. Clean layout. Products visible. Nothing obviously broken.
Then I ran it through a Shopify theme detector.
The theme wasn’t just old. It had been deprecated by the developer and was no longer listed in the Shopify theme store.
The site didn’t know it was behind. It just kept running.
What a Deprecated Shopify Theme Actually Means
Deprecated means the developer has stopped maintaining it. No bug fixes. No compatibility updates. No support. When Shopify ships platform changes: and they do, constantly: a deprecated theme doesn’t get updated to keep up.
That’s different from a theme that’s just old but still maintained. Deprecated means it’s off the list and the developer has moved on.
Your store can keep running on it indefinitely. That’s the part that makes it easy to miss.
Why This Matters More Right Now
Shopify has been aggressively building out its platform: AI-assisted checkout, personalization tools, merchant analytics, updated Liquid architecture. A lot of that functionality is tied to supported, actively maintained themes built on Online Store 2.0.
Platform limitations don’t just affect features—they can quietly drag down your search visibility too, which I cover in more detail in SEO in eCommerce: Unlocking Revenue Potential.”
If your theme is deprecated, you’re not getting those updates. You might not even know what you’re missing because the store still loads and products still check out.
There’s also a security angle. Older themes may rely on deprecated APIs or JavaScript libraries that Shopify has phased out. They don’t break immediately. They just accumulate risk until something forces the issue.
The gap between what your store could do and what it’s actually doing gets wider every time Shopify ships something new.
And if your theme controls how product titles and identifiers display, it’s worth asking the right questions about your product data—like whether your SKU belongs in the title at all.”
This Isn’t a Just Shopify problem
Every CMS does this. Themes get abandoned. Plugins stop being maintained. Versions go end-of-life.
WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce: none of them are immune. The difference is how quietly it happens. There’s no countdown timer. No email that says your theme stops being supported in 60 days. It just falls off the list and keeps running until something breaks: or until someone who knows what to look for actually checks.
Most business owners find out one of two ways: something stops working, or someone tells them.
How to Check Your Own Site in About 10 minutes
Shopify: A theme detector tool will tell you what theme you’re running and who built it. Search for it in the Shopify Theme Store. If it’s not there, go directly to the developer’s site and look for deprecation notices or a “no longer supported” label. Check your Shopify theme through shopthemedetector.com.
Enter your website and if you see legacy then it’s probably no longer supported and taken off the themes list on Shopify.
WooCommerce / WordPress: Check your theme and plugin update logs. If either hasn’t had an update in 12 or more months is worth a closer look. Cross-reference it in the WordPress theme and plugin repository to see if the developer is still active.
Magento / BigCommerce: Check your version against the platform’s current release notes. Magento has a long list of versions that have hit end-of-life. If you’re not on a supported version, you’re not getting security patches: which is a separate, bigger problem.
None of this requires a developer. It requires about 10 minutes and knowing where to look.
The Site Looking Fine is Not the Same as the Site Being Fine
This is the part that tends to get overlooked. A store that loads, displays products, and processes orders can still be quietly falling behind: in security, in performance, in the features your customers expect and your competitors already have.
The company that recruiter mentioned almost certainly didn’t know. The site looked fine to them too.
If this is making you reconsider your setup altogether, I put together a full guide on the factors to consider when choosing an eCommerce platform.”
If you haven’t looked under the hood in a while, it’s worth 10 minutes to check. ☕
If you want to see the broader context for how this fits into running a well-built eCommerce site, here’s an overview of the eCommerce work I do.
A store running on a solid, maintained theme is also better positioned for conversion rate optimization—platform gaps create friction that no amount of CRO testing can fix.
by Cathy Gray | Apr 27, 2026 | eCommerce, Marketing
Recently I was in an online discussion about product titles in eCommerce. Someone made the claim that putting a SKU in the product title messes up your schema and just looks ugly. I disagree: at least not across the board.
The schema argument is a partial truth at best. And “looks ugly” depends entirely on who’s looking at it. A purchasing agent searching a part number doesn’t care how it looks in the title. They care that it showed up.
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. It never is in eCommerce. The right call depends on who your buyer is, how they search, and what industry you’re in. That’s what this post breaks down.
SKUs in the Product Title
B2B buyers don’t browse. They already know what they need before they search. They have a part number, a spec sheet, or a reorder list. The title’s job isn’t to sell them: it’s to show up when they search.
- They’re sourcing, not shopping: A purchasing agent searching a SKU has already made the decision. They need to find the product and get a quote. If your title has the part number and a competitor’s doesn’t, you show up and they don’t. That’s it.
