What is CRO? Everything You Need to Know

To get started with CRO, you need a clear, structured process to track and improve your conversion rates.

Here’s a breakdown of how to approach it effectively:

Step 1: Research and analysis

Before you can optimize, you need to understand what’s happening on your site.

Effective data management is crucial for gathering and analyzing the information needed to optimize your site. This is where tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar come in handy.

Start by identifying key web pages (like your product or checkout pages) and look for patterns.

Are website visitors dropping off before completing a purchase? What are they clicking on?

Also, gather feedback from customers to understand their pain points.

Step 2: Goal setting

Once you have data, define specific, measurable goals.

What do you want to improve? Whether it’s increasing your add-to-cart rate or boosting email sign-ups, make sure your goals are clear and aligned with your business objectives.

Step 3: Hypothesis creation

Now, it’s time to develop hypotheses based on your research.

For example, if you notice people are dropping off at the checkout page, your hypothesis might be, “Simplifying the checkout process will reduce cart abandonment.”

This gives you a clear direction for testing.

Step 4: A/B testing and experimentation

Next up is experimentation. Use A/B testing to compare two versions of a landing page or element to see which performs better.

You can also try multivariate testing, where several variables are tested simultaneously. It’s important to run these tests long enough to gather meaningful data.

Step 5: Analysis and implementation

Once your tests are complete, analyze the results. Did your hypothesis hold true? If so, implement the winning changes permanently. If not, review the data and test a new hypothesis.

Step 6: Continuous optimization

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) isn’t a one-and-done deal. Keep testing and tweaking to find new ways to improve.

Even small changes can lead to big results over time, so always be on the lookout for opportunities to optimize.

Watch this video for more details on the CRO testing process: