How to calculate website conversion rate
One way of measuring your website is by observing the conversion rate. It is often used to determine the success of your website and marketing efforts. However, it’s not the full picture. It is best to use it to diagnose issues and propose improvements on certain parts of your website.
What is a website conversion rate?
To begin with, a website conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors that have taken action on your website. An action could be purchasing a product to become a customer or filling out a form to become a lead. Or it could be smaller like downloading an ebook, subscribing to your email newsletter, booking a demo, or something else.
Conversion rate formula
Conversion rate = (Conversions or goals achieved / Total visitors) * 100
For example: A website had 26,562 visitors and of those, 4,231 took the desired action, then your conversion rate is 15.9%.
There are two ways you could calculate the conversion rate.
By separating each conversion. For example, only looking at email subscriber conversion rate, then looking at lead conversion rate through a form.
By combining all the conversions.
Conversion rate calculator
Use our conversion rate calculator to find out your conversion rate percentage.
When a high conversion rate is not great
Typically, people assume that a high conversion rate is great and a low conversion means improvements need to be made. However, this isn’t necessarily true.
If a website receives 100,000 visitors and 2000 of them convert, that’s a 2% conversion rate.
Compare this to a website which receives 100 visitors and 50 of them convert, that’s a conversion rate of 50%.
In this instance, the website with the 2% conversion is probably doing better in revenue and sales. And revenue is the main KPI. So don’t be afraid to dig deeper into your data.
If your conversion rate has dropped, it could be a sign that something has happened and needs investigating. Perhaps a form is no longer working. This is why the conversion rate metric is good for diagnosing.
Is your website not converting as well as you’d like?
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What is a good website conversion rate?
It’s best to compare your conversion rate to your own business. Monitor its ebbs and flows. Try not to compare your conversion rate to other businesses or even the industry average. There are so many factors in what can constitute a good conversion rate, including whether the company is investing in paid ads, their target audience, their brand, their messaging and positioning. It’s hard to compare like-for-like when there are so many variables in the way. Industry averages are a guideline but don’t take them to heart. Focus on your business and its progress.
Conclusion
Calculate and observe your website conversion rate to help diagnose issues on your website. Keep in mind that although a website conversion rate might drop, this does not necessarily indict a problem. Investigate and make tweaks to areas where there has been a drop in conversion rate if there is an issue.
If you’re looking to increase your conversion rate, get in touch! Find out more about my Squarespace website design service and Squarespace support.
