The 10-Step CRO Audit Framework for Real Results

Getting people to your website is only half the battle.

• What do those website visitors do once they arrive?
• Do they browse around?
• Do they buy something?
• Do they sign up for your email list?

If you’re like most businesses, you want your site visitors to take a specific action.

That could be anything from making a purchase to downloading a lead magnet.

And that’s where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes in.

CRO is all about getting more of your visitors to take the action you want them to take.

In other words, it’s about increasing your conversion rate.

A CRO audit is a key part of this process. A comprehensive CRO audit checklist can guide you through the essential steps to ensure nothing is overlooked. It’s a systematic review of your website that helps you identify areas where you can improve your conversion rates.

In this post, we’re going to show you exactly how to do a CRO audit in 10 simple steps.

So if you want to get more conversions, you’ll love this guide.

Let’s get started.

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What is a Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) audit?

A proper conversion audit is a comprehensive evaluation of your website’s ability to convert visitors into customers.

It’s a step by step process that involves analyzing various elements of your site, from your landing pages to your checkout process, to identify areas for improvement.

Think of it like an SEO audit for conversions.

You’re looking for any and all issues that might be preventing people from taking action.

Why do a CRO audit?

Here are a few reasons why:

Find problem areas: A proper audit will show you where on your site is underperforming. Landing pages with high bounce rates, confusing checkout processes or unclear CTAs. Analyzing user behavior can help you understand where visitors are encountering issues and why they are not converting.

Improve user experience: By fixing UX issues you can make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for and engage more.

Convert more: Ultimately the goal of a CRO audit is to increase your website’s conversion rate. By making your site more user friendly and persuasive you can get more visitors to take the desired action.

10-Step CRO Audit Framework

Here’s our proven CRO audit process:

1. Set Clear Goals

This might seem obvious but it’s essential to define what you want to achieve with your CRO audit.

Without clear conversion goals you’ll be wandering aimlessly, not knowing what to focus on or how to measure success.

Here’s how to set clear goals:

• What are your overall business goals?
• Are you trying to increase revenue, grow your email list or expand into new markets?
• How can CRO help you achieve your business objectives?

For example if your goal is to increase revenue your CRO goal might be to increase online sales by 15%.

Define SMART goals: Instead of saying “improve conversions” say “increase landing page conversion rate for our new product by 10% in the next quarter.”

Find KPIs: What metrics will you track to measure progress towards your goals? Examples are conversion rate, average order value, customer lifetime value and bounce rate.

Setting clear goals from the start will ensure your CRO audit is focused and effective.

2. Prioritize High-Impact Pages

You don’t have to optimize every single page on your site at once.

Focus on the pages that have the biggest impact on your conversion goals.

Here’s how to prioritize:

1. Use Google Analytics to see which pages get the most traffic. These are the prime candidates for optimization as even small gains can add up.

2. Which pages already have a high conversion rate? Can you make them better?

3. Focus on pages that are key touchpoints in the conversion process, your homepage, product pages, pricing page and checkout process.

4. A high bounce rate means visitors are leaving your page without taking any action. These pages need attention to understand why users aren’t engaging.

By focusing your efforts you can get the most out of your CRO audit.

3. UX

A good user experience is key to conversions. If visitors find your site confusing, frustrating or hard to use they won’t become customers.

Here’s how to analyze UX:

→ User testing

Recruit representative users from your target audience and watch them use your website.

Ask them to complete specific tasks and gather feedback on their experience. Tools like UserTesting.com can help you do remote user testing.

→ Heuristic analysis

Test your site against established usability heuristics (rules of thumb). Nielsen Norman Group’s 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design is a good place to start.

→ Heatmaps and scrollmaps

Use tools like Hotjar or Crazy Egg to see where users are clicking, scrolling and hovering on your pages. This will show you areas of interest and potential usability issues.

→ User feedback

Look at customer reviews, support tickets and social media comments to find common pain points and areas to improve.

By understanding how users use your site you can fix UX issues that are blocking conversions.

4. Review & Optimize Content

Your website content should be more than informative; it should be persuasive and guide visitors to conversion.

This is a big part of any cro website audit.

Here’s how to optimize your content:

⮕ Use clear and concise language that your target audience can understand. Avoid jargon and technical terms unless absolutely necessary.

Think about how you can make your product descriptions and web copy as user-friendly as possible.

Like this one 👇

“Try for $9,” rather than “Shop Now,” is specific. It explains to consumers exactly what will happen when they click that button.

⮕ Use headlines and subheadings to break up your content and make it scannable. Make sure they are attention grabbing and accurately describe the content that follows.

A good headline can grab attention and get visitors to read more.

