What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and How to Boost it?

17 August 2018 / 8 min read

What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and How to Boost it?

Item: What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and How to Boost it?
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Author: Rachael Chapman

By Rachael Chapman

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5 years ago

8 min read

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Running a business is not as easy as it seems. It is absolutely necessary to have a good website for prominence. Websites are one of the ways to maintain a successful online identity through which businesses build credibility and reputation among the prospects. Businesses pay heaps of money for better search engine optimization just to ensure their consumers remain hooked.

Apart from SEO another thing that ensures businesses a prominent and better digital footprint is CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization. Hundreds and thousands of businesses catering to various niches are doing remarkably well only because of prompt Conversion Rate Optimization. Before the confusion continues to persist regarding CRO, let’s dive right into what it really is.

You could also check this SEO Checklist 2019.

Conversion Rate Method or CRO is one of the famous ways through which businesses enhance the performance of their websites. The process behind CRO generally involves usage of analytics and feedback from the users. CRO is often used by businesses to boost their website’s functionality by engaging consumers to do what they are supposed to do.

CROs play a vital role in boosting the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which are either a make or break for a website. It’s all in the hands of KPIs that websites get visitors which later get converted into prospects. However, there is a misconception associated with KPI that it contributes in only acquiring better downloads, newer registrations, and consumers. Although what it really does is, it adds the needed oomph to the website. The oomph that makes businesses gain new consumers by making rapid new conversions for which CRO comes into play.

CRO provides the consumers with what they intend to see. It generally does that by finding out what is it that consumers or in this case, website visitors are looking for and without wasting much time, giving them what they want immediately. This is because not catering to a website visitor quickly can result in loss for a potential customer. CRO, furthermore, plays quite a notable part in placing a catchy call-to-action under the spotlight so it can be seen by the ones who are supposed to see it. In a way, CRO does a huge favor to websites which have a catchy and engaging content. This happens as it removes away all the unnecessary ‘boring’ websites from the way so the visitors can ultimately land on what they want to see.

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Understanding the Technicalities – How Does CRO Work?

Since CRO completely relies on how good a website is, therefore, it works solely on things that make a website.

Following are those aspects:

A persuasive headline – First impression is, nonetheless, the last impression. Whenever the attention of the audience is meant to be grabbed in terms of the website, nothing beats a good persuasive headline. Websites that ensure to have a good persuasive headline manage to grab the attention of visitors that later on become their prospects. Persuasive headlines are best when they are interrogative. There is no doubt that questions create a sense of curiosity in the minds of its readers. Something which in terms of websites, eventually leads its visitors to scroll down further. So remember, a persuasively written headline or an attention-grabbing headline solves problems of its visitors and addresses them directly is all that a business needs to convert its potential consumers into active ones.

Crisp, Relevant content – No one like content which makes no sense and goes irrelevant with the actual topic. Plus another thing that adds to the content’s failure is the vagueness and impreciseness. Websites require an extra emphasis on the relevance and catchiness of the content. Businesses that manage to deliver a crisp and relevantly written content add directly to the increase of CRO.

Impressive call-to-action – A lot of Business-to-Business marketers incorporate catchy call-to-actions into their websites, which is one of the best ways to keep visitors engaged to a remarkable extent. Call-to-actions are best for businesses that are small start-ups. According to a study online, call-to-actions are opted by almost 70% of businesses worldwide and they are doing remarkably great.

Aesthetically appealing design – Everybody likes to see what’s easy to read. A design that fits all ratios in the eyes of its beholder is all that a website needs in order to keep the attention of its visitors grabbed. Websites designed with a clean approach are a lot easier to understand, rather than those that are bombarded with a design. When it comes to designing a website, businesses should keep in mind that simpler and elegant looking site is better.

Frequent Updates of content – A lot of websites lag behind in keeping their content updated. Nobody likes to see an old and outdated content. Businesses that keep their websites updated, i.e. they opt for content outsourcing, which enables them to have their content regularly updated. Through this, the visitors would never get tired of repetitive, outdated and boring content.

Use of images – Human brain processes images and visuals faster than words. Websites that incorporate a fair number of images are able to engage their consumers in a better way while having a boosted CRO. Opt for illustrations that are nicely drawn and catchy. Because these convey messages in a better way while guaranteeing 100% consumer engagement.

The inclusion of Testimonials – Nothing builds the credibility of a business more than its positive reviews and testimonials. Businesses that opt for testimonials approach on their websites, allow their consumers to have an insight into what they are going for. Testimonials are another great way to increase and boost consumer engagement and can add to CRO.

PPC – Pay per click is another way to boost conversion rating. Through this, websites allow their visitors to land directly on the page they want their visitors to see. By making landing pages and opting for PPC, businesses across the globe have seen an increase in conversion ratings.

Why is CRO important for your business?

CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization depends on several elements that add to the strength of a website. Through CRO, businesses are able to come up with newer ideas more quickly. It suffices to say that CRO for businesses is a long-term strategy through which they can closely monitor their website.

