What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?
Conversion rate optimisation (also known as CRO) is all about optimising your website so that it can generate a better rate of conversions per customer visit. CRO analyses your website and identifies solutions to problems that exist in the customer journey, especially if you’re noticing a high amount of visits not turning into conversions. If SEO, PPC and Paid Social are what attract customers to your site, CRO is what keeps them there and drives sales, calls and enquiries.
What’s a Good Conversion Rate?
Conversion rate is usually shown in a percentage, which is calculated by dividing conversions by total visitors to your site and multiplying it by 100.
Typically, a solid conversion rate is between 2-5%, but this can vary depending on what sector you operate in. Through CRO, this rate can be increased by implementing changes to your site to improve the customer experience.
Conversion Rate Optimisation Strategies
There are a number of strategies that you can employ when looking to improve a site’s conversion rate. Not only will they improve the look and feel of your site, but they add functionality and drive more conversions.
Page Load Speed
One thing that is likely to drive a user away from your site is a long page loading time. When attention spans are short and patience is thin, a long page load time could lead to a potential customer closing your page and visiting a competitor instead. Common culprits for a slow page speed are large images, issues with Javascript and bloated page sizes.
Calls to Action (CTAs)
One of the easiest ways in which to get a customer to call you, email you or buy one of your products is through a call to action, also known as a CTA. A CTA will display an active message like ‘Call Us Now’, ‘Get a Quote’ or ‘Add to Cart’, encouraging users to follow those actions.
And not only will these encourage users, but because they’ll be displayed in the form of a button (usually featuring graphic and contrasting colours to the rest of your site), they’ll be easily visible, meaning the user can quickly find what they need.
Navigation and Site Structure
If a user is looking for a specific page that isn’t the homepage, can they easily find the page they’re looking for in the dropdown menu? Is the menu easy to find itself, and is it easy to read? Having a neat and tidy page structure, along with the right navigation, can allow customers to find the page they’re looking for. For example, if you’re running an eCommerce site this would mean having ordered product categories and sub-categories. A messy site could mean customers not finding the page they’re looking for.
Improving User Experience (UX)
A good user experience is imperative to generating conversions. Ensuring a good user experience means understanding how your customers behave, knowing what they want and ensuring the site is easy to use. For example, is all of the relevant information easy to find and easy to read? Are the CTAs relevant to your customers? Can they easily find the contact form to message you?
CRO tools that analyse a user’s behaviour can be utilised to improve UX, using heat maps and click maps to show where users are clicking and how often they’re clicking certain elements. You can also find out how far down page users typically scroll before leaving your site. Through this CRO analysis, you can work out how your users typically use your site and can modify your site specifically to work better for them.
CRO at DNRG
At DNRG we offer a comprehensive conversion rate optimisation service that takes into account a range of different factors with the goal of increasing your conversion rate, generating more leads and increasing your sales. Get in touch with us to discuss how DNRG implementing CRO on your site can help your business.