What Is Conversion Rate Optimization? How To Calculate & Improve CRO

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — be that filling out a form, becoming customers, or otherwise. The conversion rate optimization process is a structured approach to enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. The CRO process involves understanding how users move through your site, what actions they take, and what’s stopping them from completing your goals.

A conversion is the general term for a visitor completing a site goal. Goals come in many shapes and sizes. If you use your website to sell products, the primary goal (known as the macro-conversion) is for the user to make a purchase.  There are smaller conversions that can happen before a user completes a macro-conversion, such as signing up to receive emails. These are called micro-conversions.

Examples of conversions

Macro-conversions:

• Purchasing a product from the site
• Requesting a quote
• Subscribing to a service

Examples of micro-conversions:

• Signing up for email lists
• Creating an account
• Adding a product to the cart

Your site’s conversion rate is the number of times a user completes a goal divided by your site traffic. If a user can convert in each visit (such as by buying a product), divide the number of conversions by the number of sessions (the number of unique times a user came to your site). If you sell a subscription, divide the number of conversions by the number of users. Understanding your site's conversion rate is crucial for optimizing strategies and identifying areas for improvement.

Conversion rate optimization happens after the visit makes it to your site. This is different from conversion optimization for SEO or paid ads which focuses on who clicks through to your site from the organic search results, how many clicks you get, and which keywords are driving traffic. Knowing the average conversion rate across different industries can help benchmark your performance and guide your optimization efforts.

Average conversion rates

When it comes to conversion rates, there’s no one-size-fits-all number. Average conversion rates can vary significantly across different industries and sectors. Here are some general benchmarks to give you an idea:

• Ecommerce: 2-3%
• B2B: 1-2%
• Lead Generation: 5-10%
• Mobile Apps: 1-5%

It’s important to remember that these are just averages. Your website’s conversion rate can differ based on your target audience, industry, and the specific strategies you employ. Understanding these benchmarks can help you set realistic goals and measure your performance against industry standards.

How to calculate conversion rate

If a user can convert each time they visit the conversion funnel:

Imagine we own an ecommerce site — Roger's Robotics. A user could make a new purchase each session. We want to optimize so they make as many purchases as possible. If a user visited the site three times, that would be three sessions — and three opportunities to convert.

Let's closer at our user's three sessions and how they behaved:

• Session 1: No conversion — user was familiarizing themselves with the site and poking around.
• Session 2: User bought a shiny new antenna. This is a conversion!
• Session 3: User came back and bought a new set of gears and a blinking light  — another conversion!  Even though they bought two items, this is a single unique order and thus counts as a single conversion.

To figure out our conversion rate, we would take the number of unique purchase orders and divide it by the total number of sessions.  

For our imaginary user, they converted two out of three times they came to the site:  

To find out the conversion rate for your site, you'll look at all unique orders divided the total number of sessions.

Calculating Conversion Rate by Sessions:

If a user can only convert once

Now imagine we owned a second site — Roger's Monthly Gear Box. Our site sells a subscription for a monthly delivery of robot parts. A user could come back multiple times, but once they purchase a subscription, they won't convert again.

Let's look at an example user's behavior:

• Session 1:  User came to the site for the first time to explore the service.  No conversion.
• Session 2: User subscribed to our monthly GearBox service-- this is our conversion!
• Session 3: User came back to read blog articles and poke around.  

Our user here can't convert each time they visit the site. So instead of looking at the number of sessions, we need to measure conversion success by the number of visitors:

To figure out our website's conversion rate, we would take the number of unique orders and divide it by the number of unique users.

