Are you running your website? Whether or not you're happy with the results you're getting, it's worth checking and analysing your conversion rate. It is an indication of what actions users are taking on your website. This is valuable knowledge that can help you, for example, to increase sales or build brand awareness. Find out what the conversion rate is and how you can improve it!
Conversion rate - what is it?
If you have a website, you should know what a conversion rate is (it can also be called a ratio). It is a value that indicates what percentage of users take action on your website. It is calculated from the ratio of the total number of visitors to those who decide to go one step further and convert, for example by clicking on a menu or promotion section.
The effectiveness of events is expressed as a percentage and is a great starting point for analysing the effectiveness of your online business. In this simple way, you can verify how your strategy is performing. Conversion rate is an important piece of information for both entrepreneurs and web developers. It is also one of the main factors you look at when it comes to implementing changes within your website.
Of course, the conversion rate is just as important in an online shop as it is on an information portal, a company's business card or even a blog. Actions that we can analyse in this way are, for example, adding a product to the basket, making a purchase or clicking on the contact section. Conversions also include signing up for a newsletter, sending an enquiry, leaving a contact for yourself or sharing a post on social media. 
Why is the conversion rate so important?
Because only on the basis of hard data can you improve its effectiveness and learn about the real needs of your potential customers. All of this must go hand in hand with competitor analysis, the appearance of our articles on the first page in search results, or increasing brand awareness and recognition. Without the right data, and its effective analysis, a company may not realise its full potential.
First and foremost, the e-commerce conversion rate can be a good indication of whether you need to, for example, optimise your website to increase the number of in-store purchases. Actions may concern positioning, improving graphic elements, better fitting functionality or, for example, adding more product information, including those with keywords selected by the SEO department to make the subpage more visible in Google.
It is worth analysing in detail why users appear on the website but do not take action (e.g. do not click on the products or posts available there). If you are unable to answer these key questions, it is worth conducting an SEO audit.
The conversion rate describes in a real way how your website is received by users. No matter how many of them there are per month.
Conversion rate - how to improve it?
Start with the basics, i.e. get down to the brand's values, its goals and its key audience. Then verify that the website is definitely consistent with them. If you are measuring the conversion rate of the target of your ad buys, (e.g. in Google Ads) be sure to check that the messages match in terms of language and the actual offer.
It is also worth making sure that the so-called 'persona' in Google Ads, i.e. our model customer we want to reach, is properly configured. The more data we provide, the greater the chances of correctly matching such a model buyer. This, in turn, increases the chance of conversion and profit. 
A website must be clear and responsive. It should also not contain too many messages, i.e. incentives that even attack users. Opt for appropriate benefit language, CTAs, and emphasise what makes your brand stand out. Check that all the functionalities of the site work correctly: payment method, newsletter sign-up, etc. You need to take care of the user from the moment they arrive on your site.
Check the effectiveness of the changes made and analyse the data periodically. Only then will you know whether the website is meeting user expectations.
Average conversion rate across industries
There is no single answer to the question of what conversion rate is good. It all depends on the effect you want to achieve and the purpose of your website online. Obviously, the higher the rate, the more real customers have taken advantage of your proposed offer.
Every marketer will wish an online business to have the highest possible conversion rate, and 10% is already considered such. Unfortunately, the e-commerce figures are not so satisfactory. The average conversion rate is between 2% and 5%. In September 2022, according to IRPCommerce data, the highest can be boasted by the health and beauty industry with 3.72%, arts and crafts with 2.85%, kitchen and home appliances with 2.35%, as well as: games and toys with 1.57% and fashion with 1.53%.
Why conversion rates are falling - the most common mistakes
Have you noticed that your sales results have been lower recently? Fewer people have signed up to your mailing list and you want to improve this?
Here are the most common mistakes that can cause a drop in interest:
- misinformation about products and services,
- the payment module does not work properly or is unintuitive for customers to use,
- the purchase path is not tailored to users,
- the website does not work properly on mobile devices,
- the site does not make full use of the potential of benefit language,
- there are no suitable CTA buttons or the messages are not attractive to the audience,
- there is no clear information on what the return and delivery policy is,
- the page is not readable,
- the graphics on the website are of poor quality,
- The offer (as well as the entire website) is not updated periodically.
How to calculate and analyse the conversion rate?
You already know what the conversion rate is. How do you calculate its value, which is useful for analysing the effectiveness of your website online? It is very simple! All you need to know is: the number of website visitors (visits) and the number of actions taken (e.g. signing up for a newsletter).
Divide the conversion value (i.e. the number of actions) by the unique number of users and then multiply it by 100. You get the result in percentage, e.g.: the website was visited by 5 people, which we divide by 1,000 total users per month and multiply by 100. As you can easily calculate, our conversion is 0.5%. The same way you calculate, for example, the advertising success rate.
Imagine that your business consists of doing luxury flat projects and each service starts with a £10,000 fee paid by the client. You turn on a search engine ad that costs £5 per click. It reaches 200 users, but only 15 decide to contact you, and from this group, three people purchase the service. The conversion rate is therefore 1.5%, but this translated into revenue of PLN 30,000. You paid PLN 1 000 for the advertising. Was it worth it? Of course!
As you can see, it is not only the industry and the cost incurred that matters, but also the price of the target service you provide. For online shops with hundreds of products, the case will look very different. You also need to consider the advertising channel during your analysis.
It is worth choosing Google Ads because the service boasts a slightly higher ratio than, for example, social media. However, we are talking about a general approach to online business here, as some are based solely on Facebook and Instagram campaigns and do very well.
To analyse your conversion rate, it is essential to take into account the seasonality of your site. Some industries flourish before Christmas, others peak in spring and others in summer. So you need to 'shoot' the market's expectations with your offer accordingly. Figuratively speaking, promoting winter hats on Google Ads or Facebook in May is a rather poor business idea.
A good conversion rate - how do you achieve it?
Is your website not achieving the desired results? Then you need to increase your conversions. Here are some simple tips to help you do just that!
- Research the needs of your audience.
- Use benefit language and CTAs.
- Choose sales channels where your potential customers are.
- Go for a simple, consistent visual identity - both on social media and on the website.
- Don't forget about responsiveness.
- Perform tests to check the effectiveness of advertisements, messages and even colours.
- Ensure transparency - e.g. on price or delivery costs.
- Ensure quality photos and good content.
- Build brand trust - expert articles, for example, can help with this.
- Take care of your website's positioning.
Even if you already have a working website, it may need to be optimised. This is a series of changes that are introduced gradually. Of course, it is worth betting on CR marketing, a service offered by a marketing agency that knows its stuff and will carry out a proper audit that shows all the website's ills.
This is an interesting option offered to entrepreneurs so that they can focus on their duties on a daily basis. The agency will also carry out numerous A/B tests to verify how the messages work for users. You can also count on tailoring activities to your industry, as well as periodic audits and reports.
What else can affect low conversion rates?
You can point to a misconfigured redirect chain or bad product descriptions. Sometimes the server can also be the culprit. If the website does not load in a fraction of a second, the viewer will lose interest in it and will probably choose a competitor's offer.
It is also worth pointing out the security standards. An SSL certificate is an absolute minimum. If you run an online shop, it is worth using a specialised company to carry out a security audit for you. Of course, it will be crucial to implement the post-audit recommendations.
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