16 Fresh Conversion Optimization Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

CRO means being useful
Rule no. 1 of Conversion Rate Optimization, fulfil a need and do it well. (image source)

Conversion Rate Optimization. 3 simple buzz words or a contemporary business necessity? First, you need to know what it means – it’s tuning your site to the desires and needs of your customers, btw.

Yet despite it’s popularity as a dicsussion topic, hardly anyone knows how to do it well, so I’ve collected a bunch of links that will help you learn from some smart people about how to go about making your pages convert better by being:

  • More efficient
  • More concise
  • More targeted
  • More better (yup)

“Focus people on what you want them to do, and you’ll get better conversions as a result. “
— Anonymous genius

If you’re just digging in, it doesn’t take long to realize that spending your time on Conversion Rate Optimization (rather than only focusing on search or PPC for example) can dramatically reduce your CPA. No matter who you are, SMB or enterprise level, CRO shan’t be ignored. It’s one of the most effective ways a web based business can grow profits.

Here are 16 of the best that have emerged in recent weeks, categorized by subject:

General Conversion Rate Optimization

1. The SEOgadget Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization

SEOGadget created a “Spiffy Step-by-Step Infographic” to help businesses identify, and target the core barriers to conversion and then, scientifically test the changes. They even put together a full HTML version of their guide, nice work guys!

2. How To Get Management Excited About Conversion Optimization

We love Brian Massey, and he certainly knows what he’s talking about when it comes to CRO. If you’re in the position where you have to “sell” CRO to a higher-up, you’re going to appreciate the tactic Brian lays out here, it’s all about competition.

3. Supercharge Your Conversion Rate Optimization: How to Structure CRO & Win

In many ways CRO requires as much specialist skill as technical SEO, in this post Simon Penson gives us a no fluff approach to the conversion funnel and the important considerations for each step. If you’re looking for that methodological path to CRO, Simon’s got you covered.

4. Good-Bye Google Website Optimizer: What This Means for Conversion Testing

Google recently announced they’re retiring its website optimizer, and replacing it with Google Analytics Content Experiments. GetElastic smartly asks website optimization expert Rich Page to weigh in on this change. He also lays out the best alternative conversion testing tools (thanks for the include, Rich :) from mid-range to enterprise level. If you’re looking for a testing solution, look no further.

5. Conversion Rate Optimization and SEO (Together at Last)

Google is making search optimization and conversion optimization more similar, and this is very good news for all of us. In this post Carlos del Rio digs into the why and how “Simplify, Speed Up, and Share” should be your mantra from now on if you want to do well by both SEO & CRO.

Conversion Strategies

6. Top 20 Conversion Optimization Tips

Alright, so you’re just getting started with CRO, where to begin? What to test? Here are 20 things you should be doing (or planning) ASAP. This post is a great place to start.

7. 16 Ways to Simplify Your Prospects’ Decision-Making Process

A 20% increase in decision simplicity results in a 96% increase in customer loyalty, 86% increase in likelihood to purchase, and 115% increase in likelihood to recommend… Want on this train? Yeah, you do. Here are 16 things you can do right now.

8. 6 Ways to Increase Conversions by Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of the most powerful ways to grow your online business, but yeah, it’s hella lot of work. Here, James Agate provides one of the most developed lists on how to maximise that work by increasing conversions with every guest post.

9. 5 Psychological Studies on Pricing That You Absolutely MUST Read

Pricing is one of the most direct decisions any business can make that will affect conversion, it’s also one of the most difficult. This post walks through studies on comparative pricing, saving time, price points, the number 9, and context… and in true KISSmetrics style, it’s awesomely thorough.

10. 54 Quotes from Startup Leaders on How to Improve Conversions

This gem fell into my lap at the very last minute and I’m so happy it did. What an awesome way to present conversion goodness and showcase successful startup talent (kudos on including Oli too :).

Mastering Form Conversion (Great for B2B)

11. 5 Ways to Improve Your Contact Form Conversion Rate

When you consider all the different use cases for your contact form, you begin to feel guilty that you’ve been neglecting it for so long. This one is by Neil Patel, so you know it’s good, you’ll also learn plenty that applies to all forms on your website, so don’t skip it.

12. 4 Questions to Reduce Form Abandonment & Increase Sales

A lot of blood, sweat and money go into getting traffic to your site, you’re leaving money on the table and losing sales that should be yours if your forms aren’t up to snuff. Here are four simple but too often overlooked questions to ask to reduce form abandonment.

13. Form Optimization: 3 case studies to help convince your boss (and Sales) to reduce form fields

So not everyone is convinced that reducing form fields increases conversion, and thus sales? To your next meeting, bring this MarketingExperiments slideshow presentation with 3 case studies that cannot be ignored.

A/B Split Testing

14. How AMD Used A/B Testing to Achieve 3600% Increase in Social Sharing

Find out how A/B tests identified website improvements which resulted in up to 36x increase in social sharing. Yup, you read right. AMD.com wanted to increase their content’s shareability and started experimenting with the position and appearance of their social buttons and whammo! Sounds like they hit a sweet spot.

15. Top 7 Split Testing Blunders You Must Avoid

You know that testing can be the single most profitable investment you can make in your business, right? Right. So get them right. It’s easy to assume, it’s easy to let your ego get in the way, and it’s easy to misinterpret results… Simply put, it’s easy to mess up your split tests, here’s 7 ways not to.

16. What to do When Your Split Test Fails

Why are your split tests failing? What can be gleaned from even failed tests? Bonnie Stefanick lays out what you likely did wrong, and how to salvage the data and hopefully, learn from your mistakes.


Got any other great links? Share them in the comments. We’re link friendly :)

— Georgiana Laudi

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About Georgiana Laudi
It's not easy, marketing to marketers, and she likes it that way. As the former VP Marketing at Unbounce, Georgiana is serious about awesome marketing. Former consultant, agency hired-gun, brand manager and tech community organizer, Georgiana's been cracking integrated web marketing across search, ecommerce, copy, email, social, product, analytics and usability for over 14 years. Most days you can find her proving it's possible to be a doer AND a perfectionist. Find her selectively tweeting about marketing on Twitter as @ggiiaa.
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