Calculating Conversion Rate by Unique Users:

While not necessarily directly related to attracting organic website traffic or ranking on a search engine results page (SERP), conversion rate optimization has distinct benefits for SEO. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical process aimed at enhancing a website's visibility and ranking on search engines to attract organic traffic. Those include:

1. Improved customer insights. Conversion rate optimization can help you better understand your key audience and find what language or messaging best speaks to their needs. Conversion rate optimization looks at finding the right customers for your business. Acquiring more people doesn’t do your business any good if they’re not the right kind of people!
2. Better ROI: Higher conversion rate means making more of the resources you have. By studying how to get the most out of your acquisition efforts, you’ll get more conversions without having to bring in more potential customers.
3. Better scalability: While your audience size may not scale as your business grows, CRO lets you grow without running out of resources and prospective customers. Audiences aren’t infinite. By turning more browsers into buyers, you’ll be able to grow your business without running out of potential customers.
4. Better user experience: When users feel smart and sophisticated on your website, they tend to stick around. CRO studies what works on your site. By taking what works and expanding on it, you’ll make a better user experience. Users who feel empowered by your site will engage with it more — and some may even become evangelists for your brand.
5. Enhanced trust: In order for a user to share their credit card, email, or any sort of personal information, they have to genuinely trust the site. Your website is your number-one sales person. Just like an internal sales team, your site needs to be professional, courteous, and ready to answer all of your customers’ questions.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) isn’t just about boosting your conversion rates; it’s also about enhancing the overall experience for your website visitors. Here are some key benefits of CRO for your audience:

• Improved navigation and user interface: CRO helps streamline your website’s navigation and user interface, making it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for. A well-organized site keeps users engaged and reduces frustration.
• Relevant and personalized content: By tailoring content to resonate with your target audience, CRO increases engagement and conversion rates. Personalized content makes visitors feel understood and valued.
• Faster loading times: Optimizing your website’s loading times is a crucial aspect of CRO. Faster pages improve user experience and reduce bounce rates, keeping visitors on your site longer.
• Clear and concise messaging: Effective CRO involves crafting clear and concise messaging that communicates your value proposition. This reduces confusion and helps visitors quickly understand what you offer, leading to higher conversions.

In order to optimize for conversion rates, you have to know where, what to optimize, and who to optimize for. This information is the cornerstone to successful CRO strategies. Conversion rate optimization strategies emphasize adopting a customer-centric approach, focusing on understanding individual customer behavior and needs.

If you don’t gather data, then you’re left making changes based on gut feelings alone. Guts are awesome! But making decisions on just gut feelings instead of rooting assumptions in data can be a waste of time and money.

The analytics method

This method, also known as quantitative data analysis, gives you hard numbers behind how people actually behave on your site. Start with a solid web analytics platform, such as Google Analytics. Next, add tracking for your conversions.

Using analytics-based CRO can answer important questions about how users engage with your site. Quantitative analysis provides information like:

• Where people enter your site, i.e., which web page they land on first
• Which features they engage with, i.e., where on a page or within your site do they spend their time
• What channel and referrer brought them in, i.e., where they found and clicked on a link to your site
• What devices and browsers they use
• Who your customers are (age, demographic, and interest)
• Where users abandon your conversion funnel, i.e., where or during what activity do users leave your site

This information will let you know where to focus your efforts. By putting your effort into the pages most engaged with and valuable to your users, you’ll see the largest impact.

The people method

Doing your quantitative analysis first is especially valuable if you have a large site with diverse content as it lets you know, from a numbers perspective, where to focus your efforts. But now that you know how users interact with your site, you can look into the “why” behind their behavior.

This people-focused method, known as qualitative data analysis, is more subjective. You'll need the quantitative data discussed above to identify who you should be asking. You can't optimize for all users, so optimize for your ideal user — that is, the user it's most important to have as a customer.

Ways to get this data:

• On-site surveys
• User testing
• Satisfaction surveys

Qualitative analysis helps optimize for conversions by providing information about users such as:

• Why did they engage?  Why did they originally decide to visit your site or navigate to a specific page? What about the page or product appealed to them?
• What do they think your site offers that makes you different from competitors? Is there a feature or service offered by your company that makes buying from you a better experience?
• What words they use to describe your products, services, and the pain points they address? How would they describe your product or service to a friend? In essence, how do they talk about what you do?

There are certain things that raw data alone can't tell you about what brought a user to your site or how to make their experience better. But when you combine this information with your analytics data, you can gain a much better understanding of the pages on your site that present the best opportunities to optimize and engage the audience you'd like to target.

The bad method

This comes in many forms. Some not-so-effective CRO methods include:

• Guesses, hunches, and gut feelings
• Doing it because your competitor is doing it
• Executing changes based on the highest paid person's opinion

All these examples have something in common: they're not data-based and might as well be random shots in the dark. It's better to spend the time gathering and analyzing the data so you can create meaningful tests based on clear insights. Nobody loves running tests that fail.

Different industries face unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to conversion rate optimization. Here are some tailored strategies for various sectors:

Ecommerce conversion optimization best practices

Ecommerce websites have their own set of hurdles to overcome in the CRO process. Here are some strategies to boost your ecommerce conversion rates:

• Optimize product pages: Ensure your product pages are visually appealing and informative. Use high-quality images, detailed product descriptions, and customer reviews to build trust and encourage purchases.
• Streamline checkout process: Simplify the checkout process by reducing the number of steps, offering guest checkout options, and providing clear shipping and payment information. A smooth checkout experience can significantly increase conversions.
• Offer personalized recommendations: Leverage data and analytics to provide personalized product recommendations. Tailored suggestions can enhance the shopping experience and increase the likelihood of conversion.

B2B conversion optimization best practices

B2B websites face different CRO challenges compared to ecommerce sites. Here are some strategies to improve B2B conversion rates:

• Optimize landing pages: Design landing pages with clear and concise messaging and a prominent call-to-action. Ensure the page addresses the needs and pain points of your target audience.
• Use lead magnets: Offer valuable resources like ebooks, whitepapers, and webinars to capture leads. These lead magnets can help nurture prospects through the sales funnel.
• Implement account-based marketing: Focus on account-based marketing strategies to target specific accounts and decision-makers. Personalized outreach can increase the chances of conversion.

Local search conversion optimization best practices

Local search conversion optimization involves tailoring your online presence for local search queries. Here are some strategies to improve local search conversion rates:

• Optimize Google My Business: Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing with accurate and up-to-date information, including high-quality images. This enhances your visibility in local search results.
• Use location-specific keywords: Incorporate location-specific keywords in your website’s content and meta tags to improve your ranking in local search results.
• Offer location-specific offers: Create location-specific promotions and offers to attract local customers. Tailored deals can drive more local traffic and increase conversions.

By applying these industry-specific strategies, you can effectively optimize your conversion rates and achieve better results tailored to your unique business needs.

Updated by Chima Mmeje — November 18, 2024.

Keep learning

• A 5-Step Framework for Conversion Rate Optimization: Featuring a handy graphic overview, this post by Paddy Moogan will help you conceptualize the CRO process.
• CRO Statistics: How to Avoid Reporting Bad Data: Craig Bradford outlines some ways you can make sure that the data you are collecting with your CRO tests are actually meaningful.
• 5 Lessons Learned from 100,000 Usability Studies: No idea what issues might be blocking your conversions? This post by Phil Sharp outlines five biggies to get you started.
• Conversion Rate Optimization When You Don't Have Much Traffic: If you're working with a small site, this post from Alex Johnson will help you prioritize your CRO efforts.
• Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and Infographic: In this beautiful beast of an ecommerce guide, Pancham Prashar runs the gamut of features, focuses, and functionalities you need to make your ecommerce site great.
• Easy Marketing Investments to Improve Your Ecommerce Store: When your business is selling products on your site, conversion rate is the cornerstone of success. Explore easy investments to convert browsers into buyers.

Put your skills to work

Analytics tools:

• Google Analytics: Web analytics service offered by Google.
• Moz Pro: Take the legwork out of identifying top landing pages by connecting this powerful tool to your Google Analytics profile to create custom reports. It only makes sense to focus your optimization efforts on the places that see the most traffic. Plus, we'll show you recommendations for on-page optimization

Surveys:

• Google Consumer Survey: You create the survey, Google recruits the participants and provides results and analysis.
• Qualaroo: Poll your visitors while they are on your site with a popup window.

Usability tests:

• Usertesting.com: Usertesting recruits users to test your site in as little as 1 hour, including on mobile devices.
• Inspeclet: Watch recorded sessions of actual users visiting your site, including those on mobile devices. Includes heat maps.

A/B tests on landing page

• Optimizely: Perform A/B and multivariate tests on existing pages.
• Unbounce: Create and test new pages.
• Google Content Experiments: Perform A/B tests (but not multivariate) against your Google Analytics conversion goals.