What is Conversion Optimization?

Conversion Rate Optimization Defined

There are many different ways to describe and understand conversion rate optimization or CRO.  The easiest way to understand it is as follows.  You have a site that people visit.  If people are interested in what you are selling they will make a purchase.  If not they will most likely leave and not return again.  The unspoken question is “How do I get these people to make a purchase?”  What you are trying to do is convert them into paying customers.

This is where conversion rate optimization is different than SEO or content marketing.  The latter two build awareness.  They are an essential part of any successful web presence.  Before people make a purchase they have to know how to find you.  CRO takes those people and turns them into customers that generate revenue for you.  As a result there are a few things to keep in mind concerning conversion rate optimization.

Revenue Above All Else

Many CRO guides will tend to push you towards creating links or products that drive people to your site.  Since CRO is usually measured by how many people purchase your product, the important number always tends to be the traffic count.  That can be a bit misleading though.  The reasoning lies in the desired outcome.

Think about it.  If people are coming to your site and not purchasing, yet you are gauging the success of your site by the amount of increased traffic, you have not hit your mark.  You are essentially spending a lot of time trying to get new traffic which may or may not convert into sales.  Your time for conversion rate optimization would be better spent trying to turn existing site visitors into sales.  With this in mind you should always tune your CRO in favor of revenue generation.

Think Big Picture

Many times we get caught up in the details of our page when it comes to CRO.  We change the color, layout, play around with graphics and the like because we think it will make a difference.  Those things matter, but in order to make conversion rate optimization really work for you, you need to think in big picture terms.  You are turning a ship around, not merely rearranging the furniture on deck.

Thinking CRO at a big picture level means taking a look at your processes.  You might need to stricture them differently to make it easier for people to engage your site.  People who are more engaged on your site tend to make purchases.  Think about your purchase process.  Everything from shopping carts, to product placement and description play a huge role in winning someone over from visitor to customer.  Think about your links.  Think about how many steps a visitor to your site must go through before they are able to make a purchase.

Those types of things represent big picture thinking for CRO. Color schemes and graphics are important too, but in the long run people will not make a purchase from a site if there are too many steps to go through.  Conversion rate optimization smooths out that process.  Ultimately, it will help fill shopping carts and add revenue to your bottom line.

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