Freshly Brewed Conversion Rate Optimization Tips

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) has greatly risen in popularity across various online industries, in recent years. And in all probability, it’s going to receive even more attention in 2016.

However, with the increased recognition and acceptance of CRO, and the ever-changing consumer behavior on the internet, conversion rate optimization has to evolve.

As reported in 2015, the usage of the mobile medium soared, new CRO technologies established their presence, and promotion channels diversified, among other trends.

It is, therefore, imperative that you track these developments, and accordingly shape your optimization strategies to remain ahead of your competition.

You have a website, a customer acquisition team, and a really great product -- but people aren’t getting on board. Or worse yet, they hop on, check things out, and jump ship.

But it doesn't have to be this way. There are ways to turn visitors into customers -- you just have to know which best practices you should start following the detailed guide to conversion rate optimization .

Obsess About Your Website Traffic Data

One of the first steps of your conversion optimization strategy should be studying your website traffic data for performance insights with the keywords. You can do that by using any of the popular website analytics tools, such as Google Analytics or Check keyword difficulty by Ferzy

This data reveals who your website visitors are and what keyword they are targeting for.

Metrics such as “mobile traffic,” “screen resolution,” “geography,” etc., can tell you where and how most of your visitors are using your website. With this information at hand, you’ll be able to guide your optimization efforts effectively.

In 2016, such segmentation is going to be more critical than previous years because cross-device activity is on the rise and with more disparate user behavior, better tracking and targeting is essential.

For instance, if you have a low-converting landing page, and most of your visitors use a mobile device to visit your website, your CRO strategy should aim at optimizing the landing page for mobile.

Moreover, your website traffic data lets you evaluate your website performance, too.

You can analyze the data for your website’s conversion funnel, and recognize web pages that are leaking out customers. You can do that by finding pages in the funnel that have a high exit rate. A high exit rate for a page means people are reaching that page but are dropping off. For instance, a high exit rate on a checkout page is a good indicator that something’s broken with the user experience on the page.

Tie in Qualitative Data

Before you start testing a conversion rate optimization plan, and even before you start hypothesizing, you need to look at your qualitative data.

Why? It helps you understand how a customer thinks and behaves and can help you yield a more constructive conversion optimization plan.

Use your qualitative data to answer questions like why your customer needs your product, what will make them want to buy it, and how will they plan on using it. Take the data from surveys, customer calls, support emails, and other sources of feedback to lead a well-rounded brainstorming session for your future CRO plan.

Take the data you have and use it to inform your conversion rate brainstorming sessions. Click to tweet

Run A/A Tests Before you Run A/B Tests

Testing is undoubtedly important in the whole scheme of creating a solid conversion rate optimization plan. That fact alone should make you want to be certain of your testing software’s ability to work correctly.

You need to test the original variation of your landing page against itself to see if the conversion rates are similar. Do this a few hundred times to get a good idea of the numbers.

You need to test the original variation of your landing page against itself to see if the conversion rates are similar.

Pay Attention to the Blend of Traffic Hitting Your A/B Tests

If you don’t do this, you could be running much weaker tests than you thought. To help avoid this problem, run a test for the recommended length of time and try not to check the results until they are finished.

The quality of traffic is as, if not more, important than the quantity when running A/B tests. Click to tweet

Both Design and Messaging Impact Conversion

The importance of design shouldn’t be discounted. Sometimes, micro changes can cause big improvements. Find out if simple things, like the icon for your shopping cart, make a big difference – they often do.

When it comes to conversion optimization, don’t be afraid to test the small stuff. Click to tweet

 Write In The Second Person

People care about themselves or the group of people they belong to. They don’t care about “we” – they want to know what’s in it for them. Speak to that by using “you” and “your” to refer to the person reading your copy.

Write your copy in the second person – it makes it easier to speak to a specific person’s pain. Click to tweet


Take a deep breath, and pat yourself on the back, because… you made it!

You’ve just read through some freshly brewed conversion rate optimization tips in a single stretch (imagine the sound of clapping colleagues in the background). You’ve done it. You’ve won. You’ve conquered conversions!

But that was the easy part – now it’s time to go put it into practice (extended groan as your mind wanders back to real life).

But first, a simpler task: leave us a note – which one of these is your favourite, or is there something we’ve missed?

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