Driving traffic to your website is a major win, but if those visitors aren’t converting into customers, you’re leaving revenue on the table. Many businesses focus heavily on SEO and paid ads to bring in more users, only to find that their sales numbers remain stagnant.
A high site visitor count looks great in reports, but traffic alone won’t keep the lights on. What truly matters is what those visitors do once they land on your site. If they’re not making purchases, signing up, or engaging, your website might be leaking revenue.
This is where CRO comes in.
What is CRO?
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is the process of refining your website to encourage more visitors to take action—whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form. Rather than just increasing traffic, CRO ensures that your existing visitors engage, convert, and ultimately become loyal customers.
By fine-tuning key elements of your site, you can turn high traffic into high sales and maximise the value of every visitor. This is especially important for CRO for e-commerce, where even small tweaks can significantly impact your bottom line.
Understanding CRO: The Bridge Between Traffic & Sales
A well-optimised website does more than attracting visitors; it guides them toward making a decision. CRO focuses on removing barriers to conversion, enhancing user experience, and making it easier for potential customers to take action.
Some of the most common CRO challenges include:
- High bounce rates – Visitors leave before exploring further. While it can vary by industry, the average bounce rate for e-commerce websites is between 30 to 55%, meaning that a lot of visitors, sometimes more than half, leave without engaging.
- Cart abandonment – Customers add products but don’t complete the checkout process. Studies show that the global average cart abandonment rate is 70%, with friction in checkout processes being a major factor.
- Low engagement – Users aren’t clicking, signing up, or interacting with your content. With an average conversion rate of just 2.9% across industries, most website traffic doesn’t lead to meaningful actions.
If any of these challenges sound familiar, don’t worry—the good news is that Conversion Rate Optimisation can help you turn things around. By making data-driven improvements and optimising your user experience, you can transform passive visitors into engaged customers and make the most of your website’s potential.
To improve your website’s performance, consider these CRO best practices below.
1. Enhance Your Website’s User Experience (UX)
A seamless, user-friendly website is the foundation of strong conversion rates. If visitors struggle to navigate your site, encounter slow load times, or find the experience frustrating, they’ll leave before taking any meaningful action. Nowadays, users expect instant access to information and a smooth journey from browsing to checkout.
How to optimise UX for conversions:
- Improve page speed – Slow-loading pages frustrate users and increase drop-offs. Studies show that even a one-second delay can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. Use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify speed issues and make necessary improvements, such as compressing images, enabling browser caching, and using a content delivery network (CDN).
- Simplify navigation – A cluttered or confusing layout can overwhelm visitors, making it harder for them to find what they need. Ensure your menus are intuitive, and your categories are well-organised. The goal is to guide users effortlessly toward their next step, whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting your team.
- Make mobile a priority – As of January 2025, 62.69% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices, meaning a poorly optimised mobile experience could cost you a huge portion of potential conversions. Google’s mobile-first indexing means your site’s mobile version plays a significant role in search rankings and user experience. Ensure your website adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes, with easy-to-click buttons, responsive design, and a checkout process that works just as smoothly on mobile as it does on desktop.
A well-optimised UX keeps visitors engaged, reduces friction, and encourages more conversions—laying the groundwork for a high-performing website that turns traffic into revenue.
2. Optimise CTAs for Actionable Results
Your Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons are key to driving conversions. If they are vague, hard to find, or unconvincing, potential customers may hesitate or leave without taking action.
Strong CTAs use engaging, action-oriented language that conveys value. Instead of using generic terms like “Submit” or “Click Here”, try using phrases such as “Claim Your Free Quote” or “Start Your Trial Today” to create a sense of urgency and highlight the benefits you offer. Design is important too—CTAs should stand out with bold colours, clear text, and a size that’s easy to click or tap, regardless of device. Even small, easy-to-implement enhancements such as hover effects can make a world of difference to how engaging your website visitors find your CTAs.
CTAs should be positioned intuitively at key decision points, appearing above the fold, within content, at the end of blog posts, and near product descriptions to guide visitors seamlessly. If high-ranking pages aren’t converting, a content audit can uncover missed opportunities, like landing pages with strong SEO but no CTAs. Optimising these pages ensures your traffic is driving real business results.
3. Leverage Social Proof to Build Trust
Before making a purchase or signing up for a service, visitors want reassurance that they’re making the right choice. Social proof—like reviews, testimonials, and case studies—builds trust and helps eliminate hesitation, making users more likely to convert.
Customer reviews and testimonials provide real, relatable feedback that highlights positive experiences with your brand. When potential customers see endorsements from businesses in their target market—those with similar needs, challenges, or industries—they’re more likely to feel confident in their decision. Authentic, specific testimonials are far more effective than generic praise, as they showcase real results. Trust badges, including security seals, money-back guarantees, and industry certifications, further reassure visitors that your business is credible and their transactions are secure.
For service-based businesses or high-ticket products, case studies offer deeper proof of value, as they demonstrate real-world success and set clear expectations.
4. A/B Test Key Elements for Continuous Improvement
Conversion Rate Optimisation isn’t a one-time fix—it requires continuous testing and refinement. A/B testing allows you to compare different versions of a page to see what resonates best with your audience and generates more conversions.
Headlines, CTAs, and visual elements are some of the most impactful areas to test. Even small changes—like adjusting CTA wording from “Learn More” to “Get Started Today” or repositioning buttons—can make a huge difference. Testing layouts, colours, and images also helps refine the user experience and reduce drop-offs.
We’ve written before about using A/B testing in your email marketing efforts, but the same principles apply to your website. Just as testing different subject lines or email layouts can improve open and click-through rates, testing various website elements ensures you’re making data-driven decisions to boost website conversions, rather than guessing what works.
5. Streamline the Checkout Process for E-Commerce CRO
For e-commerce businesses, the checkout process is a pivotal moment. Friction at checkout leads to abandoned purchases, even after items are in the cart.
Unnecessary form fields and multiple steps can lead to frustration and drop-offs. Simplifying checkout by reducing required inputs and enabling autofill can make the process faster and more user-friendly. CRO for e-commerce also means offering flexible payment options—PayPal, credit cards, and Buy Now Pay Later services—to cater to different customer preferences.
Forcing account creation at checkout is another common conversion killer. While accounts are great for customer loyalty, requiring one upfront can drive shoppers away. A guest checkout option keeps the experience quick and friction-free, increasing the likelihood of a completed purchase.
Turn Your Traffic into Conversions
High traffic is great—but high conversions are better. By applying these CRO best practices, you can create a website that not only attracts visitors but turns them into loyal customers. Even small changes can have a significant impact on your bottom line.
If you need expert support in optimising your conversion rates, our team at Viaduct Generation is here to help. We offer data-driven CRO strategies that refine your website and boost website conversions without increasing ad spend. Get in touch today to start optimising your site for real results.