- Real traffic from real part number searches: Running eCommerce for an industrial hose and hydraulics distributor, exact part number searches drove a measurable chunk of organic traffic. Not accidental visits. Buyers who knew exactly what they needed.
- Multiple distributors carry the same product: In industrial and technical markets, you’re rarely the only source. The SKU is the differentiator. It’s how a buyer finds you instead of someone else.
- Reorders are real: B2B customers come back. When someone searches the part number they ordered six months ago, your title either shows up or it doesn’t. General keyword optimization doesn’t solve that.
- It helps in Google Shopping too: Having the SKU in the title improves product matching in Merchant Center. Paid and organic both benefit from the same high-intent search.
- Put it at the end: The SKU doesn’t need to lead the title. Front-loading a part number that means nothing to a casual browser hurts CTR. At the end it catches part-number searches without pushing your primary keywords out of the visible window.
- These buyers convert: Someone searching a SKU isn’t comparing options. They’re checking availability and price. The decision is already made.
SKUs Not in the Product Title
This argument isn’t wrong. It’s just built for a different kind of store.
- General shoppers don’t search by SKU: Someone looking for wireless earbuds or a new jacket isn’t typing a part number. A SKU in that title takes up space that could go toward something they actually searched.
- Character space matters, especially on mobile: Titles truncate around 50 to 65 characters. On mobile it happens faster. If a SKU is pushing a real product descriptor out of the visible window, that’s a click you’re losing.
- Consumer brands don’t build recognition through codes: If someone finds you through a keyword search and sees a string of numbers and letters in the title, that’s not helping them connect with what you’re selling.
- The trade-off is real: A SKU runs anywhere from 6 to 15 characters. In a consumer catalog those characters could be a color, a size, a material: something a shopper actually typed.
- The advice is valid, just not universal: It comes from people working in consumer eCommerce. It’s right for that world. The problem is when it gets handed down as a blanket rule for every industry.
Addressing the Schema Argument
SKU belongs in your structured data. That’s not up for debate. But that’s a separate conversation from your title tag. Both can include the SKU and both should, if your buyer is searching for it. The person in that discussion conflated two different things: where Google reads product identifiers for indexing purposes, and what shows up in a search result title. One doesn’t cancel out the other.
If you’re using WooCommerce or a similar platform, your SKU should absolutely be in your product schema. That helps Google understand and match your product. But nothing in schema guidance says it can’t also live in the title. They serve different purposes and can work together.
The Real Question: Who is the Customer?
This is where the debate usually falls apart. Most of the “no SKU in the title” advice comes from practitioners working in consumer eCommerce. That world has different rules. A shopper browsing for shoes or skincare isn’t searching by part number. That advice is correct for that context.
But apply it to a B2B catalog selling industrial parts, hydraulic fittings, or hardware components and it breaks down completely. The buyer is different. The search behavior is different. The intent is different.
In B2C, the title needs to speak to someone discovering your product for the first time. In B2B, the title often needs to speak to someone who already knows exactly what they want and just needs to find where to get it. Those are two completely different jobs.
The Verdict
The debate over SKUs in product titles isn’t really about SEO rules. It’s about knowing your buyer.
If your customer is a general consumer discovering a product for the first time, SKUs in the title are wasted space. Use every character for something they actually searched.
If your customer is a B2B buyer, a purchasing agent, or anyone sourcing a specific part in a technical industry, the SKU might be the most important thing in your title. It’s not clutter: it’s the exact search term that gets you found.
The mistake isn’t following one camp or the other. The mistake is applying consumer eCommerce logic to a B2B catalog, or vice versa. Know who is buying from you, how they search, and what they need to see to click. That’s what drives the decision, not a universal rule someone handed down in a forum. Keyword research is where this decision lives—and if you haven’t mapped out how your actual customers are searching, the eCommerce SEO breakdown is a good place to start.”
Schema handles what it handles. Your title tag handles what it handles. Both can include the SKU and both should, if your buyer is searching for it.
So Should It Be Included?
Follow the questions and answers to help you decide, you don’t have to know the ins and outs of the technical areas, just simple logic.
If you’re building or auditing a product catalog and want a second set of eyes, this is the eCommerce work I do.”
Schema is only part of it—if your store is running on outdated theme architecture, even correct data can get stripped or ignored. This piece on deprecated Shopify themes covers exactly what that looks like.
by Cathy Gray | Apr 14, 2026 | Business, Marketing, Portfolio, Professional Articles
Custom hose assemblies are not a simple order. There are a lot of variables involved, and when customers came in without the right information, the whole process stalled before it even started.
I spent seven years at Atlanta Rubber & Hydraulics before the company was acquired by Tipco. In that time, I saw the same gap come up over and over: customers needed something custom, but they were missing critical details. The result was back-and-forth, delays, and frustration on all sides.
