The term Conversion Rate Optimization, also known as CRO, often sounds mysterious to many. Especially to those who may not be in the world of digital. But here at Making Science, we believe that it is of great importance. That’s why we decided to write a guide. This will be published in several parts over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for upcoming posts. 

To understand Conversion Rate Optimization, we must first understand a conversion.

Part 1: What is a Conversion?

Simply put, a conversion refers to the moment when a visitor completes a specific goal on a website. Specific goals might include:

• Purchases – Booking a hotel, a pair of shoes online
• Newsletter signups – Receive up to date news or information
• Shopping cart adds – I’ll come back later. I need to think about this purchase a little more
• Form submissions – I’d like to learn more about your school courses.
• App downloads 
• Form/document downloads – I need some more information about something I am researching 

When the user takes action, that’s considered a conversion. Conversions are directly related to the goal or the purpose of the website.

So what exactly is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?

Wouldn’t it be great if we put up a website and everyone who visited bought something or we had success with our website goal? Absolutely! Well Conversion rate optimization helps us do that.

CRO refers to increasing the percentage of Conversions on a website, mobile device or app. Turning visitors into leads and leads into customers.

The idea behind conversion rate optimization is to help you understand how users move through your website, what actions they take, and what is stopping them from completing the goals that your site has.

How do you calculate Conversion to measure success?

We calculate conversion to help us understand how many people that visit your site actually convert into a paying customer.

The formula is: Total Users That Converted / Total Users That Visited Our Website x 100

EXAMPLE:

• I had 5,000 users buy beer on my site this month (caught your attention didn’t I)
• But I had 10,000 visitors to my site this month
• x 100 (to get a percentage)

5,000 / 10,000 x 100 = 50% Conversion Rate of Beer!

Why is Conversion Rate Optimization important

At this point you should understand the basics of CRO. We understand that when we have found an opportunity on our website we should ensure it’s both data driven and user centric. At this point we form a Hypothesis and we should test it. The same way as when a doctor aims to find out what his patient’s heart rate, their blood pressure or perhaps how tired their body feels under certain levels of physical strain or activity. Our take on stress testing with Making Science is about ensuring your team, the tool you are using, your organization as a whole can pass a stress test! Knowing your limits will help you figure out how to plan. 

By introducing conversion rate optimization into your business, you can quickly improve conversion rates on your website. You have facts that show you what to test, where and how. 

How to get started with Conversion Rate Optimization

Start by ensuring that you understand the basics of conversion rate optimization. Be sure that you have a conversion rate optimization tool and of course a strategy in place. And, always be testing! Testing allows you to learn.

Talking to us at Making Science can also help you get started ;-). Start improving your conversion rate today by visiting makingscience.com/contact!

Here you can find parts 2-6:

• The Get It Done Guide To CRO: Part 2 – The CRO Process

• The Get It Done Guide To CRO: Part 3 – Types of testing

• The Get It Done Guide To CRO: Part 4 – What tools do you need?

• The Get It Done Guide To CRO: Part 5 – What can I optimize?

• The Get It Done Guide To CRO: Part 6 – Taking it one step further: User Journey Optimization