Conversion Rate Optimization: Every business needs conversions to make a profit. There are a lot of marketing strategies aimed to optimize conversion rates.
Unfortunately, 63% of companies lack a structured approach to conversions, without which their optimization process can be difficult.
This article covers all there is to know about conversion rate optimization for beginners. First, we’ll explain how to calculate the conversion rate. Then, we’ll show six strategies to help you with its optimization process.
Let’s get started.
What is Conversion Rate Optimization?
To understand conversion rate optimization (CRO), you need to know what the conversion rate is.
The conversion rate is the total percentage of your audience that converts. It depends on the conversion goals, related to the four stages of the sales funnel. These stages are awareness, interest, desire, and action.
CRO is the process of improving your website and its content to increase the number of conversions. CRO is important because conversions lead to sales and, therefore, profits.
The website elements that contribute to conversions include the website design, page loading speed, and even the domain name.
For example, you can use a domain name checker to find an SEO-friendly website name. Such a name will help increase the website’s search engine ranking, ultimately allowing more conversions to happen.
How to Calculate Conversion Rates?
The conversion rate helps determine how much you’ll need to spend on internet marketing to see a return on investment (ROI).
Calculating the conversion rate comes down to your marketing metrics. They include:
- Traffic sources
- New visitor conversion rate
- Return visitor conversion rates
- Interactions per visit
- Value per visit
- Cost per conversion
- Bounce rate
- Exit pages
These metrics are available on your Google Analytics reports and website analytics.
Use these three formulas to calculate the conversion rate :
- Conversion rate = total number of conversions / total number of sessions x 100
- Conversion rate = total number of conversions / total number of unique visitors x 100
- Conversion rate = total number of conversions / total number of leads x 100
For example, if you made 2,000 sales last month out of the total of 20,000 visitors, then your conversion rate is 10%.
A good conversion rate is between 2-5%, with 10% being very good.
Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies
We’ll cover the six CRO strategies. They combine the three crucial elements of CRO – design, analytics, and copywriting.
1. Text-Based CTAs on Blog Posts
A text-based call-to-action (CTA), or anchor text CTA, is a line of text linked to a landing page. It’s a new strategy you can try in addition to regular CTAs.
Anchor text CTAs boost conversions by up to 121%, according to HubSpot. Usually, such CTAs are formatted as H3 or H4 headings in blog posts.
Before adding anchor text CTAs, choose the right blog posts and make sure the CTA matches the blog topic. Then, add relevant keywords to the anchor text. CTAs with relevant keywords increase the conversion rate by 87%.
2. A/B Test Your Landing Pages
A/B test is the process of testing two website elements to see which one is more effective. The elements can be website pages, pieces of content, buttons, and more.
A/B testing maintains user engagement and reduces bounce rates, thus increasing sales.
To A/B test your landing pages, start by researching the website performance. Understand which page performs well by using A/B testing tools, like Google Optimize or Optimizely.
Then, test one aspect of a web page that needs improvement. This can be the CTA button, copy placement, web page color, or other elements that affect performance.
Finally, run the test and review the results. Then, keep the effective elements and eliminate the ones with subpar performance.
3. Optimize High-Performing Blog Posts
High-performing blog posts have a lot of page views, visits, returning visits, and a high average length of stay.
You need to optimize high-performing posts that have high volumes of traffic and low conversion rates. With the right strategies, you can redirect the traffic to increase the number of conversions.
Start by updating the content to stay relevant. Additionally, add more keywords, optimize the page speed, employ CTA buttons, and improve the customer experience.
4. Leverage Retargeting
In most scenarios, sales don’t happen during the first customer visit. That’s why you need to retarget them to close sales. This builds customer interest and ensures they move to the next stages of conversion.
Ad retargeting is particularly effective. By targeting paid ads at people who have visited your website and social media profiles, you can reach customers who have abandoned their cart.
To fully utilize ad retargeting, consider creating a campaign with user-generated content (UGC). UGC boosts 161% more conversion across all business industries.
5. Reduce Bounce and Exit Rates
The bounce rate represents the proportion of single page visits to the total number of visits. It helps measure how engaging a website is – are users inclined to stick around or will they leave after only visiting one page?
The exit rate is the percentage of page visits that are the last in the session. It is calculated for a page based on how many sessions were terminated on it without the user proceeding to a different page.
Reasons for high bounce and exit rates revolve around website content and page structuring. If users see too many elements on one page, they might close the page.
To reduce bounce and exit rates, start by optimizing the website loading speed. Then, simplify the navigation and add breadcrumbs, for example. Lastly, focus on content quality and quantity.
6. Measure Your Conversions
Once you’ve optimized your conversion rates, work doesn’t stop there. You need to monitor and measure them regularly. Tracking conversion rates also helps optimize marketing campaigns.
The fastest way to measure conversions is through Google Analytics reporting. Through it, you can also track social media ad performance. Remember to take into account the aforementioned important metrics when measuring the conversion rates.
Conclusion
Conversion rate optimization is the process to maximize conversions. It combines various marketing metrics with strategies related to design, website analytics, and copywriting.
To recap, here are the six strategies to optimize conversion rates:
- Employ text-based CTAs in blog posts
- A/B test your landing pages
- Optimize high-performing blog posts
- Leverage retargeting
- Reduce bounce and exit rates
- Measure your conversions
Use one or more strategies to maximize conversions and make a profit. Good luck!