What is CRO?
CRO or Conversion Rate Optimisation on a web page is the act of tailoring the page to help it gain the reaction from visitors that you are aiming for. Many people immediately take this to mean increasing sales but, although this can be the case, good CRO doesn’t always result in a person buying a product. For example, say you have a clickable aspect on your website that says ‘Get in Touch now,’ in this case good CRO would optimise the page so that people would click through and get in touch with your business; but not necessarily buy your product.
USPs
USPs are a business’s Unique Selling Points and differ between companies – meaning there is no ‘one size fits all’ CRO list of recommendations. Say you run an online shop which specialises in bespoke furniture with free international shipping. These two factors are what sets you apart from the thousands of other online furniture companies, including the bigger ones.
In this case, to enhance your website for conversions, these unique features should be highlighted. Say you are looking at an item on two websites, but one site sports a banner advertising free delivery – which are you more likely to order from? Questions like this may seem simple, but are the type of things that it’s wise to ask yourself when optimising your site for conversion.
User Experience
There are many factors which can contribute to user experience on a website, and how a person experiences a page can impact conversion and help prevent ‘bounce-rate.’ ‘Bounce-rate’ is when a user clicks off of your website without visiting any other pages or carrying out actions; something which of course then decreases your conversion rate. Here are just a few ways in which your conversion could be affected:
Site Speed
You may think that your webpage taking a second longer to load than another one wouldn’t have much of an impact on your conversion rate; however, this is not the case. Studies show that a mere one second delay can cause overall conversion to drop by seven percent. This means that not optimising the speed of your site could have a huge impact on overall sales.
The speed of a page is an important factor in CRO, but it’s definitely not the only component involved in improving the overall user experience. Factors such as the prominence of any ‘call to action’ buttons, how easy the navigation bar is to use, and the quality of the copy on the site, can all influence how likely a person is to choose you over a competitor.
Navigation Bar
The navigation bar on a website is where your customers will go to find their way around your website. Therefore it’s important that your navigation bar is simple to use and not too busy.
Making your site easily navigational will help potential customers quickly find what they’re looking for, meaning they are more likely to then purchase your product. If your site is difficult to navigate, people may decide not to spend the time to find what they’re looking for, and instead could ‘bounce’ off your site; opting instead to use a competitor.
Calls to Action
A call to action is a phrase which encourages users to react the way you want them to; for example ‘buy now.’ There are a number of ways to make a CTA more enticing and help improve your conversion rate. For example, instead of having a plain ‘buy now’ hyperlink, having one which looks like a button could attract more attention. This being said, overcomplicating a CTA button could result in a conversion loss – just keep it simple.
There are also colours which have been shown to improve the chance of conversion. Most notably, using a contrasting colour to the background of your website will help a CTA stick out on the page and help prevent people from overlooking it, subconsciously.
These are just a few factors that contribute to overall good CRO practice. If you’re unsure of whether your business’s site is performing to the best of its ability, or to get advice on what more you could be doing to boost conversion rates, get in touch with Colewood. Our dedicated SEO team offer CRO audits of sites as well as ongoing support in helping you improve your company’s online presence.
