What Is a Conversion?

Adam Steele
Oct 2, 2021

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First and foremost, conversion is not the same as SEO.

Conversion is basically the end of a user’s journey on your website. It is not necessarily the end, since the client may return and begin a new leg of the journey. Good SEO may boost conversions if you do the following:

  • Choose the appropriate keywords,
  • Offer the appropriate site structure, and
  • Ensure that your visitor has the best possible user experience.

You’ll give a warm welcome by ensuring that your site visitor’s needs are met. You’ll build trust, which will make it simpler for that visitor to convert.

Conversion marketing has become an important approach in today’s world when increasing marketing ROI is a massive issue for businesses all over the world.

But what exactly is a conversion?

This article will help you understand the definition of conversion, its importance, what constitutes a good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) conversion rate, as well as how to calculate and improve your conversion rate.

What Is a Conversion?

Conversion is defined as “the moment at which a recipient of a marketing message takes a desired action” in the MarketingSherpa vocabulary.

A conversion is anything that piques a customer’s interest or moves them one step closer to completing a purchase.

Conversion in marketing happens when a user acts in response to a call-to-action in an ad, offer, or notification. The activity that qualifies as a “conversion” might differ depending on the platform: for mobile, it could be a download, install, sign-up, or purchase.

Conversions, as previously established, are essentially goal completions. The term “conversion” refers to any activity a user makes on your website that is beneficial in some way. Conversions can be many things due to the vast range of activities that can be performed that are useful.

The ideal conversion is a customer, which occurs when someone makes a purchase. Other conversions, however, are valuable as well, and many lesser conversions are stages that can eventually encourage your website visitors to convert into customers.

Conversions are also known as actions, occurrences, objective completions, or leads.

So, just what are examples of conversions? Various modifications are available depending on your business. Marketers frequently refer to the following common conversion goals:

  • Form submissions
  • Sales\sLeads
  • Email subscriptions
  • Registration\sSubscription
  • Visits to a critical page
  • Webinar sign-ups
  • Phone calls (or other direct contacts)

Not all of these conversions will apply to all businesses, and your company may be able to measure more conversions.

Why Are Conversions Important?

Conversions are important since they contribute to the profitability of your business. The ultimate conversion is a sale, but additional conversions might help you identify leads and nurture them into paying clients. Even if you were unaware of it, or if you do not completely comprehend conversions, they are still useful.

The fundamental question is why conversion tracking is important. Tracking sales conversions is clearly crucial for determining whether or not your firm is successful, but tracking smaller conversions is also beneficial.

By measuring conversions, you may learn what your consumers are interested in, what marketing strategies work, and where your marketing may fall short if users do not convert. Tracking this data may help you enhance the profitability of your website, marketing, and sales methods.

Conversion is an important component of any paid search strategy; after all, what are you advertising for if you aren’t converting lookers into purchasers at a high rate? Conversion rate optimization (CRO) allows you to get the most of every dollar spent on Pay-Per-Click (PPC) by locating the sweet spot that persuades the greatest number of your prospects to take action.

In fact, according to statistics, paid search has the greatest average conversion rate by traffic source (2.9%).

Yes, search converts about three times better than email. And it’s not just paid search; organic search has a 2.8% share as well.

Conversion FAQ

What is a good SEO conversion rate?

The percentage of users or webpage visitors who complete a specific action is referred to as your conversion rate. The action may be anything – a new membership, a new purchase, a download, or anything else.

The rate is expressed as a percentage and can be extremely volatile. Furthermore, it may vary from page to page and product to product.

Assume you sell shoes and intend to conduct a Facebook marketing campaign that gets 1,000 visits. According to the campaign, your conversion rate is 2%, which implies that about 20% of your visitors completed a purchase.

The average conversion rate for all marketers, from household brands to small and medium-sized enterprises, is between 2% and 5%. Average, on the other hand, is not what most businesses seek. They seek a high conversion rate to get a competitive advantage in the market.

But what exactly is a decent conversion rate? Above 10% — for all sectors and business sizes.

A respectable conversion rate is greater than 10%, with some businesses attaining an average of 11.45%. Earning a decent conversion rate positions your firm in the top 10% of worldwide marketers, putting your conversion rate two to five times higher than the average.

The fact is that there is no such thing as a magic number. Your conversion rate will be affected by a variety of factors, including:

  • Your line of work
  • Your company’s sales funnel and cycle
  • Your goods/services
  • Your expenses and more

Because these factors impact your conversion rate, determining the exact quantity you need to attain is challenging. You may need to conduct some research to determine what a good conversion rate is for a company in your industry.

How can I improve my conversion rate with SEO?

  1. Perform large-scale experiments 

Do you consider the following when you think about Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO):

  • Changing the color of a button?
  • Increasing the size of a font?
  • Is it time to update an image?

