This is a guest post by Clay Heller, CEO of Bostic Heller.

When I came across Smith.ai and had the chance to work with the team, I saw a huge area of untapped potential and the team worked with me to help create this article. I’m gonna give you a crash course on SEO as we go!



I'm sure you've seen them — Google "best of *anything* 2019" and you'll find links like this.



These pages use affiliate links, most often to Amazon. Here’s how an affiliate link works: When a reader clicks on the link then purchases a product from Amazon, the page-owner receives a small commission. For many blog authors, these commissions add up to a healthy living.



There’s something huge that almost all of these pages are missing: An interactive sales element. Instead, they tend to be loaded with display ads, intrusive popups, and obnoxious 20+ page click through designs. Yet they still often appear in search engine results.



Imagine how much better the reader’s experience would be if there were no ads, but instead a live chat component. Live chat can drive conversions in a personalized and seamless way. Here’s how Smith.ai Chat, for example, can help you generate more revenue and while upgrading the experience for your readers:

Replacing display ads with a chat widget will engage site viewers and they can be lead to more profitable affiliate links

Readers’ questions are immediately addressed, building trust that leads to upgraded subscriptions and freemium conversions

Get a leg up on your competitors, who still rely on direct pageviews for ad revenue. If you’re reading this, you’re likely not using an outdated setup like that anyway.



Want to get started right now? You can deploy this incredibly powerful strategy in under an hour:

Start by picking your best page. Maybe something that is ranked second or third for your desired term, but converting really well anyway. Install and implement Smith.ai Website Chat on your page. Make a list of your most profitable affiliate links. Create as many chatbot Q&A as you can, using the profitable affiliate links within answers to the questions. (Learn how to add Q&A to your chatbot.)



And since Smith.ai answers the chats on your behalf, you can sit back and wait while your site generates more revenue. Plus, there are added SEO benefits to having web chat on your page. The following are bonus SEO benefits to be achieved without any added work:



Increased On-Page Time

The amount of time someone spends on your page is a huge metric in SEO. Web chat makes people stay on your pages longer, while they have their questions answered, which leads to better rankings. When you add chat to your site, you don’t just benefit direct sales—you’ll also see an SEO benefit for as long as you’re hosting those pages.



Lower Bounce and Exit Rates

Search engines care about which page a person is on when they decide to navigate away. This is unfortunate for Amazon affiliate sites, since Amazon itself can be a distracting force. But after someone has spent a certain amount of time on your page, the search engine “resets” their clock and won’t count the exit rate against you. Talking to people via chat widget takes time. Live chat can outlast cutoff times, and encourage your readers to navigate to other pages on your site, lowering both bounce rates and exit rates.



Saved Time

Okay not technically an SEO metric, but as you continue to build pages that work with web chat, you will actually have more time on your hands. Why? With more SEO benefit from on-page time, you will find less of a need to solicit backlinks or even dabble in black hat techniques. You can use this extra time to write more content!



Building Amazon affiliate pages can certainly generate revenue and help SEO, but it’s important to set up your site for success, both with SEO and high conversion rates. I hope that this quick walkthrough has opened your eyes to the potential of adding a powerful tool like Smith.ai Web Chat to your toolkit when building affiliate pages.

