As an SEO, determining what constitutes a bottleneck for your client’s website is a high priority. After identifying SEO problems, you can define strategies and tactics to overcome them. These days, we see the most common SEO bottlenecks occur in the accessibility-useful-intuitive portion of a visitor’s conversion path. Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, this concept was first introduced for website prioritization by Bryan Eisenberg. While Eisenberg mostly sticks with a modified sales funnel metaphor, I think a bottleneck model is currently more relevant, as really any part of the SEO process can have a dramatic effect on ROI.

SEO Conversion Path Bottleneck

One of an SEO’s many jobs is to reduce the number of people who “bounce” from the webpage at a bottleneck, by specifically addressing the five high priority optimization levels seen above.

The 5 Levels of SEO Explained

1. Functional

— The website has a goal or goals which all visitors can complete. (Exists for a purpose and “works” in the most basic sense.)

2. Accessible

— The website can be found by search engines and other entry points. (Has “SEO 1.0″ in place, i.e. title and meta description tags, as well as “alt” attributes for images)

3. Useful

— The website fulfills its intended purpose and is easy to use and navigate. (Relevant, info rich, “gets the job done”)

4. Intuitive

— Visitor personae goal paths are established and easy to achieve. (Aesthetically pleasing, attention-drawing, multiple navigation scenarios, “happens by itself”)

5. Persuasive

— The website converts visitors to sales or leads with good content, products, and copy, images, and videos. (Call to action.)

I find these levels helpful when thinking about how to prioritize a website’s opportunities, as it provides convenient categories into which you can sort your many options.

Turning Your Conversion Trickle Into a Flood

Conversion Path without SEO Bottlenecks

After you determine where the bottlenecks for a website are, attack them! It doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get a flood of conversions, but the odds are much higher. Additionally, by dealing with the first 3 levels (functional, accessible, useful), your site’s “rating” for the intuitive and persuasive levels will naturally rise. With the right content and the right product, there’s nothing to stop conversions pouring in.