What is Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)?

Turning website visitors into loyal customers is one of the biggest challenges businesses face online. With so many options just a click away, it’s easy for potential customers to browse and then bounce without ever taking action.

This is where Conversion Rate Optimisation comes into play. This strategy aims to relieve any pain points your online visitors have regarding your website. The good news? CRO isn’t just for big companies with huge budgets; any business in any industry can use these techniques to improve its online performance.

In this blog post, we’ll break down what CRO is, explain why it should matter to you, share step-by-step strategies, and highlight practical tools and tips you can use right away to boost your results.

If you’re ready to turn more of your traffic into loyal customers, you’re in the right place.

What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?

Why is CRO so important?

• Maximising your existing traffic
• Understanding your customers better
• Staying competitive
• Building trust and credibility
• Making data-driven decisions

How do I calculate my business’s conversion rate?

• What is a “good” conversion rate?

5 steps for successful Conversion Rate Optimisation

• 1. Define your goals and KPIs
• 2. Calculate your current conversion rate
• 3. Research and analyse user behaviour
• 4. Run A/B tests
• 5. Analyse results and implement changes

CRO and SEO – how they work together

7 ways to boost your conversion rate

• Prioritise user experience (UX)
• Use buyer personas
• Consider accessibility
• Set SMART goals
• Simplify your forms
• Build trust with social proof
• Leverage clear and compelling CTAs

Are there tools to help my business improve its conversion rate?

What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is the process of making improvements to your website or eCommerce store to encourage more visitors to take a specific action, which could include:

• Making a purchase
• Signing up to a newsletter
• Booking a consultation
• Filling out a contact form
• Downloading a guide or whitepaper

CRO involves understanding how people interact and move through your site, what actions they take and what’s stopping them from completing your desired goal. It’s about removing obstacles, making things clearer and nudging users in the right direction through thoughtful changes.

These changes can be big, like redesigning a whole landing page, or small, like tweaking the wording on a button.

Discover Submerge’s full suite of web design agency services.

Why is CRO so important?

With eCommerce making up 30% of total retail sales in the UK in the last quarter of 2024, simply getting visitors to your website just isn’t enough with so much competition out there. Real growth happens when those visitors take meaningful actions, whether that’s making a purchase or filling out a form. This is where Conversion Rate Optimisation becomes essential.

Maximising your existing traffic

Attracting new visitors often involves significant investment in marketing and advertising. CRO focuses on making the most of the people who are already coming to your site.

Instead of always chasing more traffic, CRO helps you do more with what you have. Even small improvements in your conversion rate can lead to noticeable increases in revenue or leads without you having to boost your ad spend.

Understanding your customers better

CRO isn’t just about numbers – it’s about people. By analysing how users interact with your site, you can uncover what they like, what confuses them and what might be holding them back.

This deeper understanding means you can refine your messaging, web design and user experience so it resonates better with your audience.

Staying competitive

When online, users have endless choices. If your website or app doesn’t offer a smooth experience, they’re quick to move on.

Businesses that invest in CRO are constantly adapting and improving, which helps them stay ahead of competitors who might be slower to respond to evolving customer needs.

Learn more about our competitor analysis services.

Building trust and credibility

A website that’s easy to use and meets visitors’ needs builds trust. If people feel comfortable and confident using your site, they may be more likely to take action and return in the future.

CRO helps you identify and remove any friction points that might be causing frustration or uncertainty.

Discover our 5 steps to building (and keeping) brand trust.

Making data-driven decisions

CRO is grounded in data and testing, not guesswork.

Every change you make is measured and analysed to see if it truly makes a difference. This approach means you’re always learning and improving, rather than relying on hunches or trends.

All of that sound good? That proves that CRO should be a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy. It ensures you’re getting the most value from your website traffic, understanding your audience and continually enhancing your website’s UX, setting your business up for long-term success.

How do I calculate my business’s conversion rate?

