Understanding CRO: Conversion Rate Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation is how we turn search engine queries into people on your website. But what is Conversion Rate Optimisation? And how does DotGO help turn your visitors into customers?

Well? Are you going to buy anything or not?

Have you ever browsed in a small shop, and the owner asks you this? Or maybe in a more polite way? They might smile and say, ‘How can I help?’ Or they might tell you they have a 2 for 1 offer on tea towels this week. You might end up buying more than you originally wanted. Well, your website needs to do this too. This is known in the website trade as Conversion Rate Optimisation or CRO.

How to turn visitors into customers?

When someone enters your website you have less than 15 seconds to grab their attention. Usually a good design will keep them intrigued for roughly 5 of those 15 but soon they will start looking for answers to their questions - does this site have what I need? Are they affordable? Are they professional?

If you fail to plan for how you will make sure your website passes your customers 'so what' test - then you've planned to fail.

There are many ways to make sure this doesn’t happen to you:

The Journey: When a visitor comes to your website they are are taken on a journey. They are welcomed to the website with attractive imagery, an enticing offer, or a story about the product. From there they read on, and the content gradually persuades them that this is what they want, and then shows them how to get it, with your service of course.
The Call to Action: A CTA is your way of creating shortcuts to the information that will matter most to your customers. Create bold banners with quick, salesy messages that talk to them directly accompanied with a link that will warp them to whatever it is they are looking for - your 'biggest ever sale' or 'Book now - limited availability'.

So, what is conversion rate optimisation?

How well your website turns a visitor into a customer is known as CRO. Each business type and website is different, and some customers prefer a slower journey, while others expect to have everything now. Catering to both, knowing when to ask, and how, so that when they contact you, your customers are already convinced, is all part of Conversion Rate Optimisation.

Helping your visitors make the right decision

DotGo websites use a variety of ways to help you turn a wavering visitor into a customer. Most of our web pages have the phone number, or other contact details prominently displayed. You will notice Call to Actions (‘Shop Now’, ‘Contact us for a quote!’), are dotted around the websites, reminding people to do the right thing.

Tidio chat

Another useful feature offered as part of our own website design service is Tidio Live Chat. This helpfully asks wavering visitors if they need any assistance, and will send you a notification on your phone, allowing you to respond immediately if they reply. You can even add in automatic responses from Tidio, buying you more time and obtaining more details from your potential customer. We have found this to be a really useful tool to help our websites gain more customers.

You can try our own chat window on the bottom right here, and test it out for yourself.