In today’s world, where many businesses devote a large part of their marketing activities to various online platforms, conversion rate is particularly important. Conversion rate refers specifically to turning audience members into customers and buyers. Even if a website or business account on a social media platform receives the most visits, its sales will still be very low without an appropriate conversion rate and CRO.
The main purpose of conversion rate optimization is, in fact, to increase the proportion of audience members and visitors who become actual buyers. If you also run an online business and want to increase your conversion rate, stay with us until the end of this article.
What Is a Conversion Rate?
Before discussing the conversion rate optimization process, it is helpful to provide a brief, useful explanation of conversion rate, or CR. In the simplest terms, the main goal of any shop or store is to sell as many products as possible. An online store or a social media account has exactly the same objective, but achieving it requires a large portion of its incoming visitors and traffic to lead to purchases.
To calculate conversion rate, you need to consider the number of purchases relative to your website’s traffic and visitors over a specified period. For example, if your website receives 200 visitors in a month and around 20 of them purchase a product, your website’s conversion rate for that month will be 10 percent. For many websites, this conversion rate is considered very low, and they continually seek to optimize it.
Understanding Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
According to HubSpot, the main purpose of conversion rate optimization is to improve the user experience. In fact, this improvement in user experience can be so effective and satisfactory that it changes an audience member’s decision from viewing a product to buying it. This is why conversion rate optimization is a particularly important topic for online businesses.
In a more technical definition, CRO is exactly equivalent to return on investment: the higher a website’s conversion rate, the higher its return on investment will be. In the simplest definition, conversion rate optimization is precisely the process through which you want a website user or visitor to take the action you want them to take.
For example, you might place advertising banners on a page of your website and want users to click those banners after entering the page. Each user’s click on these advertising banners increases your website’s conversion rate.
The Difference Between SEO and Conversion Rate Optimization
Contrary to what many business owners and even SEO practitioners believe, conversion rate optimization does not mean performing SEO on a website. SEO and CRO are actually entirely different subjects. More clearly, optimizing your website for search engines is not the same as increasing its conversion rate. Increasing conversion rate means making the most of your website’s traffic to sell products or services.
Conversion Rate Optimization Techniques
One common question among online business owners is: where should we start with conversion rate optimization? To begin, you first need to define conversion goals for each page of the website. For example, an online store’s main objective in increasing its conversion rate is to increase product sales.
By contrast, websites providing services and selling products to businesses primarily do this to increase the number of leads collected through the website. The main CR optimization goals include the following:
- Media: views of the website’s target pages and the number of advertising impressions.
- E-commerce: product sales and additions to the shopping cart.
- Travel: ancillary and additional purchases, and bookings.
- B2B: leads generated and deals completed.
Calculating the Overall Conversion Rate
One of the main conversion rate optimization techniques is accurately calculating the website’s overall conversion rate. As explained above, conversion rate refers to the people who take your desired actions when entering the website. By calculating your website’s conversion rate regularly and consistently, you can determine its overall conversion rate for a period such as a year.
Optimizing the Target Page to Increase Conversions
To optimize conversion rate, you also need to optimize the page in question using appropriate methods. Simple ways to optimize landing pages include:
- Using appealing, optimized, user-friendly headings to introduce products and services.
- Using larger icons for navigation buttons, back buttons, and similar controls.
- Placing important information and key elements at the top of the page.
- Using relevant, optimized, high-quality images on the landing page.
- Optimizing the page for mobile devices through responsive website design.
Increasing Website Speed: An Effective Approach to CRO
Another approach that many SEO practitioners and online business owners overlook in conversion rate optimization is increasing website speed. Contrary to common assumptions, improving website speed alone has a significant effect on increasing conversion rate. In fact, users often leave a website because it loads slowly, which in turn reduces its conversion rate.
Using an Optimized Call to Action (CTA) on the Landing Page
A call to action on a landing page is the section where you ask the audience or viewer to do something, such as visit the homepage, view products, and so on. Using professionally written call-to-action copy on each landing page automatically increases the website’s conversion rate. For example, it is better to direct your audience through CTAs to your website’s most visited pages so that you can optimize your conversion rate further and more effectively.
According to research, placing a CTA at the end of the text has the least effect on conversion rate optimization. By contrast, placing this section at the beginning of the article can have a substantial potential impact.
Adding Live Chat to Pages with the Highest Conversion Rates
One of the best conversion rate optimization techniques is to use a live chat box on pages with a good conversion rate. This allows users who have any doubts or questions about an issue, or about the purchasing process and its terms, to contact the online support and advisory team immediately. Of course, the support team’s speed and real-time responsiveness in this chat box are extremely important.
Using Pop-Ups in Website Blog Posts
Placing small advertising banners, or pop-ups, around the edges of your website’s most visited pages is another simple yet effective conversion rate optimization approach. These banners can easily attract audience attention and ultimately direct people to the intended landing page. However, the design and appeal of these advertising banners have a direct effect on attracting clicks.
Running Appealing, Targeted Advertising Campaigns
Conversion rate optimization takes place when targeted, appealing advertising is carried out continuously and repeatedly. A prerequisite, however, is an accurate and in-depth understanding of the target audience. By identifying your audience, you can run targeted advertising with strong responses and high conversion rates.
Offering Different Payment Methods and Options
One of the most creative approaches to optimizing a website’s conversion rate is offering multiple payment options on target pages. According to customer psychology principles, providing several payment options, such as payment on delivery, online payment, and installment payments, gives buyers greater freedom of choice.
Introducing Some of the Best and Most Widely Used CRO Tools
Alongside conversion rate optimization techniques, you should also use helpful, practical tools. Some of the best and most widely used conversion rate optimization tools include:
- The Hello Bar website
- The Similar Web tool
- The SumoMe tool
Each of these tools has different useful features and additional capabilities, although their overall functions are similar. For example, with SumoMe you can design professional, appealing pop-ups and thereby increase your website’s conversion rate.
End-to-End Conversion Rate Optimization with Disaan Branding Agency
Disaan Branding Agency, with its outstanding track record in branding and online marketing, is able to provide the best and most comprehensive services in this field. Drawing on the knowledge of its skilled, experienced workforce, the agency can develop the best and most appropriate strategy for optimizing website conversion rates and support website managers throughout every stage of implementing that strategy.