5 Must-Know Things about CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation)

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is where a website or landing page is created with the main goal of creating conversions from the visitors that come to it. This means that the page is set up specifically to encourage those who land on it to buy a product, download an ebook, sign up to the newsletter, or whatever the particular desired action may be.

It is not a complicated thing to do, but is time-consuming and requires both data and knowledge. To get you started, here are our five key things you must know about CRO before you start trying to improve your conversion rates.

• Your web platform is importantThe CMS (content management system) you use is vital – if it is not up to standard you will not be able to undertake CRO. You must be able to change and then test things easily via your CMS. And change them back again if they don’t improve things!
• SEO comes firstBefore you tackle CRO be sure you have a solid search engine optimisation (SEO) programme in place. You will only be able to improve your conversion rate if your traffic rate is good, so SEO is the first thing you need to be working on. You might have a traffic problem, and your conversion rate will never look brilliant if you’re getting low visitor numbers. It is also important to understand how visitors come to your site and how they behave when there.
• Test, test and test againCRO involves a lot of testing and you must get used to this. Every change you make must be put through its paces and the results analysed. It takes time, but is time well spent.
• Get used to the changeYou could well find that through a CRO programme you have to make big changes to your website, and you might not like them. But you must get used to them. BE prepared to go big, and go quick.
• Don’t forget the returning visitorsConversions can be greatly improved if you focus on existing customers who come back to your site. Turning them into repeating customers can bring big CRO gains. Do this by optimising conversions from the back-end for existing customers.

CRO is about much more than simply refreshing your landing pages and requires a new way of thinking across your web departments. By realising the importance of SEO and back-end practices, and being open to spending some time on doing what is right for your online presence, you can make improvements in conversion rates.