⮕ Use clear and concise CTAs that tell visitors what you want them to do. Try different CTA button colours, sizes and placement.

Instead of a generic “Learn More” button try something more specific like “Download Now” or “Get a Free Quote”.

⮕ Focus on the benefits of your product or service not just its features. A clear value proposition can significantly influence potential customers’ decision-making by clearly communicating the benefits of your product or service. Explain how it solves the pain points of your target audience. People will buy more if they understand how it will improve their life.

⮕ Use images, videos, and other visuals to break up your text and make your material more interesting. Visuals may demonstrate your products, clarify difficult ideas, and evoke strong feelings in your audience.

By optimising your content you can make it more persuasive and guide visitors to take action.

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Highlight real-time activities like reviews, sales & sign-ups.

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5. Check Trust Elements

Trust is key to online conversions. Visitors need to feel confident your site is legitimate and their info is safe. This is especially important for ecommerce sites.

Here’s how to build trust:

⮕ Showing security badges from reputable companies like Norton or McAfee can reassure visitors your site is secure.

This is especially important on pages where users are inputting sensitive info, like checkout pages.

⮕ Positive reviews and testimonials from happy customers can build credibility and drive conversions.

People are more likely to trust recommendations from other people than marketing messages from a company.

Like how we’re showing on our pricing page:

You can use Wisernotify to show testimonials and reviews on your website.

⮕ Offer strong guarantees and hassle free return policies to reduce the perceived risk of buying from your site. This shows you stand behind your products and services.

⮕ Make it easy for visitors to contact you by showing a phone number, email address and physical address (if applicable). This gives the impression you are a real company with real people behind it.

⮕ A well designed website with high quality images can convey professionalism and trust. First impressions count and a sloppy website can make visitors question your credibility.

By adding trust elements you can create a sense of security and get visitors to convert.

6. Speed & Mobile

In today’s fast paced digital world site speed is more important than ever.

Visitors expect websites to load fast and if yours doesn’t they’ll leave. This can have a huge impact on your conversion rates.

Here’s how to check and improve site speed:

➥ Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool tests your website and provides recommendations to improve. This free tool gives you a score for mobile and desktop and highlights areas to focus on.

➥ Large image files can slow down your site. Use tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim to compress images without losing quality.

You can also use newer image formats like WebP which are more compressible than JPEG or PNG.

➥ Each element on your page (images, scripts, stylesheets) requires a separate HTTP request. Reduce the number of elements to improve loading times.

This might mean combining files or using a content delivery network (CDN).

➥ Browser caching allows your website’s files to be stored on a visitor’s computer so they don’t have to download every time they visit your site. This can speed up loading times for repeat visitors.

➥ Your hosting provider is a key part of your site’s speed. Choose a provider that has fast servers and good uptime.

If you’re on a budget shared hosting plan consider upgrading to a VPS or dedicated server.

Here’s how to optimize for mobile:

Use a responsive design: Responsive design means your website adapts to different screen sizes and devices. Most modern website themes are responsive by default but always check.

Like this one 👇

Opt for touch: Make sure buttons and links are big enough to be tapped on a touchscreen. Avoid tiny fonts or elements that are too close together.

Keep it concise: Mobile users have shorter attention spans. Keep your content concise and to the point. To break up your writing, use bullet points, brief paragraphs, and images.

Test on different devices: Test your website on multiple mobile devices to make sure it looks and works. Don’t just rely on the emulator in your browser’s developer tools.

By optimizing your site for speed and mobile, you can improve the user experience and conversions.

7. Quick User Behavior Analytics

Analytics data can give you valuable insights into how visitors are behaving on your web pages.

This data can help you identify areas to improve in your conversion optimisation.

Here’s what to track:

⮕ Bounce rate: A high bounce rate means visitors are leaving your page without taking any action. This could be due to many reasons such as irrelevant content, bad design or slow loading times.

⮕ Time on page: This metric shows how long visitors are staying on your pages. Low time on page means your content isn’t engaging or visitors aren’t finding what they’re looking for.

⮕ Pages per session: This metric shows how many pages visitors are viewing in a single session. Low number means your website’s navigation is confusing or your content isn’t compelling enough to encourage further exploration.

⮕ Exit pages: Find out which pages visitors are leaving your site from. This will show you potential bottlenecks in your conversion funnel.

⮕ Events: Track specific user interactions such as button clicks, form submissions and video views. This will help you see which elements on your page are most engaging. To track these interactions you’ll need to enable event tracking in Google Analytics.

Here is a sweet example of a bounce rate metric.

By examining these behavioural metrics, you can better understand how users behave on your site and find opportunities to optimise it.