For businesses conversion rate optimization – CRO is extremely crucial because through it the number of website visitors is boosted and remarkable revenue is generated. To understand this better, let’s take a quick example. If a website is making around 2000 visitors in a month and its conversion rate is 10% then the conversions in a month will turn out to be 200. However, if the Conversion rate is optimized, then the same website will have a conversion rate of 50%, with 300 conversions in a month.

How to boost CRO for a business?

Here are the factors that boost conversion rate optimization for a business:

Speed – Nothing worsens the experience of consumers than the website that is slow. Slower websites fail to boost CRO because in this case, it is the UX that suffers. Websites that load at a faster rate are able to receive prompt optimizations because of better consumer engagement, satisfaction and noticeable rankings in the search engine.
Build social credibility – As mentioned above, allowing consumers to review for the websites they have visited is another thing that boosts CRO. There are hundreds and thousands of people who opt for reviews to build their opinions and decisions around it. Therefore, putting a section with reviews in a website enables it to build a better social credibility among its competitors.
Once again, catchy CTAs – Call-to-actions paves way for consumers to have their problems addressed in a better way. Websites that are serious about generating CRO always formulate benefit driven call-to-actions. Yes, CTAs need to be attention-grabbing but if they are failing to cater the benefit that consumer is seeking, then the website might find itself in trouble in terms of CRO generation.

What does a CRO process involve?

Consumer Rate Optimization focuses majorly on keeping consumers of a business hooked to them. Following are the things that make a CRO process:

Carrying out a timely evaluation to gather all the necessary data regarding the places where the website is seemingly lagging behind. Through this, problems on a website can get a chance to get fixed right away.

Carrying out a thorough exploratory research can allow a business to find various aspects of a website that need proper enhancement and further addition.

Another step in the process consists of conducting a competitive analysis to contemplate where the business is standing relative to its competitors.

Formulating a prototype for conversions that the business needs to be directed towards its website. Doing this a better pathway is created for visitors to land directly on the webpage they intend to see.

Finding out the areas of a website that are loaded with problems.

Running a hypothesis on the factors that the aforementioned exploratory research will point towards. Doing this, chances of having a problem-free website will arise.

Then comes the phase of running the test hypothesis by analyzing and then finalizing the factors through which the website is generating CROs rapidly.

Benefits of CRO

For businesses that intend to set an impact on the digital industry, CRO is what that comes in handy. According to various experts in the field, to ensure a website is getting visitors that later on become prospects it is vital to get rid of the frictions from the way.

There are many other benefits that CRO has such as:

1. Expand the consumer-base – When a website is optimized it allows its users to get better experiences. Better consumer experience is directly proportional to an increase in the consumer base. When a consumer is having a good experience while visiting a website then more traffic will be directed, which will result in more conversions, more conversion rates, and revenue.

2. An increment in website profits – Another thing that CRO does for a business is the increase in website profits. Other than increased traffic and better credibility which are the intangible advantages of CRO, there are tangible profits that the business-running professionals can put directly in their pockets.

3. Better competitive advantage – For every business to maintain a better reputation and a vast consumer base, it is crucial to have a good command over competitive advantage. Through CRO businesses can analyze the uniqueness of their consumers that they can, later on, own for themselves. For a business, it’s all down to offering something unique and then ensuring to deliver it is what’s made possible through effective and immediate Conversion rate optimization.

4. Enhances Brand Image – The Brand image is what a customer recalls every time a brand is mentioned. For a business that is relying on its website for a better brand image. CRO provides with the right amount of help to such websites by reducing the unwanted friction from their path, so they can end up with a better brand image. Remember the better a website is for a business, the better it will be recalled by its consumers.

5. Google Loves CRO – Google prefers when websites spend time on their enhancement. If a website is made as per Google’s standards, i.e. incorporating CROs, it will make sure to divert extra traffic towards it. Upon receiving a positive increase in conversion rates Google puts such websites atop its list, so it gets increased chances of being seen, each and every time.

Do’s and Don’ts of Conversion Rate Optimization

Conclusion

Conversion Rate Optimization, infamously known as CRO acts as the basis of a business that relies on its website for consumer building. CRO websites are able to convert visitors into potential consumers. Among the numerous other advantages of conversion rate optimization, the ones mentioned in this article are the key points that contribute to any business’ growth and credibility.

In a nutshell, CRO’s basic agenda is to make sure that each business has a better and prominent digital presence. Of course, it is not as easy as it sounds. The processes are daunting and require meticulous researches. For businesses that are striving to gain a better CRO, getting help from the right professionals is necessary. For websites that can help in generating tangible profits to gain a better reputation in the digital sector, consumer rate optimization is an SEO counterpart that businesses across the globe are opting for to ensure growth and success.

CRO is a form of art that helps people land the website they want to see. By incorporating CRO techniques and approaches such as aesthetically appealing visual design, catchy and persuasive copywriting and a positive user experience. All this can be done by running numerous website tests to see what the consumers want to see and what they don’t.