A Beginner’s Guide on What to Expect from CRO

How-to-Make-the-Most-Out-of-Google-Optimize

So you’re finally ranking on Google and you have a decent amount of traffic going to your site, now what? Well, let me tell you that all the efforts leading to those results would all be wasted if you do not follow it up with a robust strategy that will increase your site’s value to your business.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is more than just a digital marketing effort, it’s more like the art and science that goes beyond the charts that show an increase in numbers. It primarily deals with user behavior and experience, areas that are difficult to quantify but don’t worry because results are displayed in the form of statistics, which is CRO’s primary foundation.

Growth Through Conversion Rate Optimization

Growth-Through

Conversion Rate Optimization is simply defined as the process involved in converting your website visitors into customers.

CRO is one of the most underrated digital marketing techniques in the industry today. You wouldn’t see a lot of businesses investing in CRO but I think that they should. I have been in the digital marketing field for a decade now and I have seen impressive results stemming from powerful CRO strategies and execution.

I believe that this is the answer to the ultimate goal of websites who aim to generate ROI for their business. If you are thinking about converting your traffic to sales then CRO is the way to go. We have seen how CRO does its wonders as evidenced by this case study which helped us go from 0.7% to 729% increase in conversion rate just from implementing CRO techniques. What an astounding return on investment, right?

For most businesses that are active in the digital space, that is the dream. Converting your site visits to sales is a cherry on top of a fantastic effort to increase your online visibility.

SEO or CRO?

There has been a long-standing debate between SEO and CRO enthusiasts about which package is more capable of generating revenue. These digital marketing services both do their job of magnifying a website’s potential for growth but still, there are people that argue one is better than the other.

Personally, there’s no need to pit them against each other because each stands on a league of its own and the results of these services still boil down to what your business objectives are. It’s even better if you train SEO and CRO to go hand-in-hand in giving you the best online visibility that you can have for your target market.

What I like most about CRO and SEO is that these are disciplines that are flexible with experiments which allows me and my team to stay sharp to get ahead of the curve and gain results along the way. However, we stay away from relying too much on “tactics” because CRO is supposed to be approached with a process.

However, you would not feel its results if your business objectives are vague from the get-go. Digital marketing can only do so much for you if your business model is in disarray.

Design Your Goals: What Winning Looks Like in CRO

Which brings me to my next discussion, determining your purpose for CRO. As a brand with an online presence, it’s only natural that you would want to stand out from among the crowd.

As a system, CRO gives a monumental value to websites by reaching towards a method that naturally brings in maximum conversions for businesses. This is why it is important to determine your purpose in doing CRO. Here are a few tips to keep in mind if you have finally decided to start doing CRO for your site:

Making a Plan

Know what changes you are going to implement, what you aim to achieve and your projected rate of effectiveness. Always remember that CRO is a complex process so you should know how you’re going to go about its execution. A linear plan with an actionable hypothesis will be your best bet in winning in CRO. Organize accordingly and you will not encounter a problem with your project. Follow CRO best practices like maintaining a powerful web design, having only one CTA so you would not confuse users, having a clean UI and UX, optimizing your design for site speed, and more.

Document Everything

This will ensure that you never miss an element of your project. You should also properly document your research and experimentation so you would know what works and what doesn’t. Check your most viewed pages, which of those gain the most sessions and the channels that your users are coming from. It is also important that you properly document your brand’s strengths and weaknesses so you can align this with your CRO objectives.

Make Sure that You Properly Analyze Data

One common mistake that CROs are sometimes guilty of is that they do not know how to interpret the statistical data that their project has presented to them. Brush up on your statistics and always aim for the best probability for your conversion rates. This will be the best weapon you can have for CRO.

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment

Try new stuff until you maximize your conversion rates up to the roof. It’s okay if an experiment does not work for you because you are bound to find one that does if you do not stop experimenting. Do A/B tests, measure success through data, or you can even experiment with a process that already works for you. When it comes to innovation, let yourself go nuts if it means that you will achieve the result you are looking for.

Using Google Optimize Data for Experiments

google optimize page

If you are a beginner in CRO, you might want to check out Google Optimize. It is the free version of its counterpart, Optimize 360, given that it has limited features but still does the job nonetheless. I highly recommend this because you can easily navigate their dashboard. The tool’s visual editor is nothing special because you can also see many other CRO tools who have that but I find it easier to change things because of it.

More and more CRO specialists see the value that Optimize can bring to their projects. I also use it because of its clear cut data and clean user interface, not to mention their reports feature is great also. The perks of being a Google product is that you can connect it to other tools so having it integrated with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager makes for a more organized reporting task. Their data is very concise as you can see here:

google optimize

This is an example of what you will see from the report from Optimize. We have seen a slight increase in sessions and conversions. I enacted a button change on the site and you can see how CRO affects the data. The increase, albeit small, is a great improvement since this is a report for my client who sells an expensive product so if you look at it, 14 conversions is definitely a win already.

modeled conversion rate

This section in reporting helps us see how the CRO experiment can perform for us long-term. Optimize simulates statistical data which can help you compare your previous performance to the current one. Having a projected conversion rate would be significant for your project since it will help you maintain traction in finding out what works for your CRO.

Optimize is also a generous playground for those who would like to test changes on their site. Testing is very important when it comes to experiments because it can help you know how to encourage the users to fill out a form or buy a product.

Final thoughts

CRO can bring out the best in your website, especially if you are chasing after leads. What’s great about it is that even beginners can start implementing this to your site if you have the right strategies and devices to complement it. Start a CRO project once you have reached the first page and you will be unstoppable.

Comment down below when you first knew about CRO and let’s discuss how far we’ve come with optimizing conversion rates.

Share on:
Sean Si

About Sean

is a Filipino motivational speaker and a Leadership Speaker in the Philippines. He is the head honcho and editor-in-chief of SEO Hacker. He does SEO Services for companies in the Philippines and Abroad. Connect with him at Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Check out his new project, Aquascape Philippines.