You can’t cover payroll with pageviews.
SEO efforts MUST connect to conversions and revenue. Full stop.
Here’s how I do it:
Discovery > Clicks > Retention > Destinations > Actions
You need to show up, then win the click, then keep that visitor on the page, then carry them to your key pages, then have them take action.
Easy enough, right?
Let’s chop it up:
How to connect the dots in 6 steps
Follow these steps & you’ll be able to draw a dotted line all the way from keywords to your Stripe account.
Step 1: Discoverability
This is where most SEOs spend their time. It’s justified to spend some time here, because if you aren’t showing up in the search results, the rest doesn’t matter. But make sure this isn’t where the efforts stop.
Step 2: Clicks from Search
Copywriting matters—even in SEO. Showing up is only the first step. Once you’re ranking in Google, you need to win the click. Think of your title & description as the ad copy that’ll appeal to a real person searching.
Step 3: Visitor Retention
You won the click—congrats! Now you need to keep them from hitting the back button. The simplest way to think about is reduce friction & minimize time-to-value. Don’t bombard them visitors with above-the-gold CTAs while burying the thing you promised them with your page title.
Step 4: Destination Page Visits
You got them scrolling. Honestly, not easy to do so well done! Your next step is to carry them toward your destination pages. If they entered through an article, think of these destinations as the pages where conversions can happen. Product pages, service pages, demo pages, etc. Weave in some natural, contextual CTAs and you’re in business.
Step 5: Conversions
We’re a little further from true “SEO” territory here, but still massively relevant. If your destination pages aren’t converting, something’s gotta change. Obviously you aren’t going to convert 100% of visitors that hit your destination pages, but if you’re losing far more than you win, it’s worth exploring.
Step 6: Revenue
By now, you’ve attracting and converting the visitor with an initial macro-conversion action. For most SaaS companies this’ll be a demo request or free trial signup. Now it’s mostly on you & your product to deliver the value you’ve promised and CLOSE THE DEAL.
Here’s a shortcut to get you started…
There’s a ton of nuance buried within each step of course, but nail these 5 elements and you’ve effectively built an inbound funnel around your organic traffic.
With this framework, you can find the leaks in your existing “bucket” easily.
- Tons of search impressions but no clicks? Focus on #2.
- Tons of clicks but low time on page? Focus on #3.
- Good retention but not driving click throughs? Focus on #4.
- Good traffic flow but poor conversions? Focus on #5.
- Lots of initial conversions but not closing? Focus on #6.
Or just apply to join the Early-Stage SEO Accelerator program and we’ll help you out directly. We’ll take things all the way to step 6 directly for you.
