What is Conversion Rate Optimisation and why is it so important?
When a user visits a website and completes a desired action, this is known as a conversion. Marketing teams can spend plenty of time focusing on driving more traffic to a website, yet if this traffic is not converting into qualified leads or customers, it is not achieving anything.
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is often overlooked, yet plays an important part in the success of a website. In this article, we are going to look at exactly what CRO is, the types of goals your website may have, and how you can ensure that your website is optimised for conversion.
What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?
Conversion Rate Optimisation, or CRO, is the process of enhancing your website to increase the conversion rate. The conversion rate of a site is the percentage of users that complete the desired action of the site, which is known as a conversion.
By using Call To Actions (CTA’s), you can increase the chances of users converting on your site by making it as easy as possible for them to convert. Call to Actions come in a number of different forms, whether it be a button, a contact form or simply a link within a paragraph.
Identifying your website goals
A conversion can mean different things for different companies. For e-commerce websites, a sale would class as a conversion, however for lead generation websites, a user signing up would class as a conversion for them. It’s important to understand what your main website goals are.
A conversion can be split into two different forms, Micro & Macro. Often a Micro conversion has to be achieved first, in order for a customer to build trust and therefore Macro convert. Below are some examples of Micro & Macro conversions.
Examples of Micro and Macro Conversions
Micro-conversions:
- Signing up for email lists e.g. newsletters
- Creating an account
- Adding a product to the basket
Macro-conversions:
- Purchasing a product from the site
- Requesting a quote or a call back
- Subscribing to a service
How you can implement Conversion Rate Optimisation
As mentioned previously, making your website as easy as possible for a user to convert is an important part of CRO – website users are lazy! They don’t want to be crawling through a website trying to find a form to fill in for example, and similarly don’t want to be going through lots of stages just to try and leave their details.
Adding Call to Actions throughout a website means that wherever the user is on the site, they are only one click away from converting. Some top tips for CTA’s include:
- Make buttons stand out from other content within the page. Bright colours and bold text work well.
- Ensure contact forms are short and concise, while containing all relevant information needed. Users do not want to be filling in all their personal details just to get a call back.
- Consider using a widget that allows for a CTA to be floating on the page when scrolled. This way, there is always a CTA available to the user.
It is also important to ensure that the conversion funnel is as short as possible. The conversion funnel is how many steps a user has to take before converting. By shortening this conversion path, you are increasing the chances of a user bouncing from the site and therefore losing the conversions.
Watch Your Conversion Rate Rise!
Conversion Rate Optimisation can be one of those jobs that sits at the bottom of the to-do list, yet can be pivotal to the success of a website. Just by making some simple changes to the site, including adding CTA’s & reducing the size of the conversion path, you are more than likely to see your conversion rate rise.
Remember that conversions don’t always happen straight away, users require trust from your brand, so don’t be put off if you’re getting plenty of micro conversions, the macro conversions will come!
CRO can be part of a holistic marketing strategy, including SEO, PPC and social to drive traffic to your website and generate leads.