The fix was simpler than you might expect. It was a flyer.
The problem it was built to solve
The S.T.A.M.P.E.D. acronym is an industry standard for specifying hose assemblies: Size, Temperature, Application, Media, Pressure, Ends, and Delivery. Every custom order needs answers to all seven. Miss one and the order can’t move forward.
The framework existed. What didn’t exist was a clean, branded piece that put it in front of customers in a way that was easy to understand and easy to act on. So I built one from scratch: the content, the layout, and the design.
How it worked across the business
Once it existed, it found its way into four different use cases without anyone having to force it.
For customers researching before they called, it lived on the website. They could look up what they needed before picking up the phone, which meant fewer calls spent gathering basic information.
For the sales team, it became a reference tool during customer conversations. Instead of walking through the same seven questions from memory every time, they had something concrete to point to. It kept the process consistent no matter who was handling the call.
For walk-in customers, it was ready at the counter. Someone came in, picked it up, and had a clear checklist of what they needed to pull together before placing their order.
And because it was a clean, professional document, it could be emailed out when needed. One file, used in context.
The takeaway
This wasn’t a complicated project. It was a well-placed piece of content that solved a recurring problem across multiple touchpoints at once.
When you take the time to identify where the friction actually lives and build something that addresses it directly, you don’t need four separate solutions. Build it once, do it well, and it works forever.
This kind of friction is a process problem first and a content problem second—here are some other examples of small process changes that made a real difference.
This project is part of a broader body of work—see more examples in my portfolio.
If your business has a communication gap that a well-built piece of content could solve, that’s exactly the kind of work I do.
by Cathy Gray | May 9, 2024 | Marketing, Business, eCommerce
What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?
Most businesses focus on getting more traffic. CRO focuses on what happens after they arrive: increasing the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your site, like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting more information.
Top view: CRO maximizes the outcomes from your existing website traffic: enhances revenue, and provides deeper insights into customer behavior, all without increasing spending on new traffic acquisition.
This guide will explain the essentials of CRO, its significance in your digital marketing strategy, and its role in driving sustainable business growth.
This is not a how-to guide for CRO or an in-depth technical breakdown. The goal is to give those within an organization a better understanding in simple terms and in ways that are easily digestible.
Why CRO Matters to Leadership
Impact on Revenue
Conversion Rate Optimization is not just about tweaking a website. It’s 100% about directly impacting your bottom line.
By refining the user journey on your site, CRO strategies increase the likelihood of visitors completing a purchase, signing up for a service, or taking whatever action matters most to your business. Effective CRO means more results from your existing traffic without the proportional cost of acquiring new customers.
Cost Efficiency
Investing time and energy into CRO is often more cost-effective than traditional methods of increasing traffic like paid advertising or PPC. By optimizing what you already have, you get more out of your existing marketing efforts and budget. This approach improves return on investment without requiring additional spend to bring new visitors in.
Insights into Customer Behavior
CRO digs into how users actually interact with your site, giving leadership real data on customer behavior and preferences. Understanding what drives conversions and what stops them helps refine marketing strategies, product offerings, and business decisions: aligning them more closely with what customers actually need.
Understanding Conversion Rate Optimization
Definition of CRO
Conversion Rate Optimization is a structured strategy focused on increasing the number of visitors who take a desired action: making a purchase, filling out a form, or signing up for a newsletter. It starts with analyzing user behavior to identify what’s working, what isn’t, and where the friction is.
Key Components of CRO
Each of these areas supports the others. Together they improve the effectiveness of your website and help you hit your business goals.
Website Design: Layout and aesthetics play a direct role in how users interact with your content. A well-designed site looks professional and makes it easier for visitors to find what they need quickly.
User Experience (UX): This covers everything from site speed and navigation to CTA buttons and overall ease of use. The goal is a seamless experience for every visitor.
At Bristol Facilities, heatmap data from HotJar showed exactly where users were losing interest. Content was reorganized and the site design was adjusted based on what real users were actually doing, not assumptions. KPIs improved as a result.
Analytics: Data is the foundation of CRO. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console show where visitors come from, what they do on your site, and where you lose them.
At Atlanta Rubber & Hydraulics, Google Analytics and Search Console drove every decision: tracking where customers dropped off in the purchase funnel, which product pages had high traffic but low conversions, and where checkout created friction. That data pointed to the fixes.
Customer Feedback: Direct input from users complements the numbers. Surveys, user testing, and feedback tools provide qualitative context that helps explain what the data shows.
Segmentation and Personalization: Not all visitors are the same. Identifying different audience segments allows for more targeted messaging and experiences, which can significantly improve conversion rates.
