What is Conversion Rate Optimization?
What’s the Average Conversion Rate?
The average conversion rate is anywhere between 1% and 4%. However, take this number with a grain of salt. Conversion rates can differ greatly depending on a few factors:
- What is the conversion goal? Ad clicks? Newsletter sign-ups? Conversion rates vary from goal to goal.
- All sites are different. Average conversion rates will depend on your industry, product, and type of visitor you are targeting.
- Many sites don’t share conversion data in the first place.
How To Calculate Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is the number of visitors who take such desired actions divided by the total number of visitors. For example, if you have a website with 1000 visitors and 200 sign up for your newsletter, your conversion rate would be 20%. Conversion rates can be calculated for any desired action on your website, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter.
The simple formula for CRO is: (# of Conversions / total visitors) x 100.
Steps in The CRO Process
1. Analyze Existing Data
The first step in any CRO initiative is to analyze your existing data. This will help you identify areas of improvement and potential opportunities for optimization. Some data points you’ll want to consider include:
- Engagement metrics (e.g., time on site, pages per visit)
- Conversion rates
- Top performing pages
- Keywords with high conversion rates
2. Set CRO Goals
Once you have a good understanding of your current website performance, you can set CRO goals. These should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). A goal might be to increase your website’s conversion rate from 0.75% to 2%.
Additionally, you’ll want to ensure your CRO goals align with your overall business objectives. This will help ensure that your CRO efforts are focused in the right areas and that they positively impact your bottom line.
3. Identify CRO Opportunities
After you’ve analyzed your data and set CRO goals, it’s time to identify optimization opportunities. To do this, you’ll want to look at your website data and ask yourself
- What are my most popular pages?
- What are my highest converting pages?
- What are my lowest converting pages?
- Which pages have the highest bounce rate?
By answering these questions, you can start identifying which website pages might benefit from CRO.
Once you’ve identified potential CRO opportunities, the next step is to create a plan of action. This should include which changes you want to test, how you’ll measure their impact and your goals for each test. By taking a systematic and data-driven approach to CRO, you can gradually improve the performance of your website and achieve your business objectives.
How to Implement Your CRO Strategy
Now that you have CRO goals, it’s time to consider where you’ll implement your strategy. There are a few different places to start:
Homepage: The homepage is typically the most visited page on any website. This makes it a great place to start your CRO efforts to retain visitor information early in their journey. Incorporating tools like a free signup button, an intriguing value proposition, or a chatbot can support these conversions.
Landing pages: These are pages that visitors “land” on after clicking a link from an external source, such as an ad or email. Because landing pages are designed to convert visitors into leads or customers, they’re often good candidates for CRO initiatives. Make sure your landing page is visually appealing and includes a great offer.
Blog: CRO can also be applied to blog content. By providing valuable content on your blog and testing an easy ask or CTA, you can increase conversions from those interested in your services and thought leadership. This will also help you gain insight into which content and topics resonate best with your audience.
Pricing Pages: Pricing pages are another key component of the conversion process. If you can optimize your pricing pages for conversions, it will likely have a positive impact on your bottom line. Adding a CTA, such as a demo button or a simple pop-up form, can support your CRO here.
CRO is an ever-changing field, and what works today might not work tomorrow. By staying up-to-date on your data’s latest insights and following CRO trends and best practices, you can ensure that your website is always performing at its best.
CRO Best Practices
CRO strategies can vary by business, but some best practices for e-commerce companies include:
- Reduce menu clutter
- Ensure most popular products are shown first on collections pages
- Add “Meet the Founder” section
- Easily accessible customer reviews
- Add a “Shop” button to the main banner
The Best CRO Tools
There are several different CRO tools available, ranging from free to paid. Your choice will depend on your budget, needs, and technical abilities. Some popular CRO tools include:
- Google Analytics: A free CRO tool that tracks website traffic and engagement metrics.
- Hotjar: A paid CRO tool that offers website heatmaps, session recordings, and form analytics.
- Crazy Egg: A paid tool that offers website heatmaps and session recordings.
- Optimizely: A paid CRO tool that offers A/B testing and personalization on specific website pages
No matter which CRO tools you choose, the most important thing is to have a solid plan and continue learning and adapting.
Why Bother With CRO?
CRO Boosts Profits
When more people are converting, your profit inevitably rises. The higher your conversion rate, the more customers you’re getting. Conversion rate optimization is a smart strategy for increasing sales.
CRO Increases Site Traffic
Increased conversion rates signal that customers are more easily finding your site, locating desired products or services, and taking action. Higher converting customers become loyal brand enthusiasts. They’re more likely to repurchase, leave reviews, and tell family and friends about your company.
CRO Keeps You Customer-Focused
Conversion rate optimization is all about getting your customers to convert. By focusing on what customers want, you stay in tune with your audience. This is helpful data to have on hand when determining strategy across the business.
Conversion Rate Optimization FAQs
How do I improve my conversion rate?
The best way to improve your conversion rate is to focus on making it easier for people to take the desired action. For example, if you want more people to sign up for your newsletter, don’t make them fill out too much information—make it easy for them to do so by asking only their name and email address.
What can help you analyze conversion optimization?
There are several key metrics you can use to analyze how well your site performs. These include bounce rate, time spent on page, and conversion rate changes. In addition to these metrics, you should also look at customer feedback via surveys or social media comments.
How do you measure conversion rate?
Conversion rate is measured by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visitors. For example, if we had 100 visitors and 10 converted, our conversion rate would be 10%.
Still not sure where to start? Choose a Trusted CRO Agency
A lot goes into CRO, from data analysis to conversion optimization. If you’re unsure where to start or don’t have the time or resources to do it yourself, consider working with a CRO agency. At Intensify, we offer thorough CRO Services, including CRO audits, A/B Split Testing, Google Analytics and Conversion Tracking, web design, and more. Contact us and get a free CRO consultation today!
