You may know about SEO (search engine optimization) and your website loads lightning fast. Your site may have graphics and language all reflect your company’s brand, but all of that doesn’t matter if your goal of conversions is not met. Perhaps you are a company owner and are hands off with your website, but it is something you should know about because it affects your bottom line, especially if your company is e-commerce based. It has been shown that customers who make transactions on a website are likely to be repeat customers and recommend the site they use to friends and family. In many ways, CRO is just as important as SEO or Pay Per Click campaigns. Let’s take a deeper dive on CRO and how to improve it.
What is CRO?
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), simply put, is getting a user to perform an action you want them to when they visit your company’s website. The action could be signing up for a monthly newsletter sent to their email, or it could be making a purchase. Whatever your goal is for a customer, CRO matters.
How Do I Improve My Site’s CRO?
First, you need to know your site’s conversion rate before engaging in CRO improvement. The formula is easy to remember and calculate, Total Conversions ÷ Total Number of Site Visitors = Conversion Rate. If your conversion rate is 40% or higher your company is doing something right on their website, however, if the conversion rate is 3% changes need to be made.
Streamline
The more obstacles a user has to overcome to take action, the less likely that action is to happen. If your goal is to have site visitors purchase a product don’t require them to fill out too many fields. During a customer, transaction is not the place to mine for customer data. Requiring a customer to fill out 30 different fields before they complete a transaction will lead to customer frustration and going elsewhere for the product you offer. If your company’s goal is to have a customer sign up for a newsletter, make sure it is on the homepage, and it is evident to the user. Another issue is the overuse of images, don’t include so many on your website that the user can’t find what they are they are there for in the first place. Too many images can also slow down how fast your site loads, which will have a negative impact on your CRO. When it comes to encouraging conversions, remember, less is more.
Urge the User On
You are most likely familiar with calls to action, but their importance cannot be understated, especially where CRO is concerned. Make sure that you have a clearly visible call to action buttons with phrases like “Buy Now,” “Subscribe Now” or “Get in Touch Today” to gently push site visitors to convert.
Establish Trust
If your company is a member of an organization such as the Better Business Bureau or a professional organization make sure to include badges. This idea is applicable with any other ways that your company can prove they are trustworthy such as adding a badge that your website is secure.
Word of Mouth
Include customer testimonials on your company’s site from satisfied customers. Include a short video of the customer. Don’t use a long video for a customer testimonial; it will affect your load times. You can also use a customer quote that is both visible and can be found by search engines. Testimonials that are from actual customers and that do not seem contrived can have a real payoff when it comes to conversion rates.
CRO should be considered part of your overall marketing strategy and when done correctly should result in more visitors to your site becoming customers.