What is conversion rate optimization (CRO)?
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the work of getting more of the visitors you already have to buy, sign up or book a call. It means finding where people drop off, writing a change that might fix it, and testing that change against the current page so you only keep what is proven to work.
The CRO loop
- Research: analytics, heatmaps, recordings, surveys, competitor pages.
- Hypothesis: “Visitors leave because the shipping cost is a surprise; showing it early will raise orders.”
- Test: show the change to part of the traffic, keep the current page as a control.
- Decide: keep the winner, learn from the loser, pick the next test.
Why it pays
More conversions from the same traffic lowers what each customer costs you, so every ad dollar goes further. A small lift on a page that gets most of your visitors compounds over every later test.
Ways to do it
- In-house or agency: people run the loop with a testing tool (tools compared).
- Done-for-you AI: software runs the loop end to end. Luria does this on real orders, with your page kept as a held-out control (AI split testing).
Questions
What is a good conversion rate?
It depends on what you sell, the price and where the traffic comes from, so compare against your own past numbers rather than averages. The useful question is whether a change beats your current page.