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How to increase your conversion rate on a budget – CRO

Optimising your website to convert visits into sales and enquiries may be simpler than you’ve been led to believe.

The big multinationals constantly test and tweak every aspect of their sites to increase conversions, but that doesn’t mean you can’t apply their principles within a small team (and a reasonable budget).

Conversion Rate Optimisation demystified

Conversation Rate Optimisation or CRO simply refers to the process of tracking what your website visitors do – and what they don’t do – then making changes to increase the number of sales or enquiries coming through your site. In other words, it’s about finding ways to make more people buy your product or contact you, more often.

Good CRO starts with real user behaviour

The most important thing to remember about CRO is that it’s not about copying the latest online trend, it’s about what your users want.

CRO should always start with:

●      How users get to key landing pages: Are they coming from organic search results, paid advertising, social media or other sites?

●      Who your users are: Are they new or returning visitors? Where are they based?

●      What they do next: Do they bounce straight off the landing page or continue through the user journey you’ve planned for them?

All this information can be tracked by platforms like Google Analytics or custom software. Once you have a clear picture of what’s happening on your site now, you can make plans about what you want to happen next.

Beware of anyone promising a huge increase in conversions who doesn’t talk about tracking what your audience is doing right now.

Test, tweak, then test again

You probably already have suspicions about what’s causing your users to leave your site before they convert. But before you launch a full website overhaul, start with one of these simple tests:

●      A/B testing: Set up a new version of a landing page, then send half your traffic to the current version, half to the new one. It’s important not to change more than one or two things on the new page, so you know exactly what made the difference.

●      In-person user testing: Sitting someone down with your site and asking them to complete a task is a great way to see where they get confused. But remember, this isn’t as objective as A/B testing. People tend to display more patience when they know their response may offend someone in the room.

●      Mouse tracking: Tracking the exact moves a user makes while on your site can be very revealing, showing you exactly where they focus (and what they ignore). This is only one piece of the puzzle, but it could be the best way to figure out why no one is noticing that call/email/purchase button.

Make CRO part of your routine

Once you’ve tested and found the key weaknesses in your site, it can be tempting to simply make a few changes and call it a day. But CRO is a lot like physical exercise – one session isn’t enough to get real results.

This doesn’t mean you need to spend thousands of dollars or hundreds of hours tracking and testing. However, to see consistent conversions you should incorporate regular reviews and changes into your site’s lifecycle.

Want more?

Whether you’re starting a new site from scratch or looking at a full-scale rebuild, our team can help you put a strong CRO process in place.

To talk about your goals and simple ways to work towards them, get in touch today.