What is CRO?
Conversion Rate Optimisation, or CRO, involves optimising a website to increase its conversion rate. This means the site will achieve more enquiries, calls and ultimately achieve the intended goal of the site. This requires ensuring that the website receives a sufficient number of visitors to enable meaningful data analysis, allowing changes to be made based on the user’s journey.
When we submit a website to Google Search Console, it needs to be verified and search crawlers validate it. Sometimes, this website ranks well in search engine results and attracts a significant amount of traffic, which is beneficial. For a blog website, this is particularly great. However, for service-based or eCommerce websites, whose primary goal is revenue generation, this traffic is only valuable if it converts into sales. This is where CRO is important.
How do you check the conversion rate?
A website’s conversion rate is calculated as the percentage of total visitors who convert divided by the total number of conversions. Conversions can take various forms, such as lead form submissions, quotation requests, download button clicks, product purchases, or call button clicks. These can be tracked using Google Tag Manager events or Analytics custom events.
Conversion rate = (Number of conversions / Total number of website visitors) * 100
What should you check first when conducting CRO on a landing page?
While performing CRO, many factors need attention, but some are crucial to understanding visitor behaviour and conversions. These include:
- Driving force that brings traffic: Analyse traffic sources (Traffic Source Analytics).
- Force, offer, or hook that aids conversion: Identify positive forces through A/B testing.
- Force/barrier that prevents conversion: Use heatmap audits to identify obstacles.
Basics to follow while doing CRO for a landing page
- Optimise page speed (page load time, render-blocking resources, and HTML text ratio).
- Repeatedly test on mobile devices.
- Ensure all tracking is appropriately set up to monitor website functions and performance.
- Avoid frequent changes; initially decide based on visitor numbers or time duration.
- Ensure relevance between the traffic source and landing page content.
- Analyse competitors’ landing pages or top performers in the category.
- Focus on landing page copy for clarity and to persuade viewers.
- Include testimonials and reviews.
- Optimise lead forms by removing unnecessary fields.
- Enhance call-to-action (CTA) buttons and offer buttons for a more seamless user experience.
- Use chat and chatbots for effective communication to boost conversions. WhatsApp and call widgets also play key roles.
- Use trust badges to increase client trust.
- Create explainer videos for users (e.g., a “how to contact” video on the contact page).
- Leverage FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) on the website.
What type of landing page works best? And what are F & Z pattern designs on web pages or landing pages?
The design of your landing page entirely depends on the objective. The following are a few types of landing pages if your goals include lead generation and capturing user information (e.g., email) through contact forms. This can be used for newsletters, webinars, gated content, and more.
- Click-Through: Navigate users to another page (e.g., product page or checkout). Very Common in eCommerce and online stores.
- Sales: Directly sells a product or service with compelling copy, testimonials, reviews and CTAs (Offer and Appeal).
- Squeeze Page: We focused on gathering emails with minimal distractions, primarily used for a lead magnet.
- Thank You Page: Confirms an event (e.g., form submission) and proceeds to next steps, such as upsells, etc.
F & Z Pattern Designs
F and Z pattern designs are commonly used to create effective landing pages. As discussed earlier, the choice of pattern depends on the page’s objective and the level of engagement it aims to achieve.
F-Pattern Design
The F-pattern follows the natural reading behaviour of the human eye, which typically scans from left to right and then downwards. In this layout, the logo and headline are placed at the top left, followed by the navigation menu. The eye then moves down the left side of the page, where supporting elements, such as subheadings or sidebars, are placed.
To maintain user interest, key elements such as images, calls-to-action (CTAs), and other engaging content are positioned on the right. This design is particularly effective for blogs, articles, product listings, or any content-heavy pages that benefit from a structured layout.
Z-Pattern Design
The Z-pattern mimics the way a user scans a page when there is less text: left to right across the top, diagonally down to the bottom-left, and then right again. This pattern is ideal for simpler pages that focus on guiding the user towards a single action.
The user’s journey begins at the top-left corner, where elements such as the logo are typically placed. As the eye moves to the top-right, the headline and primary CTA should be positioned.
In the middle (diagonal scan), include supporting content such as visuals or brief text to guide the user’s eye. Finally, place the most critical CTA at the bottom-right, ensuring the content supports the natural Z-shaped reading flow.
CRO for a landing page, eCommerce store or business website can be done in a multitude of ways, however, in all cases, using data-driven insights and best practices will ensure success.
Want to get more conversions from your existing traffic? At Crunchy Digital, we specialise in Conversion Rate Optimisation strategies that turn clicks into customers. Let us help you maximise every visit – reach out to boost your ROI today. Contact us today or book a business growth session with us.
