Top Conversion Rate Optimization Mistakes & CRO Best Practices

Transcript: Hi guys, this is John here. I’m an internet marketing consultant with WebFX. And in this video, we’ll be going over the top five conversion rate optimization mistakes that I see on a regular basis.

My hope is that a few of these will be valuable for your campaigns. Okay, so number one…

1. Not having your call to action above the fold

So what does that mean? It means that you don’t have any indication to the user when they first land on the page, and before they scroll down, what they should be doing when they finish that page. So you want to put a button, a form fill, or something up above the fold right as the user’s landing on the page to set an expectation that, “Hey, once you’re convinced by everything here, here’s how you’re going to take action.

This is what you’re going to do next.”   And then everything else builds back to that and reinforces that action. The second thing that I see frequently—and it’s not nearly as easy—is…

2. Not optimizing for page speed

Now, we all know that site speed is important. None of us like dealing with slow-moving websites. However, I see site speed optimization projects often getting pushed off because they’re time-consuming, and can be expensive.

A thorough site speed optimization may require changes to website technology or even features, and it’s not always easy.   Still, it’s important because every second of additional load time has a direct impact on your conversion rates. The third optimization mistake that I see regularly is…

3. Not considering your mobile experience first

Now, a lot of us will be familiar with a mobile-responsive website, but I’m talking about thinking about things mobile-first. And what does that mean? Well, let’s consider that mobile users may need content arranged a bit differently.

They may expect different conversion opportunities, such as phone calls versus form fills. They may have different questions about the product. It’s not enough to be mobile-responsive, which just squishes all your desktop content into a column.

For example, we had a client where our desktop call-to-action was in the page’s sidebar, and on a mobile device, the sidebar was placed below all the content. So you had to read everything else on the page before you saw the call-to-action. Number four…

4. Not optimizing your metadata

Conversions don’t actually start on your landing page. Conversions start way back in the search results page when you set the right expectation for the purpose of the page and the action you want the user to take when they get there. Oftentimes when we’re optimizing our metadata, we get too concerned about trying to optimize for search engines and cramming keywords in there that don’t necessarily flow together, set a realistic expectation for the page, or help the user determine the next action they should take.

  So, put the user and the intended action first with just enough keywords that the search engine knows what you’re trying to present. Fifth and final—and this is probably the case for the majority of us out there—we’re…

5. Not yet properly tracking or valuing all conversion opportunities on the site

What does that mean? Well, imagine you’re a lead gen company. You may be hyper-focused on form fills from specific pages, but to get the full picture of engagement on your website, you should be tracking and valuing all meaningful user interactions, including phone calls, chat engagements, email clicks, PDF downloads, newsletter sign-ups, and more.

These will give you a more complete picture of how users are engaging with your content, where they are in their conversion funnel, and what to do next to generate a lead. You may be getting more calls than forms without realizing it, and need to work on your inbound calls procedures to turn more of that into new business.

So again, the top five CRO mistakes that I see regularly are:

1. Not putting a clear call to action above the fold.
2. Not optimizing for site speed.
3. Not taking a look at your website from a mobile-first perspective.
4. Not optimizing metadata for your pages.
5. Not properly tracking or valuing all the conversion and engagement opportunities on the site.

If you have questions about conversion rate optimization or would like to share a common CRO mistake that you’ve seen, let us know in the [YouTube] comments below. Thanks and don’t forget to subscribe.