The complete guide to website CRO for 2024
Stop wasting your ad dollars by sending traffic to an un-optimized website. Our guide teaches you how to generate more qualified leads with actionable tips and a 70-point CRO checklist. Enter your email below to download now.
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This Isn’t Your Basic CRO Guide…
A conversion-optimized website is optional—if you don’t mind wasting ad dollars and losing leads to your competitors.
The proof is in the data 👇
2.71 billlion
online buyers
28%
of all business worldwide is conducted online
50 milliseconds
before a user forms their opinion of a website
40%
of websites rank 1-10 in the SERP
There are a lot of online users and a whole lot of websites. The million-dollar question is why should they choose yours? Giving them reasons to pick you is what website CRO is all about. Not to sound ominous, but it’s a big, competitive digital world out there.
Welcome to
our ultimate conversation rate optimization guide!
“Most marketing teams are focused on driving as much website traffic as possible. But sending users to a website that isn’t conversion-optimized is like trying to collect water using a bucket full of holes. No matter how much water you pour into the bucket, it’s going to leak. Stop doing the same with your website traffic and plug the holes in your conversion funnel.”
-Danielle Howson, Lead Web Optimization Manager at The Influence Agency
In this playbook, you’ll learn:
The Benefits of Conversion Rate Optimization
How to Calculate Your Site’s Conversion Rate
Tips for Building Buyer Personas and Analyzing Behavior
Several Important Website UX Considerations
The Secrets to Creating Content That Converts
How to Conduct A/B Testing That Works
Who to Trust For Proven CRO Services
Understanding Conversion Rate Optimization
What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?
CRO is the process of reducing friction in the conversion funnel to get more of your website visitors to take a desired action—buying a product, signing up for your newsletter, submitting a contact form, whatever it may be.
Conversions are never an accident; they’re earned. CRO for websites involves analyzing user behavior, identifying barriers to conversion, and implementing strategies to improve conversion rate. AKA making things as easy as possible for your website visitors!
Key Concepts and Terminology
Conversion Rate (CVR)
The percentage of people who visit your website and take the desired action (whatever that may be).
Conversion Funnel
The model used to define the customer journey, typically beginning with awareness and ending in a conversion.
A/B Testing
The process of comparing two different versions of an asset to determine which will generate more conversions.
UX Optimization
The process of optimizing a website’s user interface (UX) to produce a better experience and more conversions.
User CVR vs Session CVR
The conversion rate based on the number of unique users who took a desired action within a specified period versus the conversion rate as a percentage of individual website visits that resulted in the desired action.
Benefits of Conversion Rate Optimization
Increased Conversions and Leads
Improved Return on Investment (ROI)
Get to Know Your Customers Better
Enhanced User Experience
Increased Cart Size (Average Order Value)
Leverage Current Website Traffic
Minimized Bounce Rates
Lower Customer Acquisition Costs
Create More Targeted Ad Campaigns
Competitive Advantage
Defining Your Website CRO Goals and Objectives
Any CRO guide that suggests there’s a one-size-fits-all approach to setting goals is lying—your targets should be specific to your business objectives.
Say you want “a good conversion rate.” Well, what is that? While you might have heard it’s anything above 5%, you also have to consider how it varies dramatically depending on your industry and business model. Getting 3% of web page visitors to take a desired action could represent an astronomical success in your industry, and that’s fine!
What’s important is to set realistic website conversion optimization benchmarks based on industry standards and historical data. Determine what kind of numbers a successful company within your industry is doing and go from there. You can’t succeed if you’re setting yourself up for failure by aiming way too high.
Average Conversion Rate by Industry
Agency
Auto
AB2B Ecommerce
B2B Services
B2B Tech
B2C
Dental & Cosmetic
Finance
Healthcare
Industrial
Legal
Professional Services
Real Estate
Travel
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
How to Calculate Website Conversion Rate
Here is the formula for calculating your website’s conversion rate:
For example, if you had 100 website visitors over the last three months and five of them signed up for your newsletter, you would have a conversion rate of 5%.
The Main Elements of a CRO Strategy
There are four main pillars of a successful website CRO strategy. While each can be used on its own, the real magic happens when they’re used together to maximize the effectiveness of your website.
Research & Data Analysis
Gathering insights from analytics, user feedback, and competitor research to inform optimization efforts.
Branded & Reactive Content Creation
Improving the usability and accessibility of the website to enhance the overall user experience.
Content Optimization
Crafting persuasive and engaging content that resonates with the target audience and encourages conversions.
A/B Testing & Experimentation
Testing different elements of the website to identify what drives the highest conversion rates.
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