What Factors Affect Conversion Rate Optimisation On Websites

If it doesn’t convert, it doesn’t work.  When it comes to online marketing, increasing a website's conversion rate is one of the most important things businesses can do. Are you looking to improve your webpages' conversion rate? If so, you're not alone. Nearly every business wants to improve their website’s bounce rate and convert more of their visitors into customers and sales. But what factors actually affect website conversion rates? 

In this post, we'll take a look at some of the key factors that influence conversion rate optimisation (CRO). By understanding these factors, you can work to improve your website's conversion rate and boost your business' bottom line. We'll also offer tips for optimising your website to achieve better conversions. So read on to learn more!

What Is CRO?

Before delving into what the crucial factors that influence conversion rate optimisation, it is important to understand what CRO is. CRO is defined as the methodical process of growing the rate of webpage visitors who complete actions that a website owner, e-commerce brand or business wants them to undertake. These actions can range from making a purchase to signing up to be a member of the brand.

How do you calculate conversion rates?

In order to achieve conversion rate optimisation, it is first necessary to know how to calculate a website’s conversion rate. There are different ways of measuring conversions, or the number of visitors that take desired actions on webpages. But here are some of the most common formulas:

• Conversion rate = conversions / total visitors x 100

• Conversion rate = total number of conversions / total number of unique visitors* x 100

For example, you own a mattress and pillow company and you deem a conversion to be the sale of your product (in this case, a pillow). If you had 50,000 unique visitors to your website last month and you sold 1,000 pillows, it would look something like this:

Conversion rate: 1,000/50,000 X 100 = 2%

*Unique visitors are defined as people who have visited the website but are only counted once during the period of calculation, meaning that if the same person were to visit the website again during that period, it still counts as one visitor.

To save time and calculate conversion rates conveniently, businesses can also use tools such as Google Analytics or Similarweb.

What is a good conversion rate?

Desirable conversion rates differ across different industries, but a good conversion rate, on average, is 10%.

Factors that affect CRO on websites

Now that we have discussed what CRO entails and what is a good conversion rate, let’s take a closer look at some factors that influence CRO.

1. Page load speed

Page load speed refers to the time that a webpage takes to fully display all of its content elements and analysis has shown that conversion rates plummet by an average of 4.42% with every additional second of load time between 0-5 seconds. Speed is of the essence because in this era of convenience no one has the patience to wait for a page to load slowly. When visitors encounter this, they might become impatient and so are likely to just leave the page. 

While there are many factors such as the amount of widgets or plug-ins, inefficient code or your website server that can affect page load speed, one of the most common causes is large image sizes on webpages. To combat this, it is paramount for businesses and e-commerce sites to optimise their webpage imagery by resizing their images, lowering the resolution of pictures used or compressing their files. For more tips, check out our article on how to harness image optimisation for your website. Undeniably, pictures are essential components of a site’s conversion rate. That is why companies need to leverage quality visuals to improve sales.

2. Mobile optimisation

In this technological age, mobile optimisation, or optimising websites for mobile devices is vital to improving conversion rates. More people than ever are using mobile phones instead of their computers to access websites or search for information online on the go. According to Statista, in the fourth quarter of 2021, mobile devices generated 54.4% of global website traffic. 

But if your site is not mobile-friendly, it can lead to a high bounce rate and this can become a major impediment to securing conversions. When customers head to webpages on their devices and the elements such as the content, pictures or videos are not mobile optimised, it becomes difficult for them to find the information they need or be directed to the right pages for sales to be carried out. Frustrated with the whole experience, potential customers would inevitably leave with a negative perception of your brand.

3. Page design & content

Closely interlinked, a site’s page design and content are imperative in positively impacting conversion rates. Businesses have to keep in mind that visitors to their pages are looking for information but it may be their very first time on that website. Thus, positioning of engaging headlines and written Call To Actions (CTAs) throughout their webpages are necessary to act as roadmaps to direct potential customers to your desired conversions. On the flip side, failure to present a clear visual hierarchy through the written content and page design will infuriate them as they are unable to access the information that answers their queries or leads them to where they want to go. This sequence of events is likely to lead to them bouncing out of your e-commerce site and low conversion rates.

With these tips, you can tackle conversion rate optimisation for your e-commerce website with confidence. If you found this helpful for your business, head on to our website for more e-commerce insights.