While these kinds of testing can have an effect on your conversion rate, they generally have a minimal one. They seldom increase conversion rates by several percentage points, which is insufficient when you want to go from an average conversion rate of 5% to a strong conversion rate of 10%.

That is why you should undertake large-scale conversion rate optimization (CRO) experiments.

Because when you modify the user experience, this testing, such as updating a page design, might result in significant improvements in your conversion rate.

Once you’ve identified the proper audiences and interests, it’s time to begin a slew of A/B tests that will have a significant influence on your results.

    2. Make testing a routine

Most businesses frequently establish CRO plans but then fail to implement them. A lack of time, limited resources, or unanticipated initiatives might all lead a CRO campaign to be postponed or canceled. When this happens, your conversion rates will come to a standstill.

While modest fluctuations in your conversion rate may occur, these changes will not assist you in achieving a decent conversion rate. If you want to achieve a high conversion rate, you must not only devote time to CRO but also make it a habit.

You may also track the success of an email marketing campaign or promotion.

     3. Experiment with various CTA offers

Your offer has a significant impact on whether or not a user converts. That is why you should try out different offers. While you are not required to create a completely new offer, you should experiment with different words, phrases, and calls to action (CTAs). These modifications can have a significant impact on your conversion rates.

For example, if your company provides a free trial of its software, you could combine the following offers:

  • “Start your free trial right now.”
  • “Get a 14-day free trial”
  • “Try it today.”
  • “Begin a free trial (no credit card needed)”

     4. Fast load times

Your page load times have a huge impact on your website conversions—even the difference of a second or two may make or break your website conversion rate. Make sure your pages load as soon as possible for maximum online conversion rates.

     5. Seamless navigation

Make sure that your website is easy to navigate and clean. Visitors need to be able to get to where they wish to go.

What is a conversion on a website?

When you’re attempting to expand your business online, you need to keep track of key indicators to ensure your success. Conversions on your website are an essential metric. Conversions help you assess whether your digital marketing initiatives are successful.

When someone completes a pre-determined and desired goal on your website, such as signing up for a newsletter, sharing a blog post on social media, or purchasing a product, this is referred to as a website conversion. Your conversion rate is the percentage of people that accomplish your intended activity.

Here are a few examples of website conversions:

  • Completing a form
  • Subscribing to emails or receiving information
  • Social media content sharing
  • Selecting a certain button
  • Selling a product
  • and much more.

Website conversions can be any of the above-mentioned actions. You will decide which action is most suited to your campaign’s objectives.

Conversion types differ from one company to the next. Ecommerce websites are more inclined to prioritize conversions above sales. As a conversion, a service provider, such as a plumber or electrician, may focus on generating leads.

Because no two businesses are the same, you may not have the same website conversions as other firms.

How do you calculate conversion rate?

Conversion rates are computed by simply taking the number of conversions and dividing it by the number of total ad interactions that can be traced to a conversion over the same time period. For example, if you got 50 conversions from 1,000 encounters, your conversion rate would be 5%, as 50 Ă· 1,000 = 5%.

Use the following method to calculate your website conversion rate; however, if you have numerous targets then you will have to track them both individually and on the whole.

There are numerous website conversion rate calculators out there that might make the task easier for you. Consider utilizing one if you find this too complicated.

Here’s how you’ll calculate each:

  • Total conversion: the number of unique visitors divided by the number of visitors who converted.
  • Shopper conversion: the number of new consumers divided by the number of unique visitors.
  • Subscriber conversion: the number of new subscribers divided by the number of unique visits.

As a marketer, you must be aware of all of these data. Google Analytics and other similar tools can give information such as unique visits.

Don’t forget: check out the other definitions (over 200) in our growing SEO glossary.

Improve Your Website Conversion Today

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of conversion.

The process of optimization begins with selecting the optimum objective. Do not proceed with optimization until you have a thorough knowledge of:

  • Who am I attempting to convert?
  • To what am I attempting to convert them?

It might be hazardous to start working on strategies (adding, deleting, and altering things) without first taking a step back and asking yourself what your actual goal is. This method prioritizes talent above strategy.

Before delving into motivation, value, incentive, friction, and anxiety, you should first define your ultimate success or conversion. Perhaps it isn’t your conversion rate (orders/visits) at all. Perhaps you’d be far more successful with a lower conversion rate and a higher revenue figure.

Need help with this? Reach out to us today and let’s improve your website conversions.

Hand off the toughest tasks in SEO, PPC, and content without compromising quality

Explore Services

Written by Adam Steele on October 2, 2021

COO and Product Director at Loganix. Recovering SEO, now focused on the understanding how Loganix can make the work-lives of SEO and agency folks more enjoyable, and profitable. Writing from beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia.