Conversion Rate Optimization

At the simplest level, CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is optimizing your rate of goal completions. A GOAL completion is the accomplishment of someone CONVERTING from a simple observer, to an interactive participant with your website. 

These specific goals can often fall under headings like:

These goal completions make up a percentage of the total visitors to your website. The higher the percentage of goals accomplished, the better your website is converting.

Conversely, if people are leaving your website with no interaction, this is called BOUNCING!  They pop onto your website and then pop right back off again without a second thought.  Monitoring your Bounce Rate and lowering that score, can be vital to your bottom line. Otherwise, you just end up with a pretty online brochure that no one is bothering to read!

First, you optimize for every variation of your user’s experience, across a variety of devices. For desktops, tablets, and mobile devices, more often than not, today’s most important element is an experience that has been fully optimized and is responsive on all devices. 

Second, you are optimizing your user’s experience (UX). This includes your site’s usability, navigation, page design, process design, email form design, and overall site speed. Speed matters to the Google system, in order to get higher up on their search results.

Lastly you need to add actual conversion points.  This refinement can mean changing page headlines, copy, voice, creatives, offers, calls to action, colours, sizes, messaging, and more, to align with what users want.

Testing various elements of your online presence can be the best way to monitor the effectiveness of social media ads, social platforms, other ads, and your website.  You’ve probably heard of A/B Testing.  This is simply testing two different approaches, monitoring the conversions for which is best in results.

Some platforms or placements may boast a high CRO, while others may waiver, but through optimizing the content, you can take full advantage of the placement you receive. These goals and checks allow you to monitor certain gateways and understand the approaches your audience responds to.

In addition, optimized elements help you direct your users towards completing the goal by generating email leads or increasing potential sales.

There are many ways to study your UX to learn how consumers engage with your site.

First, you can survey customers to learn what they like and don’t like about your UX. Next, you can implement A and B test variations of your page design to see which version performed better. 

Finally, you can study your Google Analytics data, which has eCommerce funnel optimization tools, to learn where the drop-offs are happening.  Some stats you can pay attention to include your Bounce Rate, Pages per Session, and Average Session Duration.  Ultimately, you want to monitor the number of Goal Completions.