As an ecommerce entrepreneur, your goal is to convert website visitors into customers. But how do you measure whether your site is successful at conversion (beyond your bottom line)? To gauge your website’s impact on guiding visitors towards purchases, consider conducting a conversion rate optimization (CRO) audit. Here’s the way to conduct your individual CRO audit and the advantages you’ll see whenever you improve your conversion strategy.
What’s a CRO audit?
A conversion rate optimization (CRO) audit, also referred to as a conversion audit, is a comprehensive evaluation of your complete customer journey in your website. The goal of a CRO audit is to discover pain points within the user experience as users proceed toward a selected conversion, like making a purchase order or signing up for a subscription service. You should utilize a CRO audit to tell your website’s technical points for higher conversion rates.
The way to perform a CRO audit
- Define your goals
- Discover priority pages
- Study user behavior
- Concentrate on quick wins
- Test out improvements
- Monitor results
Every conversion rate optimization audit is exclusive to the needs of your organization and website, but listed below are some key steps to take when performing your next CRO audit:
1. Define your goals
Start by defining your conversion goals to know how they align together with your larger business goals. For instance, if you would like to boost sales for a brand new product line, give attention to conversion rates related to those specific product pages and the way to include more calls to motion for that specific conversion throughout the client journey.
2. Discover priority pages
Create an inventory of crucial pages in your website. Concentrate on high-traffic pages like a important landing page, checkout page, and popular product pages. Use analytics tools like Google Analytics to learn which pages are top candidates for updates; as an example, you may search for high-traffic pages with high bounce rates. Audit these priority pages first to evaluate how well your website is performing.
3. Study user behavior
Use CRO audit tools to observe how site visitors interact together with your website and detect common patterns. Explore the Shopify App Store for useful applications to enhance your CRO audit. For instance, Blyp is an AI-powered CRO tool that monitors data and identifies ways to extend sales conversions.
Learning more about how users move through your site can provide invaluable details about your target market and the way to develop a more customer-centric experience. Some CRO audit tools offer advanced features like demographic details about website users, geographic location data, and warmth maps that show exactly where users are navigating and clicking on web pages.
4. Concentrate on quick wins
Look for easy issues lowering conversion rates, like slow-loading pages, website bugs, or complicated checkout processes. Quick wins include optimizing your website for mobile devices, improving the design of your CTA buttons, and writing more engaging website content like product descriptions.
Enhancing your site speed and providing clear shipping costs on the outset can boost your conversion rates. By addressing any glaring problems first, you might be higher in a position to see immediate leads to your conversion rate with minimal effort.
5. Test out improvements
Develop hypotheses for the way to improve conversion rates in other areas. Test your hypotheses by implementing changes to your website in areas that need improvement. Use quantitative research like user metrics and qualitative research like customer testimonials to tell your efforts. Explore strategies like simplifying your web site design, sending abandoned cart follow-up emails, and showcasing positive product reviews.
Use A/B testing to match the differences in user behavior when interacting with two versions of your website. Test out your potential solutions until you discover which generate the most effective results. For instance, if you’ve got a product page with a high bounce rate, you possibly can test out versions of your product description and different design options in your add-to-cart button.
6. Monitor results
Use CRO audit tools to discover increases or decreases in traffic to specific parts of your website, and monitor how much your website users perform desired actions, like signing up for a newsletter or buying a product. Consistent data evaluation provides insights into how well your recent changes drive users toward conversions and helps you discover any pain points.
Run CRO audits at regular intervals, a minimum of every six months. Keep watch over your conversion rates in between your full CRO audits to be certain you don’t overlook any website issues.
Advantages of CRO audits
There are several advantages to conducting your individual CRO audit, including:
Reduced shopping cart abandonment
Data collected during a CRO audit can make it easier to develop an optimization strategy for reducing shopping cart abandonment. A comprehensive conversion audit assesses user behavior and trends and offers insight into drop-off points where potential customers leave your website. When you’ve identified drop-off points, you’ll be able to adjust your technique to improve those areas.
Improved user experience
Performing regular conversion audits can make it easier to make timely adjustments to your user journey and improve your customers’ overall experience together with your brand. For instance, should you focus your optimization efforts on reducing the variety of steps within the checkout flow, you’ll be able to improve customer satisfaction with a streamlined checkout process.
Informed conversion strategies
Consistent and comprehensive CRO audits can provide invaluable data about improving different points of your ecommerce website, reminiscent of your homepage, product pages, and call-to-action (CTA) buttons. A successful CRO audit involves identifying actionable next steps to drive more traffic toward conversions like sales.
Ecommerce CRO audit FAQ
When should businesses do a CRO audit?
The frequency of CRO audits is dependent upon your needs, but typically it’s good to conduct a CRO audit a minimum of every six months. Other aspects include major changes to your website’s copy, design, and structure, recent conversion goals, or a sudden increase or decrease in site traffic.
What tools can you utilize to conduct a CRO audit?
There are numerous CRO audit tools, including free software like Google Analytics and applications within the Shopify App Store like Firepush, Blyp, and Privy. Some ecommerce platforms offer helpful information. For instance, Shopify Checkout provides information on optimizing your checkout process for increased conversions.
What needs to be included in a CRO audit?
When performing a CRO audit, include clear website goals, priority pages, user feedback, and up-to-date analytics concerning the customer journey. A successful CRO audit requires a comprehensive understanding of your website’s paint points in addition to a monitoring system that may inform your optimization strategies.
