Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a process by which you can increase the percentage of visitors who take the desired action on your website. It’s an important part of any online marketing strategy, but it can be tricky to get right. There are many CRO mistakes that businesses make, and avoiding them can help you improve your conversion rate and generate more revenue for your business.
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Not having a clear goal
Usually, the first step in any CRO process is to set a clear goal. What do you want your visitors to do on your website? Make a purchase? Sign up for a newsletter? Download a white paper? Whatever it is, you need to have a clear goal in mind before you can start optimizing for conversions. Otherwise, you’ll be shooting in the dark and it will be very difficult to measure your success.
For instance, let’s say you run an ecommerce website and your goal is to increase sales. In order to do that, you need to set up conversion tracking so that you can see how many visitors are taking the desired action (making a purchase) on your site. Once you have that data, you can start working on improving your conversion rate.
If you don’t have a clear goal, you won’t be able to measure your success and you’ll waste a lot of time and effort on things that don’t matter.
Assuming that more traffic is always better
More traffic is not always better. In fact, if your conversion rate is low, adding more traffic to your website can actually make things worse.
Think about it this way: if you’re getting 100 visitors to your site and only one of them buys something, that’s a conversion rate of just percent. But if you’re getting 1000 visitors to your site and only one of them buys something, that’s a conversion rate of just percent. So even though you’ve increased your traffic tenfold, your conversion rate has actually decreased.
This is why it’s so important to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to website traffic. It’s better to have 100 targeted, high-quality visitors than 1000 random visitors.
Targeted traffic is more likely to convert because they’re already interested in what you have to offer. They’re the kind of people who are more likely to buy something from your website, sign up for your newsletter, or take any other desired action.
So don’t assume that more traffic is always better. Sometimes, it’s actually better to have less traffic if that traffic is of a higher quality.
Not having a mobile-friendly website
These days, more and more people are using their phones and tablets to browse the internet. In fact, Google has reported that 50% of global internet traffic comes from mobile devices.
This means that if your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers. Mobile users have different needs and expectations than desktop users, so you need to make sure that your website is designed for them.
For instance, mobile users are more likely to be looking for quick, easy-to-find information. They’re also more likely to be using their phones on the go, so your site needs to be able to load quickly and be easy to navigate.
If you want to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Just enter your URL and it will tell you if your site is mobile-friendly and give you some tips on how to improve it. You can even seek professional conversion rate optimization services to help you design a mobile-friendly website.
Not testing
One of the most important parts of CRO is testing. You need to test different versions of your website to see what works and what doesn’t. Without testing, you’ll never know for sure what’s working and what isn’t.
There are two main types of tests: A/B tests and multivariate tests. A/B tests involve testing two different versions of a single element on your website (like the headline or the call to action), while multivariate tests involve testing multiple elements at once.
Both types of tests are important and can give you valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t. If you’re not sure how to get started with testing, you can seek professional help from a CRO agency.
Avoiding these three common CRO mistakes will help you set your website up for success. By having a clear goal, focusing on quality over quantity, and making sure your site is mobile-friendly, you’ll be well on your way to increasing your conversion rate.
