The systematic process of increasing the percentage of visitors who take a desired action.
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — making a purchase, filling out a form, clicking a button, etc. CRO combines quantitative analysis (analytics, heatmaps, session recordings) with qualitative research (user surveys, interviews) to identify friction points and form hypotheses. These hypotheses are validated through A/B testing. CRO is distinct from traffic acquisition — it improves what you do with the traffic you already have.
CRO is often the highest-ROI marketing investment because it improves revenue without increasing acquisition costs. A 1% improvement in conversion rate on a site with 100,000 monthly visitors can represent millions in additional revenue.
An e-commerce site identifies that 60% of checkout abandonment happens at the payment step. They test: removing unnecessary fields, adding trust badges, and offering PayPal. These changes increase checkout completion by 18%.
Start with your highest-traffic, lowest-converting pages. Use heatmaps and session recordings to understand user behaviour, then run targeted A/B tests on the elements most likely to impact conversion.