What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?
Conversion rate optimization, that is, CRO, is the whole of studies aimed at increasing the rate of users on a website or application performing targeted actions such as purchasing, filling out a form, creating a membership or receiving an offer. The basis of the question of what is CRO is to use existing traffic more efficiently and improve the points that make it difficult for users to convert. Optimizely also defines CRO as an optimization process aimed at increasing the percentage of conversions on the website or application.
What is Conversion Rate and How is it Calculated?
The question of what is conversion rate can be explained as the ratio of users who achieve the determined goal to the total number of users or interactions. Which action will be considered a conversion varies depending on the goals of the business.
For example;
- Purchasing on e-commerce sites,
- Sending an offer form on service sites,
- E-mail subscription on blogs,
- Creating membership in applications
as a conversion. can be evaluated.
The basic calculation is as follows:
Conversion Rate = Number of Conversions / Total Number of Interactions or Visitors × 100
For example, if 50 out of 1,000 users perform the targeted action, the conversion rate is 5%. Google Ads also calculates the conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions by the measurable total ad interaction.
Why Is Conversion Rate Important?
The answer to the question of why conversion rate is important is not limited to getting more sales. It is also an important indicator in terms of understanding where users are having difficulty within the site and generating more value from existing marketing traffic.
Thanks to conversion rate optimization;
- Obstacles in the purchasing or form filling process can be identified.
- User experience can be improved.
- The performance of landing pages can be increased.
- Existing traffic from ads can be used more efficiently.
- The performance of different designs and messages can be compared.
- More sound decisions can be made about user behavior.
In Google Analytics, user actions that are important to the business can be tracked as "key events" and this data can be used to evaluate user experience and marketing performance.
What Does CRO Mean and How? How can it be done?
When we look at what CRO means, it means not only changing the color or buttons of the page, but also analyzing user behavior through data and testing improvement opportunities.
In the CRO process, current conversion rates and user behavior are usually examined first. Then, areas that may complicate users' conversion journey are determined and tests are carried out for these areas.
In this process;
- A/B tests,
- Heat maps,
- User surveys,
- Conversion funnel analyses,
- Web analytics data,
- Form and landing page analysis
available.
In A/B tests, two different versions of a page are shown to users and it is measured which option performs better in terms of the specified target. It is stated that heat maps and other behavioral data can also be used to identify areas that need improvement.
What Should Be Considered in CRO Studies?
Conversion optimization should not only focus on achieving a higher percentage. The user experience must be preserved and any changes made must be based on real data. At Google, a good page experience does not depend on a single metric; states that it depends on different elements such as speed, mobile compatibility, security and easy access to content.
At this point, the question "what is the optimization rate?" Instead of looking for a single ideal percentage, it would be better to consider the site's own past performance, industry, traffic source and targeted conversion type. Since there is no single conversion rate valid for every website, the CRO process should be carried out with the logic of continuous analysis, testing and improvement.
Content was updated on October 2, 2026.
