At it’s core, conversion rate optimisation (or CRO) is a systematic process that isolates conversion problems on your website and fixes them to boost online sales and profits. Because most websites were never fully optimised at launch, the average conversion rate increase is about 40% but can easily climb above triple-digits. Specifically, CRO experts will:

Analyse Website Traffic and Heat Mapping to Isolate Conversion Problems

Optimise Traffic Sources to Eliminate Non-Converting Keywords

Optimise On-Site Factors Like Copywriting, Web Design, Web Programming, etc.

Verify and Tweak Results Using Website Split Testing

At the end of the day, conversion rate optimisation is actually no different than other Internet Marketing investments like SEO, PPC, or even social media marketing. In other words, website owners invest in CRO, SEO, SMM, and PPC for one reason: To increase online sales and grow the business. However, where CRO and the competing Internet Marketing options like SEO differ is in the level of ROI they deliver for clients. In fact, the ROI produced from CRO services leaves SEO, PPC, and even social media marketing in the dust for three simple reasons:

1. Conversion Rate Optimisation is Solely Dedicated to Increasing Online Conversions

At the end of the day, clients may invest in SEO, SMM, or PPC because they want to boost online sales but all they are really paying for is more traffic. However, more traffic doesn’t necessarily mean more conversions which is why the ROI can be so low for these competing options. CRO, on the other hand, is 100% focused upon increasing conversions so the ROI is both much easier to calculate and far higher than for SEO, SMM, or PPC.

2. Conversion Rate Optimisation Lowers Marketing Costs

SEO, PPC, and SMM all require additional investments in marketing to drive more traffic to your website in the hopes that it will produce more sales. While understandable, this dramatically lowers the ROI from those investments since a significant percentage of any new sales will be devoted to increased marketing costs. CRO experts are exactly the opposite: Instead of adding to your marketing costs, they actually reduce them by using web traffic analysis to isolate and eliminate non-converting keywords from your paid traffic sources. Not only does this reduce marketing costs, but this CRO strategy will thus lower traffic levels without sacrificing sales so your conversion rate will increase along with your online profits and overall ROI.

3. ROI from Conversion Rate Optimisation Continues to Build Over Time

The minute you stop paying for traffic with PPC, the sales stop. And truthfully, it isn’t much better for SEO or SMM because the results will begin to atrophy within weeks of ceasing investment. But CRO continues to deliver increased sales for years after the optimisation project is complete. Sure, you may need to periodically check over everything and maybe optimise when new products or services are added but the benefits of CRO will still last for years after the initial project is complete. This is the biggest reason why the ROI for CRO tends to be 100% or greater while SEO and other options are lucky to deliver 50%.

Bottom line: If you have not optimised your website for conversions, then you are literally bleeding sales. More importantly, with massive firms like Google and Crazy Egg already paying conversion rate optimisation firms to optimise their websites, you are falling behind the competition and sacrificing massive profits every day to fail to do so with your own site.

So how many sales are you losing because your site isn’t optimised for conversions? Well, if you know your current conversion rate (30 day running average), then you need to check on the average conversion rate for your niche. This link will show you the average conversion rate for all the major Internet Marketing niches according to Google Adwords. Now your site likely has multiple traffic sources so knowing the PPC conversion rates won’t tell you the entire story of how much CRO can boost online sales.

However, if your current conversion rate is below the industry standard for your niche, then you definitely need CRO services. And the more diverse your traffic sources, the more you need CRO services if your conversion rate is below the PPC averages since organic and social media traffic tends to convert much better (25% or more) than paid traffic.

One final thought: Remember, just a small increase in conversion rate (like 20% or less) can easily generate ROI in excess of 100% because conversion rate optimisation does not increase marketing costs and the effects last long after the project is complete. And if your competition is investing in CRO while you are investing money in SEO, PPC, or SMM, then your site is falling farther behind.

Neil Rimmer is a conversion rate optimisation expert specialising in boosting conversions, reducing marketing costs, and increasing the profits for online businesses. To learn about how conversion rate optimisation can deliver far greater ROI than SEO, SMM, or PPC, just visit: http://www.conversionomics.com.au today.

Neil Rimmer is a conversion rate optimisation expert specialising in boosting conversions, reducing marketing costs, and increasing the profits for online businesses. To learn about how conversion rate optimisation can deliver far greater ROI than SEO, SMM, or PPC, just visit: http://www.conversionomics.com.au today.

Author Bio: Neil Rimmer is a conversion rate optimisation expert specialising in boosting conversions, reducing marketing costs, and increasing the profits for online businesses. To learn about how conversion rate optimisation can deliver far greater ROI than SEO, SMM, or PPC, just visit: http://www.conversionomics.com.au today.

Category: Internet
Keywords: conversion rate optimisation, CRO, conversion rate optimisation expert, conversion rate expert