Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — be that filling out a form, becoming customers, or otherwise. The CRO process involves understanding how users move through your site, what actions they take, and what's stopping them from completing your goals.
Your server already produces this data, which capture every detail of a user’s interaction with your site. Various free and paid analytics services can interpret the data for you, or you can outsource it to an analytics company.
Also known as “web bugs,” this method gathers data via the user’s browser rather than your server. Page tagging requires signing up for an analytics service and adding JavaScript tags to each page on your site, and tends to be more accurate than log files.
Web analytics allows you to access valuable information undreamed of by pre-Internet marketers:
Target Your Audience. See who your typical customers are and how they get to your site. Age, gender and other factors influence how people interact with your website.
Check Your Conversion Path. Measure the loss between any two steps on the way to conversion. You will need this data in order to perform Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
Maximize Your Return on Investment. Evaluate the effectiveness of your various marketing methods. Are your pay-per-click keywords paying off? Have you optimized your site for the right search terms? What kind of boost are you getting from your social media marketing strategy?