Calculating your conversion rate is straightforward. You simply divide the number of conversions (the specific action you’re tracking) by the total number of visitors, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage. The formula looks like this:

Conversion Rate = (Number of Conversions / Total Number of Visitors) × 100

Here’s an example: your website had 500 visitors last month, and 25 of them filled out your contact form to book a free consultation. Here’s how you’d calculate your conversion rate:

Conversion Rate = (25 / 500) × 100 = 5%

What is a “good” conversion rate?

There’s no set number for what a “good” conversion rate is, because that figure entirely depends on your industry, your business’s goals and even the specific action you want users to take.

For most websites, average conversion rates tend to fall somewhere between 2% and 5%.

However, what’s considered good can vary widely. For example, a niche B2B service might be thrilled with a 1% conversion rate, while an eCommerce store might aim for 3% or higher.

The most important thing is to use your own data as a benchmark. Track your current conversion rate, then focus on making improvements over time. Rather than chasing a magic number your market agrees on, aim for steady growth and continuous optimisation that fits your business plan and your audience.

5 steps for successful Conversion Rate Optimisation

Improving your website’s conversion rate doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does require a clear, methodical approach. By following these five essential steps—and keeping your SEO efforts in mind along the way—you can create a website that not only attracts visitors but turns them into customers or leads.

1. Define your goals and KPIs

Start by identifying exactly what you want visitors to do on your site – these are your conversion goals.

This could be anything from making a purchase to signing up for a newsletter. Alongside your goals, set clear key performance indicators (KPIs) so you can measure progress and success.

2. Calculate your current conversion rate

Before making improvements, you need to know where you stand.

Use the formula we outlined earlier in this blog post to calculate your current conversion rate so you’ll have a baseline to compare against as you make changes.

3. Research and analyse user behaviour

Now you have your current conversion rate, next look into website analytics and gather customer feedback to understand how visitors are interacting with your site.

Look for patterns, drop-off points and areas where users seem to get stuck or confused, as this will help you identify where improvements can be made and leads to a testable hypothesis.

4. Run A/B tests

Based on your research, develop a hypothesis about what might work better – maybe it’s a new headline? Or a different call-to-action, or a more streamlined form?

Create an A/B test to compare your new variation against the original, and launch to see how real visitors respond.

5. Analyse results and implement changes

Once your test has collected enough data, review the results to see which version performed better. If the change improved your conversion rate, implement it for all users. If not, use what you’ve learned to try a new approach.

Continuous testing and analysis is key to ongoing optimisation, and pairing this with your SEO efforts ensures you’re attracting and converting the right audience.

CRO and SEO – how they work together

Since both Conversion Rate Optimisation and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) aim to make improvements to a website, it could be easy for a busy business to just prioritise one over the other.

However, they work best when used together.

SEO is all about attracting the right visitors to your website by improving your visibility in search engines like Google. It focuses on things like using the right keywords, creating valuable content and making sure your site is technically sound with the goal to bring more qualified traffic to your site.

CRO, on the other hand, picks up where SEO leaves off. Once visitors arrive on your site, CRO helps guide them toward taking meaningful actions, like making a purchase or getting in touch. It’s about making sure your website is clear, user-friendly and persuasive enough to convert those visitors into customers or leads.

When you combine SEO and CRO, you’re not just getting more people to your site – you’re making sure those people have a great experience and are more likely to take the actions you need them to.

Good SEO brings in the right visitors, and good CRO ensures those visitors don’t just leave after having a quick look around.

Explore our full range of SEO agency services.

7 ways to boost your conversion rate

Improving your conversion rate is about making smart, user-focused changes that encourage visitors to take action. Here are seven proven actions your business can take:

Prioritise user experience (UX)

A seamless user experience is at the heart of high conversion rates. When users find your site easy to navigate, visually appealing and free of frustration, they’re much more likely to complete your desired actions.

Common barriers like slow-loading pages, confusing menus or distracting pop-ups can quickly drive visitors away. By focusing on UX, you create a journey that feels natural and stress-free, which encourages users to stay longer and engage more deeply.

