If you’ve heard the term conversion rate optimization (CRO) and wondered what it was or how you could be optimizing your own website’s conversion rates, you’ve come to the right place!

What is a conversion?

A conversion is a term used to describe a visitor of your website completing a goal that you specify. The primary goal you set, such as making a sale, is typically known as the macro-conversion. Even though making this type of conversion is ideal for your business, it’s possible to have another conversion goal before your potential customer even completes the macro-conversion too. For example, you may have an option for them to subscribe to an email newsletter from you or create an account on your website. This goal would be considered a micro-conversion.

What is CRO and why is it important?

CRO is the process of increasing the percentage of visitors who complete the goal you have in mind. This process usually involves generating ideas to help users move through your website and understanding what stops them from meeting your goals. Optimizing your conversion rate allows you to increase your revenue per visitor. You’re getting more customers and more value from visitors that you already have.

To determine your conversion rate, simply take the number of times visitors complete your goal and divide it by your site’s overall traffic. If your service is a one-time conversion, then simply divide the number of orders by the total number of users, and you’ll get your site’s conversion rate. If this number isn’t as high as you had hoped, don’t worry! Later in this article, we’ll be going over a few things you can implement to improve your CRO.

What conversion goals should I care about?

Every business is different, so the goals that you’re setting should focus on the services that you offer. 

If you are an e-commerce company, your conversions could be:

• Getting a customer to purchase a product
• Getting a customer to add a product to their cart
• Getting a visitor to your website to sign up for an email newsletter

If you’re selling products or services to other businesses, your conversions could be:

• Generating leads
• Closing deals

Ask yourself what hurdles might be preventing potential customers from completing your chosen conversion metrics. Once you’ve figured this out, you can then move on to improving your digital customer experience with these goals in mind. 

How can I optimize my CRO?

When you go about making changes to try and optimize your CRO, there are methods that you can use that will help you understand the data behind your site and the behavior of your visitors. 

The analytics method gives you numbers behind how people behave on your site and can provide the following information:

• Which webpage is visited first 
• Where on your site people spend the most time
• What linked a visitor to your site
• What device a visitor used to reach your site
• Which browser a visitor used
• What the demographic of your visitors are
• What part of the conversion process a visitor leaves at

The people method is more qualitative and subjective but can help you understand the following points:

• Why a visitor decided to navigate to your website or a specific page on your website 
• What they think of your website compared to your competitors 
• If they feel you offer a feature that makes your business a better experience
• How they would describe your products or services and complaints they may have

Raw data is essential, but it can’t paint the whole picture if that’s the only method you rely on. Using a web analytics platform is a great start, but when you couple it with on-site surveys and user testing, you’ll start to see ways to better engage your target audience to improve your conversion rates.

If all of this seems like a bit too much to handle on your own, or you don’t know where to start, we’d be happy to provide you with a free audit of your website to get you on the right track.