Conversion rate optimisation is the strategic process of increasing the percentage of site visitors who complete key actions, for example making a purchase or submitting an enquiry form.

Improving conversion rate is a key goal for many businesses undertaking a new website project, or seeking to improve the performance of their existing e-commerce website.

As part of any web development project, we analyse a wide range of data to design user experiences that have conversion rate optimisation at their core, providing users with exactly what they need at each stage of their journey to make it easy for them to browse and buy. 

What is Your Conversion Rate?

Your conversion rate is the percentage of all site visitors who go on to complete a primary action on your site (such as purchases, form submissions). With any website, whether it’s ecommerce, service, or information based, you need a clear way to measure success. Conversion rate lets you measure the quantifiable elements of your success against the traffic you receive.

How Do I Work out My Website’s Conversion Rate?

To work out your site’s conversion rate, take the total number of conversions and divide this by the total number of users on the site during your specific time period. Multiply by 100 to get the percentage for your conversion rate.

Conversion Rate = (Conversions / website visitors) x 100

For example, if you had 50 conversions out of 1000 users who visited your site:

50 / 1000 = 0.05 > 0.05 x 100 = 5%.

It is always important to define your conversion rate parameters to be accurate on the data you are using. For example, does a form submission count if you are an ecommerce business or just purchases?

What is a Good or Bad Conversion Rate?

Shopify estimates that a blanket average purchase conversion rate on orders is between 2.5% and 3%. Many factors can impact this however, such as;

• Industry
• Product range
• Competition
• Audience Size
• Traffic Channel & quality of targeting
• Economic / market influences
• Consumer confidence

Higher priced items may require more sessions per user to finalise a conversion, potentially over a longer period of time. A user from an organic SERP might be information gathering whereas a Win Back email is likely to be a hot lead for purchase actions. Expanding ads campaigns might increase revenue but reduce conversion rate due to the traffic being of lower overall quality. It is always important to apply context when reviewing conversion rate on your site. 

Conversion Rate Optimisation & Search Engine Optimisation

The core tenet of conversion rate optimisation is to boost your site’s conversions metrics and performance. Search engine optimisation (SEO) on the other hand is the process of growing your site’s visibility to increase traffic and ultimately, lift sales. SEO has many strands as part of an effective strategy, but any website that is performing well sends strong signals to Google that it is a trustworthy and expert site providing a great experience. As such, conversion rate optimisation can boost your site’s visibility in search engines.

How Do I Get Started With Conversion Rate Optimisation?

There can be many moving parts of a CRO strategy, from impacting calls to action to website section visibility, and it’s important that you understand clearly what works and what doesn’t work.

Creating a CRO Strategy

Set clear objectives and realistic aims i.e. trying to double your conversion rate in two weeks is not usually realistic. Most of all, remember that CRO is a fluid marketing strategy and you have to react accordingly. A basic strategy may look something like this;

• Establish & agree conversions critical to your business (e.g. purchases, form submissions, account signups)
• Review your current sales funnel to find out where sales come from and what it is that drives people to the site; are users arriving expecting something not delivered? Or is there an issue with responsiveness on different devices?
• Prioritise pages which are high traffic, low impact etc. 
• Consider what changes could be made to improve the user experience - are there too many pop ups, is the add to cart button blocked for example?
• Test out these hypotheses; remove pop ups, change call to action positioning etc.
  Record and analyse the results and implement winning improvements across other aspects of your site
• Set routine passes of data and traffic to ensure you’re never standing still with how users engage with your site

Measuring CRO Success

The most simple success measurement of CRO strategy is your conversion rate improving. If traffic levels are the same, then the only changes are the on-site experiences and if these changes are positive, more engagement should occur - meaning more sales.

The Key Metrics of CRO Success

Above just the numerical conversion rate, other key metrics which could show a positive impact of CRO are total revenue, total number of conversions, and average order value per user. This would indicate more people are engaging, and those that would have previously are encouraged to spend more. 

Succeeding by Failing

Not all CRO changes will succeed, but by collecting the data you can tweak and refine based on this to help find what works best for your users. Making CRO changes does not automatically mean your conversion rate goes up, and initial changes won’t necessarily impact positively or negatively overnight. Trust the process and ensure any negatives turn into the future positives.

Looking for a Conversion Rate Optimisation Agency You Can Trust?

As a full service digital agency, conversion rate optimisation is crucial to all parts of our services. From designing sleek sites which put customer experience at the forefront of visuals, to the seamless user journeys fashioned with fast and smooth website developments, that initial phase of CRO will always be a firm foundation for your project. Our team of digital marketing experts are experienced in data analysis across a vista of tools and platforms, helping to engineer bespoke strategies for increasing conversion rates.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help you with your conversion rate optimisation needs.