What to do: Conduct a UX design audit and gather direct feedback from users to identify areas where navigation or usability can be improved.

Use buyer personas

Buyer personas are detailed, research-based profiles of your ideal customers. They capture demographics, motivations, pain points and buying behaviours. When you understand who your visitors are and what drives them, you can craft messaging, offers and content that really resonates.

This personalisation helps users feel understood and valued, which increases their likelihood of converting.

What to do: Develop or refine your buyer personas by interviewing customers, analysing data and consulting your sales team. Use these personas to guide your website content, design and promotions.

Consider accessibility

An accessible website ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, can interact with your content.

Accessibility improvements like proper heading structure, alt text for images, clear colour contrast and keyboard navigation not only expand your reach, but also improve usability for everyone.

Search engines also favour accessible sites, which can boost your traffic and SEO efforts in addition to conversions.

What to do: Use accessibility evaluation tools (such as WAVE or Google Lighthouse) to audit your site. Address any issues and make accessibility a standard part of your web development process.

Set SMART goals

SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—give your optimisation efforts direction and clarity.

Instead of aiming to just “increase sales,” a SMART goal might be “increase product demo sign-ups by 25% within six months.” This approach enables you to track your progress, adjust tactics as needed and stay focused on what matters most to your business.

What to do: Choose one or two key conversion actions on your site and set SMART goals for each. Monitor progress regularly and adjust your strategies based on results.

Simplify your forms

Complex or lengthy forms are a major roadblock for many users. Every additional field increases friction and the chance that a visitor will abandon the process.

By only asking for essential information, using clear labels and providing helpful error messages, you make it easier for users to complete your forms—and more likely that they will.

What to do: Review all your site’s forms. Remove any non-essential fields, break long forms into shorter steps if necessary and ensure instructions are clear and concise.

Build trust with social proof

Trust is a crucial part of any online interaction. Social proof (such as customer reviews, testimonials, star ratings, case studies and trust badges) shows that others have had a positive experience with your business.

This reassurance can help hesitant visitors feel confident enough to take the next step, whether that’s making a purchase or providing their details.

What to do: Feature recent testimonials, reviews, client logos or certification badges prominently on your high-traffic pages and near CTAs.

Leverage clear and compelling CTAs

A strong call-to-action guides users toward the next step you want them to take. Vague or hidden CTAs can confuse visitors or cause them to hesitate, while clear, benefit-driven CTAs make it obvious what to do next and why it matters.

The language, design and placement of your CTAs all play a role in encouraging more conversions.

What to do: Review your key pages to ensure every CTA is visible, uses action-oriented language (“Get started,” “Download now,” “Request a quote”) and is positioned where users can easily find and act on it.

By taking these steps (and making them a regular part of your digital strategy), you’ll not only improve your conversion rate, but also create a better experience for your visitors.

Are there tools to help my business improve its conversion rate?

There are plenty of tools available to help marketers improve their conversion rates, from analytics platforms to A/B testing suites:

• Google Analytics – track visitor behaviour, identify drop-off points and measure conversion rates across your site.
• Hotjar – visualise user behaviour with heat maps, session recordings and on-site feedback surveys.
• Optimizely – run A/B tests to see which changes have the biggest impact.
• VWO (Visual Website Optimizer) – test different versions of your web pages and analyse results with built-in reporting tools.
• Crazy Egg – use heat maps, scroll maps and A/B testing to understand and improve user engagement.
• Unbounce – build, test and optimise landing pages without needing a developer.
• FullStory – record user sessions and get detailed insights into user journeys, helping you spot friction points and opportunities for change.
• Semrush – a full-suite digital marketing tool that analyses site performance, track SEO efforts and highlights opportunities for on-site conversions (did you know we’re a certified Semrush Agency Partner?)

Test out a number of different tools and tool combinations to find the right selection that works for you and your business goals.

But tools can only do so much – book a free consultation with us today and together, we can create a realistic, actionable CRO plan that can evolve as your business does.