Managing both B2B and B2C customers on the same eCommerce platform meant the experience couldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Pricing, messaging, and product visibility were adjusted based on customer type so each segment saw what was relevant to them.
Copywriting and Content: The quality of your copy directly impacts conversions. Clear, benefits-focused content that speaks to visitor needs guides them toward action.
Product descriptions on an industrial eCommerce site aren’t glamorous, but they matter. Rewriting them for clarity and search intent meant fewer returns, better qualified buyers, and more completed purchases.
Landing Page Optimization: Pages designed to convert should be clear, focused, and free of unnecessary distractions. A strong value proposition and a compelling CTA are non-negotiable.
Building out a separate site for a specific customer segment is landing page optimization at a larger scale. The goal was the same: remove friction, make the path to purchase obvious, and match the experience to the audience.
Psychological Triggers: Principles like scarcity, social proof, and trust signals can meaningfully improve conversion rates when applied thoughtfully.
On an industrial eCommerce site, trust signals matter more than flash. Clear return policies, accurate stock information, and straightforward shipping costs all reduce hesitation at checkout. Removing that friction moves buyers forward.
Fundamental CRO Strategies
A/B Testing
One of the core techniques in CRO is A/B testing: comparing two versions of a page or element to see which performs better. Each version is shown to a similar audience at the same time, and the version with the higher conversion rate wins. This gives you data-backed clarity on what actually moves the needle.
One important rule: test one change at a time. Testing multiple variables at once muddies the data and makes it impossible to know what actually worked.
Google Merchant Center is a practical example of this. Testing product titles, descriptions, and images one change at a time showed what drove more clicks and conversions. Small adjustments, tracked carefully, added up.
User Experience (UX) Optimization
An optimized UX means visitors find your site easy to navigate, fast to load, and worth staying on. Longer visits and more interactions are critical steps toward higher conversions.
An often-overlooked UX issue is the platform running underneath the design—a deprecated theme can quietly undermine the experience even when the store looks fine on the surface.”
Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)
A clear CTA guides users toward completing a desired action. It should be visually distinct, strategically placed, and direct. Vague or buried CTAs lose conversions that were already within reach.
On the Atlanta Rubber & Hydraulics eCommerce site, product pages were reviewed for clarity: were the Add to Cart and Request a Quote buttons easy to find? Were they in the right place? Small adjustments to placement and copy made a measurable difference in completed actions.
Advanced Techniques in CRO
Personalization
Personalization tailors the site experience to individual users based on data like browsing behavior, purchase history, and previous interactions. A more relevant experience increases engagement and the likelihood of conversion.
Segmentation
Segmentation divides your audience into groups based on criteria like demographics, behavior, or purchase history, and targets each group with relevant messaging. For leadership, effective segmentation leads to more efficient marketing and better returns.
Technology Tools
A range of tools support CRO efforts by showing how users interact with your site. Heatmaps reveal where users click and how far they scroll. Behavior analytics tools track paths and drop-off points. These tools are essential for ongoing optimization.
Tools like HotJar, Google Analytics, and Search Console were used consistently across client work to identify where users were dropping off and what pages needed attention. The data pointed the direction: the strategy did the rest.
Hiring a CRO Expert For Your Team
What to Look for in a CRO Expert
When hiring for CRO, look for candidates with a mix of technical knowledge, analytical ability, and creative thinking. Key areas to evaluate:
Analytical Skills: Strong ability to pull meaningful insights from data. Familiarity with tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics is essential.
Technical Expertise: Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and responsive design to implement changes effectively.
User Experience Design: A solid understanding of UX principles and best practices, including intuitive navigation and accessibility.
Testing and Experimentation: Hands-on experience designing and running A/B tests and other experiments to validate what works.
Communication Skills: Ability to explain complex concepts clearly to stakeholders and collaborate across marketing, design, and IT teams.
Problem-Solving Abilities: A proactive, creative approach to diagnosing and solving conversion problems.
The skills above aren’t a wish list: they’re a working description. Analytical skills, UX familiarity, A/B testing, cross-team communication, and problem-solving are areas I’ve applied directly in real eCommerce environments across multiple industries and platforms.
Ready to put CRO to work?
CRO is one of those areas where the work speaks louder than the theory. If you’re looking for someone who has actually done this: auditing pages, reading the data, and making the changes that move the needle, let’s talk. Contact me.
If you want to apply this to your store, here’s an overview of the eCommerce work I’ve done.”
CRO picks up where traffic strategy leaves off. If you’re working on the traffic side of the equation, SEO in eCommerce covers what drives visitors to your site in the first place.
