When you’re driving to work, traffic is the worst. When you’re doing online marketing, traffic is what’s going to make or break you.  For your website, there are two kinds of traffic: existing traffic and new traffic.  It’s great to have lots of new traffic on your site – many digital marketers tend to focus on this. But there’s a lot to be said for your existing traffic, as long as you can capitalize on it.  Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is setting up your site to maximize the chance of a customer filling out a contact form or making a purchase.

In marketing terms, we call this a conversion.  Your goal should always be to get as many conversions as possible. Otherwise, you’re wasting the time, effort, and money you spent getting that user on your website.  Through conversion rate optimization (CRO), you can give your numbers a boost and create favorable outcomes for your business.

What is Conversion Rate Optimization?

In simple terms, CRO is any effort you make to improve your conversion rate, or how many website users complete one of your conversion goals.  If your goal is to get users to fill out a contact form, your content should be geared towards getting them to complete that goal.  If you want them to make a purchase, you can alter your content with that goal in mind.  Through a combination of analytics and strategic website improvements, you can bump up your numbers and get more conversions.

Landing pages

Single page offers are a great way to utilize organic SEO to get more people on your site.  Of course, for landing pages to be effective, they need to optimized for conversions.  Whether your landing pages are geographically targeted or they’re targeted for specific search terms, users who find your landing page need to know what you expect them to do.

Start with a clear offer near the top of your content.  Next, outline the steps the user will need to take so they can take advantage of your offer.  Finally, give them a clear call to action like, “Fill out our online contact form,” or “Shop our online store!”  When your users know exactly what to do, you’re bound to see a bump in your conversion rate.

Funnels

A series of landing pages is called a funnel because they direct users to pages you want them to visit.  Through your analytics, you can find out which pages they’re landing on, and where they go after that.  For example, tracking a unique “Thank You” page for each of your landing pages will let you know how successful each funnel is, allowing you to adjust your content for better CRO.

Analytics

Numbers don’t lie, and they can tell you everything you need to know about how effective your website is.  Pay close attention to the amount of traffic, how much time each user spends on each page, and what they do when they leave.  If they’re quickly leaving your site and going to another, it’s usually because they’re not getting what they need.  Analyzing user behavior will give you the opportunity to make effective changes to your site’s content and structure that improve your conversion rate.

Conversion rate optimization, just like search engine optimization, is a simple concept that can be more complex in execution.  By using the tips listed above, you may be able to achieve better outcomes for your business.

Of course, it’s normal to find all this a bit confusing.  Don’t fret, because TIC Digital Marketing can help!  We know that businesses all over America are reducing the size of their in-house marketing departments, and we want to make our team available to assist you with CRO, SEO, website development, or other inbound digital marketing tasks you need to complete.  Get in touch with us right away for a free consultation by filling out our online contact form.  Talk to our experts today – we can help your conversion rate reach new heights!