Conversion rate optimisation

Conversion rate optimisation improves a website or shop when too few conversions are generated despite many visitors. It covers analysis, usability, content, technology, checkout and tests (e.g. A/B tests) to achieve more purchases, leads or sign-ups.

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) becomes important when a website – whether an online shop or a corporate site – generates too few conversions despite sufficient visitor numbers. A conversion isn't just an order, but any desired action by a visitor – such as a contact enquiry, a newsletter sign-up or a download. The conversion rate is the ratio of conversions to visits and varies widely depending on the industry and purpose of the website. If it is lower than it could be, conversion rate optimisation uses various measures to generate more conversions from the same traffic.

What does conversion rate optimisation involve?

There can be many reasons why customers drop off shortly before completing. Conversion rate optimisation therefore starts at several points: the structure of the website (is it logically organised? do users quickly find what they are looking for?), loading times, design and content that must suit the target group, and trust signals such as reviews, trust badges or clear shipping and returns information. In online shops, complicated checkout processes, surprising shipping costs, forced registration or missing payment methods also often lead to abandoned purchases.

Where do you start?

As with many online marketing measures, the starting point is an analysis of the current situation. This involves evaluating web analytics data – for example, where in the checkout process users drop off – and testing the website itself for usability, for example with user tests, heatmaps or session recordings. From this, experts identify the weak spots and develop hypotheses about which changes could bring more conversions. This can be a single measure or a whole catalogue of measures, prioritised by expected impact and effort.

Is that the end of conversion rate optimisation?

No – conversion rate optimisation is an ongoing process. The great advantage of online marketing: the effect of changes can be measured. In A/B tests, some visitors see the existing version and others the new one – so real data shows which variant brings more conversions. Sufficient traffic and a long enough test period are important for the result to be statistically reliable. Besides the conversion rate, metrics such as average order value, revenue per visitor or checkout abandonment rate are measured.