Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a critical strategy to the success of your online marketing initiatives. Why? Because CRO is the art and science of getting your visitors to take a desired action once they have arrived on your site. So while the goal of Search Engine Optimization is to drive more traffic to your site through search engine results, Conversion Rate Optimization is meant to spur the right activity one a visitor lands on your website.
A business can have multiple conversion goals – like downloading a whitepaper, signing up for a newsletter or requesting a quote. CRO is the practice of continuously testing and improving your site to increase your website’s conversions.
While you may believe your website looks great, it’s ultimately only successful if it is producing results. With Google Analytics tracking your website activity, it’s easy to identify areas of your website that are under-performing. Using Google Analytics data, you can benchmark traffic and conversions before testing certain variables. Pages that are ripe for testing are your forms, or any page that suffers from a high bounce rate (visitors leaving your site immediately after seeing one page).
Options for testing are limitless, from button text and color, to the prominence of your call-to-action on a page. CRO can be a daunting task, so we’ve sifted through the resources available to provide you with the “best of the best” tips on the topic. Want to skip the reading and find out how our Cleveland Ohio web design team can help? Let’s talk.
7 Freshly Brewed Conversion Rate Optimization Tips for 2016
“Metrics such as ‘mobile traffic,’ ‘screen resolution,’ ‘geography,’ etc., can tell you where and how most of your visitors are using your website. With this information at hand, you’ll be able to guide your optimization efforts effectively.” Read more.
Conversion Rate Optimization: From a Luxury to a Necessity in 2016
“Try using different copy on your submit button, shortening your form, replacing header or section images or moving your form to a new spot on the web page (or to a new page!). You’ll be surprised what a difference it makes.” Learn more.
Conversion Optimization: Build a Better Home Page
“In as succinct a fashion as possible, your home page should clearly show visitors who you are, what you do, where you are located (if your e-commerce site also has a physical location), when you are available, and why they should purchase your products. Remember that this information needs to be digested in eight seconds or less.”
4 CRO Lessons From Steve Jobs
“More simplicity means better conversions. Steve Jobs understood this from a product development point of view. We would do well to apply it from a conversion optimization point of view.”
What else did Steve Jobs teach us about CRO?
10 Brilliant Tips from Conversion Rate Optimization Experts
“Put another way, everything we publish needs to serve our audience’s needs and expectations as well as our marketing goals. I realize this sounds super intense, but we have a ton of fun creating this stuff and strive to make our content as delightful and entertaining — in addition to educational — as possible.” Read more from these experts.
Landing Page Flaws That Kill Your Conversions
“The average landing page conversion rates are all over the board. Some people claim the average is 2%, while other say you should be at around 20%. Wishpond looked at data from a number of different companies and found the average conversion rate for a B2B landing page is 13.28%, while the average for B2C is 9.87%.” More statistics here.
The Marriage Between Conversion Optimization & SEO
“Conversion optimization is the most powerful way to improve your clients’ revenue and conversions from end users. We can optimize every element of a site (e.g., technical, links, on-page, social and so on), but if users don’t convert, our efforts toward driving qualified traffic through organic search are not as valuable (unless traffic is your main KPI).” Take a closer look at this union.
Why Responsive Design Is Not Mobile Optimization (and What to Do About It)
“There is no one reason why mobile users don’t convert as often as desktop users. A smaller screen, connectivity issues, distraction, etc. cannot be blindly blamed for low conversion rates. This is as close as it gets to a universal statement: Mobile users are more susceptible to friction. Why? Because of the nature of mobile. They want what they want when they want it. They want to be able to checkout or signup for a free trial with one hand while they’re shopping for groceries or talking about the weather with their Uber driver.” Learn more here.
Download our free e-book and learn more about the 4 website must haves that turn your website into an effective lead generation tool:
