Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the success rate of giving website visitors what they expect.

Users online come to visit your website through ads or organically, either way, they come with an expectation.

They expect to find a solution to their problem.

CRO helps you measure how many website visitors are able to find a solution.

If you keep your promises successfully and consistently through ads and your website the percentage of website visitors who are going to take a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form is going to increase.

In order to ensure users take a certain action on your website you need to really understand their needs.

The better you understand your visitor needs the better your conversion rate is going to be.

Let’s take a look at an example:

John is considering buying a new car. He’s a middle-aged man and a CEO of an SME business.

Informational

John is not sure which car to buy.

Search query example: What’s a good car?

Expectations: John is looking for information on a topic and he still hasn’t made her purchase decision.

Conversion goal: It’s too soon to expect a purchase at this stage, an appropriate conversion goal would be a click-through. So in an article about the best cars in 2023 under $100,000, he reads about BMW clicks to know more which leads him to the model’s list page on the BMW website.

Consideration

John has few brands in mind, but he’s not sure yet which one to pick

Search query example: BMW vs AUDI

Expectations: He wants more information about specific products. He expects an in-depth review.

Conversion goal: In this stage, our goal is to help the user decide! For an in-depth review, we could have two conversion goals. The first one is a contact seller button, in case the user makes a decision (which is often the case with cheaper products). The second conversion goal would measure the quality of our product review, so we can consider a conversion goal achieved if a user spends more than 3 minutes on the page and scrolls through more than 50% of the article review length.

Navigational

John has shortlisted BMW, so he searches for a specific website.

Search query example: BMW website

Expectations: John wants to visit a specific website (BWM website). To match his expectations all BMW needs to make sure that its website can be found easily when someone searches for the BMW online.

Conversion goal: Presuade the user to make a purchase.

Transactional

John wants to buy BMW.

Search query example: Buy BMW M3

Expectations: John already knows exactly what car he wants to buy and just wants to make that happen as easily as possible.

Conversion goal: Purchase. Simply tracking the percentage of website visitors that clicked the “Buy now” button.

Why is conversion rate optimization important?

Website traffic stays the same but you get more revenue. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

That’s the conversion rate optimization effect.

CRO helps you increase your revenue by converting a higher percentage of website visitors into customers.

CRO is making your website work smarter not harder.

How to calculate the conversion rate?

Divide the number of conversions by the number of visitors to your website or landing page.

The conversion rate is then expressed as a percentage.

For example, let’s say you had 100 visitors to your website and 10 of them made a purchase.

To calculate the conversion rate, you would divide 10 (the number of conversions) by 100 (the number of visitors) to get 0.1.

To express this as a percentage, you would multiply by 100, so the conversion rate in this example would be 10%.

Another example:

If you have a landing page that had 1000 visitors and 200 filled out a form, the conversion rate will be 200/1000 = 0.2 or 20%.

This means that 20% of the visitors took the desired action which is filling out the form.

It’s also important to note that the conversion rate can be calculated for different actions on the website such as filling out a form, signing up for a service, watching a video, etc. It is not just limited to purchase actions.

Different types of conversion goals

Business Type	Common Conversion and Aggregate Goals
E-Commerce – a site that sells things for users to purchase online.	– Completed purchase – Each step within the checkout funnel – Products added to the cart – Product page views
Media/Content – a site focused on articles or other content consumption.	– Page views – Articles read – Engagement rate
Lead Generation – a site that acquires business through name capture.	– Form completion – Clicks to a form page (for example: “Contact Us”)
Other	– Newsletter sign-up – Clickthroughs (in the case of affiliate marketing)

What is the average conversion rate?

The conversion rate will vary depending on what industry you are in and your conversion goal.

If you are selling deep sea drilling equipment for $10M like Robert California or paper like Michael Scott conversion rate will be significantly different.

However, the average conversion rate varies between 2% and 5% for all advertisers.

What is a good conversion rate, though?

10% or above, for all industries and company sizes.

Types of conversation barriers

There are two types of conversion barriers:

Technical barriers
Psychological barriers

Technical barriers

If the contact us form is not working in Safari browsers, website visitors coming to your website using Safari browsers are not able to convert, and you lose revenue.

Technical issues are dangerous because they can literally leave you dry in an instant but they’re also exact. In a sense, you can test them and fix the issue easily.

Process of fixing technical barriers

If you want to sleep tight and not worry about technical barriers follow the outlined process:

Watch for any changes in the conversion rate
Test regularly (Once a week)
In case you find the bug, test it thoroughly (Check your website on mobile, desktop, different browsers, different operating systems, etc )
Fix the bug
Repeat the process

Psychological barriers

In contrast to technical barriers, psychological barriers are not exact by nature.

Psychological barriers exist under the surface, let’s take a look at a few examples:

Too expensive
Too complicated
Too risky
Not urgently needed
Not trustworthy
Not the best
Looks scammy
A disconnect between the ad and the landing page
Value not presented properly on the website

The importance of user experience in conversion rate optimization

User experience (UX) is a crucial aspect of conversion rate optimization (CRO) it’s part of psychological barriers because it directly impacts a visitor’s ability to find what they are looking for and take the desired action on a website.

A good UX makes it easy for visitors to navigate a website, find the information they need, and take the desired action.

On the other hand, a poor UX can lead to confusion, frustration, and ultimately, a lower conversion rate.

UX design is essential in CRO because it allows businesses to understand their customers’ needs and pain points, and use that information to improve the user experience.

By analyzing data and user feedback, businesses can identify areas of improvement on their website and make changes accordingly.

For example, if a high number of visitors are leaving a website before making a purchase, it could be because the checkout process is too complicated or confusing.

By simplifying the checkout process, businesses can improve the user experience and increase the likelihood of visitors completing a purchase.

In summary, user experience plays a vital role in CRO, as it directly impacts visitors’ ability to find what they are looking for and take the desired action.

It helps businesses understand their customers better and make changes to improve the user experience which ultimately leads to increased conversion rates.

8 conversion optimization best practice

1. Define clear goals and objectives.

Before making any changes to your website or landing page, it’s important to define what you want to achieve and what your conversion goals are.

2. Understand your audience.

Conduct research to understand your target audience and their needs, pain points, and behavior. This will help you identify areas of improvement on your website.

3. Relay on data and analytics.

Use tools like Google Analytics to track website visitor behavior, such as where they’re coming from, what pages they visit, and how long they stay. Use this data to identify areas of improvement and make informed decisions.

4. A/B testing.

A/B testing is a technique that allows you to test different versions of a website or landing page to see which one performs better. This can be used to test changes to headlines, images, calls to action, and more.

5. Optimize for mobile.

With the majority of internet traffic coming from mobile devices, it’s essential to optimize your website for mobile to ensure a positive user experience.

6. Simplify the process.

Make it easy for visitors to take the desired action by simplifying the process. This could include reducing the number of steps in a checkout process or making it easy to find the information they need.

7. Use heatmaps and session recordings.

Use heatmaps and session recordings to understand how visitors interact with your website. This will help you identify areas of improvement and make changes to improve the user experience.

8. Monitor and measure results.

Regularly monitor and measure the results of your CRO efforts to understand the impact of changes and make adjustments as needed.