Updated: 15th September 2022
Reading time: 5 min
Optimizing the conversion rate is one of the most significant aspects of managing the website. However, what does it mean?
According to the internetlivestats.com, there are over 1.901 bln websites out there on the Internet. The number with more than one site being created every second.
Despite that, there are less than 200 million active and frequently updated websites. Every each had been built to fulfill a particular goal. As there are a plethora of sites constructed as a joke or because of boredom, business ones play the most significant role. On all those websites conversion rate is the most important factor to measure.
Every action the visitor is desired to do is considered conversion. On an e-commerce website it may be a purchase; for the informative site it is signing in for a newsletter; for NGO it is donating.
Every time the user performs the desired action, there is a conversion occurring. That's why convertion rate optimalization is so important.
The conversion rate is a relation of users performing what they are desired to vs. the total number of users.
Example:
Among 10,000 users of e-commerce website, 300 decided to buy something. In such case, the conversion rate equals 3%.
Conversion rate allows the companies to measure how effective the website is. If the redesign or changing the content changes the conversion rate, it is easier to measure if the change was good. The higher the conversion rate, the better business tool the website is. Higher conversion rate means lower cost of acquiring the customer.
Every change done on the website may result in changing the conversion rate. The UX testing proves that usually, it is all about details, the inexperienced designer may overlook that. It may be the color or shape of a button or frame.
That’s why every change needs to be tested before implementation. To do that, there are two common tools:
-A/B testing – in this kind of test the website users are divided into two groups. The first one sees the old version of the website, while the other one sees the change. Later the conversion rate is compared to determine if the difference was for good. Although the name suggests that there are only two versions to examine, in fact, there is no limit, unless the amount of users is enough.
-UX testing – as the A/B test is a tool to get quantitative data, the UX testing is about qualitative data. Due to UX testing, users may give feedback and show WHY conversion rate on one version is lower than on another.
By combining UX and A/B testing, it is possible to gain full information about the website’s performance and the reasons for conversion rate being lower or higher.
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Determining and testing the conversion rate is the first step to optimization. With the clear vision of measuring it, the website administrator can maximize the website’s outcome. Currently, the most popular ways to optimize the conversion rate is to:
1) Shorten the form
From the company’s point of view the longer the structure, the more information about the customer is available. On the other hand, the more the form fields, the lower conversion rate. Reducing the amount of data the company wants to gain from the customer makes him or her more willing to share the information.
Improving the call to action buttons description
Instead of “submit” button it is better to show the benefits of action to do. By changing from “create account” to “create account conversion rate rose by 31,47%.
2) Use video
Using videos on the website, nevermind if to show the product or to encourage particular action, increases the conversion rate. By adding the video, the Vidyard company increased the CR by 100%. The most efficient are videos 3-4 minutes long.
3) Improve headline clarity for better conversion optimization
The clear and accurate description of a service or a product is better for the user, as it clearly shows what to do. In case of Movexa shop selling the diet supplements, changing the headline resulted in 89,97% of conversion rate growth.
4) Limit the time for decision
The success of “Wish,” the online shopping platform, came from selling goods with massive discounts for a short time, with a timer seen. If the user had less than a minute to decide, he or she was more keen to buy the product.
Website optimization is one of the most important tasks of the owner. Without measuring its efficiency, the owner wouldn’t be able to determine if the website is effective. Without tests, he or she wouldn’t be able to determine the impact of changes.
Author: Pawel Krzywina
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