8. Checkout

For ecommerce sites the checkout is a key part of the customer journey. A complicated or confusing checkout process can lead to cart abandonment and lost sales.

You want to make it as easy as possible for people to complete the purchase.

Here’s how to optimise your checkout:

1. Reduce the number of steps to complete a purchase. Offer guest checkout to avoid forcing users to create an account. The fewer clicks to buy something the better.

2. Remove any unnecessary elements from your checkout pages that could distract users from completing the purchase. This includes sidebars, promotional banners and related product recommendations.

3. Be upfront about shipping costs and estimated delivery times to avoid surprises later in the process. Surprises are a major reason for cart abandonment.

4. Provide multiple payment options, credit cards, PayPal and Apple Pay to cater to different preferences. The more payment options you offer the more likely people are to find one that works for them.

5. Show security badges to reassure customers their payment details are safe. This will help build trust and reduce anxiety around online security.

6. Provide clear contact information and live chat support to help customers with any questions or issues during the checkout process. Sometimes people just need a little help to get over the line.

Here is one of the best checkout page from Peloton 👇

By simplifying your checkout and making it as easy as possible you can reduce cart abandonment and increase sales.

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Highlight real-time activities like reviews, sales & sign-ups.

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9. A/B Testing

A/B testing (also known as split testing) is a powerful tool for optimisation. It involves showing two versions of a web page to see which one performs better in terms of conversions.

It’s a key part of the optimisation process.

Here’s how to A/B test:

Step 1: Based on your CRO audit findings develop a hypothesis about what changes will improve conversions.

For example you might hypothesise that changing the colour of your CTA button will get more clicks. Or maybe you think adding a customer testimonial will increase landing page conversion rates.

Step 2: Create two versions of your page, one with the change you want to test. Keep everything else the same so you can isolate the impact of the change you’re testing.

Step 3: Use an A/B testing tool (like Google Optimize or Optimizely) to show each version of your page to different visitors. Make sure you run the test long enough to get statistically significant results.

Step 4: Track the conversion rates for each version of your page. See which one performs better and implement the winning version. Don’t be afraid to test multiple variations to find the best one.

A/B testing allows you to make data driven decisions about your website’s design and content so you can continuously improve your conversion rates.

10. Measure & Iterate

CRO is an ongoing process not a one time event. You need to continuously measure your results and adjust as needed. Think of it as a cycle of continuous improvement.

Here’s how to measure and iterate:

➡ Monitor the KPIs you identified in step 1. This will show you if your CRO is working.

➡ Google Analytics is a great tool for tracking website traffic and conversions. Use it to segment users and see how different groups of people are behaving on your site.

➡ Don’t just rely on data. Get feedback from your customers to understand their experience and identify areas for improvement. You can use surveys, polls or just ask them directly.

➡ Based on your data and feedback make changes to your website and your CRO strategy. This might be tweaking the design, revising the content or running more A/B tests.

➡ Do regular CRO audits to ensure your website is always optimised for conversions. The digital landscape is always changing so you need to stay on top of the latest trends and best practices.

By continuously measuring and adjusting you can ensure your CRO is always moving you towards your conversion goals.

How Often Should You Do a CRO Audit?

There’s no hard and fast rule for how often you should do a CRO audit.

However as a general rule of thumb we recommend doing it at least once a year.

But here’s the thing:

If you’re making big changes to your website like a site wide redesign or launching a new product you might want to do CRO audits more frequently.

Why?

Because even small changes to your website can have a big impact on your conversion rates.

For example let’s say you’ve just redesigned your homepage.

You’ll want to do a CRO audit after the redesign to make sure the new design is actually improving your conversions.

You can also use CRO audits to find and fix any issues caused by changes to your website.

So if you’re making changes to your site regularly you should do CRO audits more frequently.

Free CRO Audits?

We’ve put together a list of top agencies that offer free CRO audits, saving you the time and effort of doing it yourself.

We’ve handpicked these agencies to provide you with the most value—without any hard sales pitch.

If you’re an e-commerce store owner, the audit from ConvertCart is an absolute goldmine. I’m not trying to promote it, but it’s definitely worth your time—completely free of charge. Here’s the link: ConvertCart Free Audit.

And here’s another fantastic option I want to mention: KlientBoost CRO Services.

Over to you

That’s it for our 10-step CRO audit framework.

Now it’s your turn to take action.

By following these steps, you can identify and fix any issues that are preventing your website from converting visitors into customers.

Remember:

CRO is an ongoing process.

So, don’t just conduct a CRO audit once and then forget about it.

Make it a regular part of your digital marketing strategy.

And if you need any help, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

We’re always happy to help businesses increase conversions.