What is conversion rate optimization?
As the name suggests, conversion rate optimization is the process of making adjustments to your website for the purpose of increasing the total number of visitors who take whatever action you need them to take, such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading a report, registering for a webinar, or making a purchase.
If you wish to gain a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: What does conversion rate mean?
Conversion rate refers to the total number of web visitors that take the desired action on a given web page. You can determine yours using the following formula:
Total Number of Conversions / Total Number of Web Visitors x 100 = Conversion Rate
So, if you had, say, a total of 100,000 web visitors this month and you managed to convert 10,000 of them, using the same formula, your conversion rate would be 10%:
10,000 (Total Number of Conversions) / 100,000 (Total Number of Web Visitors) x 100 = 10% (Conversion Rate)
Question #2: What is a good conversion rate to shoot for?
A good conversion rate to shoot for would ultimately depend on your business, product or service, conversion goal, and target customers. While some sources say, 1 to 4% is the average, it does not necessarily mean that these numbers would apply to your specific situation.
Instead of worrying too much about targeting a specific number, focus on understanding what your target customers actually need and/or want and providing them with whatever that is. If you do this, the conversions would automatically follow.
Question #3: How does conversion rate optimization work?
Conversion rate optimization is all about making adjustments to a given website (or single web page) based on the target customer’s wants, needs, motivations, preferences, and behaviour to make the latter more likely to take the desired action.
It typically involves tweaking the copy, graphics, layout, and call-to-action button placement to better guide the prospect to wherever you want them to go and whatever action you need them to take. The goal is to eliminate any friction points that cause users to drop off before they can get to the final call to action and convert.
Question #4: What are the best conversion rate optimization techniques?
The best conversion rate optimization techniques to use would ultimately depend on your target customers’ wants, needs, motivations, preferences, and behaviour. The goal, then, is to figure this part out first before you decide on what techniques to use and adjustments to make.
But how exactly do you do that? Well, all you have to do is ask.
Conduct user testing sessions. Ask for user feedback. Run surveys. Learn to read your analytics. The more information you have, the easier it would be for you to optimize your website for maximum conversions.
Simply implementing so-called best conversion rate optimization practices without first understanding your customers is a bad idea because there is no guarantee that what worked for someone else would also work for you.
Question #5: Is conversion rate optimization right for me?
Conversion rate optimization is right for you if you are already getting enough traffic to your website to conduct A/B testing. If you are only getting, say, 20 visitors per month, that may not be a big enough sample size to give you an accurate picture of what your target customers actually want.
But how do you know how much traffic is enough? Just use this tool. All you have to do is input the current conversion rate of the page you are looking to optimize, check the resulting recommended sample size, and measure your current web traffic against it.
If your current web traffic falls under the recommended sample size, then you should focus first on getting more website visitors. If it is higher than the recommended sample size, then you can proceed with your A/B testing and conversion rate optimization.