What is Conversion Rate Optimization? A Detailed Overview

The process of optimizing the user experience (UX) of a landing page or the entire website to increase the percentage of visitors who convert (or take the desired action) is known as conversion rate optimization (CRO). CRO is a practice that works based on website visitors’ behavior and their interaction with the conversion funnel.

The desired action or conversion metric could be anything. These can range from a click on a link, filling a form, buying a product or service, adding something to the cart, signing up for a service, and so on.

CRO encompasses the understanding of user behavior. It seeks to analyze and understand what leads to their conversion, what stops them from performing the desired action, and what could persuade them to do the former. It’s crucial to understand that conversion might be the end goal, but it involves various steps in the so-called funnel. We need to study each step carefully. Only then can CRO be successful.

The bottom line is to study user behavior in various conversion funnel stages. It helps improve the user experience to an extent where conversion becomes inevitable. Thus, CRO can’t be a one-time activity; rather,; it’s an ongoing process of constantly learning and making the UX better.

CRO is an arm of SEO and helps improve rankings in SERPs by enhancing user experience. Apollo Marketing offers great conversion rate optimization services if your business needs assistance with CRO. We lead the market in Maryland’s SEO services.

Benefits of CRO

A CRO campaign complete with in-depth analysis of user behavior data, vigorous A/B testing, and subsequently required changes can provide many benefits to the website in question. These benefits include an overall improvement in website functionality and a better understanding of visitor engagement. Here are some other benefits of CRO:

1. It improves overall UX CRO plays an instrumental role in improving user experience in various stages of the conversion funnel. These improvements are made possible because CRO:
   • Helps understand user behaviorCRO involves the use of tools like click maps and heatmaps. These tools provide information on the amount of time spent by visitors on different sections of a website. The overall experience can be better understood through analytics, website surveys, session replays, etc. CRO helps in following the journey of a visitor towards the desired action. It also highlights the sections that make them lose interest and drop off.
   • Helps in personalizing website experienceAs a part of CRO, you can personalize the browsing experience for visitors. You can personalize based on browsing history, geographical location, latest trends, devices, etc. Personalization is crucial to increase relevance and ease website navigation. It is supposed to decrease the steps to reach the conversion stage.
2. Positively impacts the ROICRO has a positive impact on the overall return on investment. It improves the ROI because:
   • It helps in increasing revenueIt identifies the areas where changes can be made to increase the convenience of website visitors in accessing various stages of the conversion funnel. A/B testing helps in identifying these changes on the basis of friction points in each iteration. Each subsequent change in the UX brings visitors closer to becoming customers. More customers mean more business. More business means more monetary returns. Thus, CRO helps in increasing revenue of a business through their website.
   • It lowers customer acquisition costsCRO focuses on converting website visitors into customers through optimization. Therefore, you can save costs on customer acquisition through other channels such as paid digital marketing campaigns.

What’s the canvas for CRO? (Basic Elements For Optimization)

There are some basic elements on a website that come under the ambit of CRO. CRO aims at optimizing these elements to maximize the proportion of web users who take the desired action. The elements are:

• Website CopyWe cannot overstate the importance of a web copy that keeps users hooked and persuades them to become potential leads. The web copy needs to be highly engaging and emphasize the qualities of a given product/service. The web copy contains headings, body, writing style, formatting, etc. The individual focus should be on all the parts to make them stand out. Copy should be supported by relevant visual elements such as images, infographics, charts, etc. It should have excellent readability as well.
• Site-Structure & NavigationThe website should be structured so visitors find no issues in locating the information they require. The homepage should offer easy navigation to all other pages. CRO wants to improve the navigation pattern on a website in response to problems faced by visitors. The visitors should be able to switch between various sections with ease. The navigation should ensure that a visitor takes the least number of steps to reach the conversion stage of the funnel. The idea is to make navigation fluid.
• Landing Page DesignThe landing page is the first impression of a visitor on your website. CRO seeks to improve the aesthetics of the landing page so that it captivates the visitors. The landing page should be able to extract the crucial moments from the short attention spans of users. The time spent on the landing page determines the march to other further stages of the conversion funnel.
• CTA (Call-to-action)A CTA is literally a reminder and request to the visitor to take a desired action. A CTA could be a buying option, sign up to the website, and more. CRO seeks to bring the visitor closer to a call to action.
• Page SpeedA website’s loading speed significantly impacts a website User experience. If a page takes time to load, it may lead to a visitor losing interest in the website. CRO seeks to examine the page speed of each web page of the site and optimize it to make it quick enough.

Some CRO Best Practices

1. A/B Testing of the landing page elements is crucial because they are the first point of contact.
2. Learn to calculate the conversion rate better analyze analytics data. Remember calculation formula:
   1. Conversion Rate(Percentage) = Leads Generated/ Website Traffic
   2. Lead Goal = Number of New Customers/Lead to Customer Close Rate(Percentage)
   3. Number of New Customers = New Revenue Goal/Average Sales Price
3. Never make changes based on opinions. Always trust numbers and data over anything else.
4. Avoid using stock photos wherever possible.
5. Grab the user’s attention by including power words in CTAs. For example, Buy Now, Grab Your Free Copy, Let’s Get Started, etc.
6. Run A/B testing experiments for a longer time to get accurate results.

Conclusion

Conversion Rate Optimization can significantly improve the conversion numbers of a given website. It is a continuous process and can’t be limited to a particular period of time. It works on a close analysis of user behavior and improves user experience.