What is conversion rate optimisation?

Digital marketing is an essential part of earning attention for your small business and driving traffic to your website. 

Once you have people looking at your website, you have a chance to convert them or get them to interact with your business. You can boost your results and make the most out of this audience with conversion rate optimisation. 

But what is conversion rate optimisation, and how does it work? We can help answer all those questions and more. 

This guide covers conversion rate optimisation, including:

• What is conversion rate optimisation?
• Why is conversion rate optimisation important to small businesses?
• How can you use conversion rate optimisation? 

Conversion rate optimisation is the practice of improving or maximising the percentage of your online visitors who take a specific action. 

Your conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors that engage with the business as you desire. It helps you build your business, allowing you to earn leads and new customers.

The desired action you base your conversion rate on must be measurable and realistic. Here are some you might focus on:  

• Makes a purchase or become an active customer 
• Subscribes to an email newsletter
• Clicks ‘add to cart’
• Books a meeting or consultation
• Requests a quote 
• Registers interest in learning more

To calculate your conversion rate, find how many visitors you have on your site in a given time. Then, add up the conversions you earned in that time. 

Conversion rate = Number of conversions Number of site visitors ( 100)

Conversion rate optimisation analyses the effectiveness of your digital marketing. Though the digital world offers countless opportunities, reaching many and only earning the attention of a few is fruitless for your business.

Plus, small businesses don’t want to reach just anyone. You need to access people within your target audience. 

Your conversion optimisation rate lets you understand how well you target the right people and how convincing your methods are. If the conversion rate is low, you can attempt new tactics until it improves. 

With a strong conversion rate, the attention you earn on your website will better benefit your business. 

Conversion rates can vary widely depending on which action you base conversions on. For example, the rate that site visitors make a purchase will likely be lower than those who sign up for an email list. 

With that said, the average global conversion rate for commercial websites was 2.17% in 2020. This number can offer you a metric for your conversion rate optimisation goals.

Now that you know what conversion rate optimisation is and why it’s essential, you might want to try it out. Let’s go over the main parts of a conversion strategy. 

Your conversion goal determines how you measure the rate. So, first decide what you want your site visitors to do. What action might benefit your business most? 

Make sure this action is realistic and something you can measure. For example, you might choose to count how many site visitors make an online purchase. 

Then, establish a percentage goal for your conversion rate, such as 2-3%. 

You can improve your conversion rate more quickly if you know it. Try creating a means for tracking this percentage to see where you stand and how it changes. 

For example, you could measure site traffic through Google Analytics and compare it to the number of website sales you earn. 

Alternatively, look into an analytics tool like Fullstory to stay on top of these numbers and receive in-depth insights.  

It’s important to know the barriers of your website, or what typically makes people leave. As a result, you can improve these things to increase conversions. 

Here are a few reasons people often leave a site: 

• It’s confusing or difficult to navigate
• It’s slow to load 
• It appears outdated 
• It’s poorly designed 
• It lacks information – use our website checklist
• It plays sounds or music unprompted 
• It isn’t mobile-friendly – use the mobile-friendly test 

When people struggle to navigate a site, they’ll look elsewhere. But, if you create a seamless experience, you can keep your visitors longer and convert them more often. 

Consider using an analytics tool or sending out a survey to see when and why people often leave your site and what you could improve. 

As you reduce the number of barriers that drive down conversion, you can also improve the hooks that bring people to your site and make them act. 

Here are some hooks that can help you earn more traffic:

• Promote your website through social media platforms  
• Add your website URL to marketing materials (use a QR code for accessibility) 
• Use SEO to increase the number of people who find your site organically 
• Add a blog to your site to earn more visitors 

Here are some drivers that might increase your conversion rate: 

• Offer visitors help with a question submission or chatbot
• Provide an incentive – such as a free download, discount, or loyalty points 
• Add testimonials from satisfied customers
• Add a Call to Action (CTA) to the home page or as a popup window 

A CTA is a message that uses active language to encourage people to make an immediate decision. This tactic shows visitors what you want them to do, promotes that action, and makes it accessible with a link. 

Now you can use conversion rate optimisation to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and take advantage of website traffic. Just remember to:

• Settle on a conversion goal 
• Measure and track your percentage 
• Decrease your website barriers 
• Increase your website’s hooks to retain traffic

From there, you’ll turn more website visitors into active leads and customers. Next, check out our article on five unique digital marketing ideas for your business. 

As you improve your conversion rate, you’ll need to stay on top of your growing profits. 

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