How to Perform a CRO Audit

A conversion rate optimization assessment is a 360-degree audit of my client’s website that thoroughly evaluates the user experience and customer journey based on key performance indicators. I use qualitative, quantitative, and heuristic data to inform a list of recommendations and testing ideas based on a conversion hypothesis that will help mitigate factors that may be contributing to low conversion rates. 

While an assessment can be completed on a client’s website at any time, generally, I start at the beginning of their CRO engagement. Starting as early as possible allows me to gain a holistic view of the website’s current user experience based on existing gaps in the funnel and possible performance issues. It will also enable me to dedicate the rest of my billed hours to mapping out a testing plan and iterating accordingly.

At times, I may need to do a mini-assessment of a critical conversion page or website element, such as a homepage hero or form design. On separate occasions, development teams may call upon me to step into a new website design to help with user research in the early phases or to formulate a CRO plan that will begin after launch. For this, I often set internal milestones for when I complete an audit, such as after the Organic team has optimized the website marketing strategy and I have had a chance to fully understand the customer journey. 

Every line of business has different milestones I adhere to before I feel comfortable performing an audit, for example. 

• An e-commerce website netting 1000 purchases
• A subscription-based website that has passed 500 signups
• A paid landing page after spending $5,000 in paid advertising. 

These numbers will differ depending on the size or type of business. However, I want to ensure the website generates enough traffic for me to feel comfortable running an AB Test to significance. 

STEP 1: Quantitative Analysis

Define Conversion Metrics

When I first begin my audit, I will determine which conversions my clients need to track for their business and set goals for how I will measure these across the customer journey. Early conversations with the client will help me understand which macro conversions will take priority and which micro conversions will be meaningful to track. Then, I dive into the client’s analytics account. 

NOTE: If a client does not have necessary macro/micro conversions set up in their GA4 instance, I usually include this in the assessment as an immediate priority and added to the roadmap.

An excellent place to start is by looking at the page funnels from the “session start” to the “point of conversion.” This insight gives me a great view of where there are significant dropoffs or rubberbanding back and forth between pages at each stage of the customer journey. Before bringing more users into the conversion funnel, I want to ensure that current users find what they need without frustration. 

I also want to isolate the necessary traffic acquisition channels into my reporting to help me understand where and how users find the website and which devices they use to view it. If a client has limited billing hours, this will give me insight into how I can gain a quick win to net me the most conversion impact. 

Determine Priority pages

Remaining consistent with CRO best practices, I’ll determine which pages to focus my audit on based on their ability to impact conversions. I’ll spend significant time in the client’s analytics platform to determine which pages get the most traffic but have the least engagement. In addition, I pay attention to where these pages fit in the user journey and how that may affect how users browse through the website. 

Choosing conversion-oriented pages and those that get a higher amount of traffic helps me see my testing results much quicker and helps me determine if I am moving in the right direction with my testing plan. 

STEP 2: Heuristic Evaluation / Qualitative Analysis

Understanding user behavior

My next step involves a deep dive into how users interact with the website. While the quantitative tells me what users are doing on the website, I rely on qualitative data to see why users are taking their actions and what frustrates them. 

Often, I rely on screen recording and heat mapping tools such as HotJar and Mouseflow to help me determine user pain points. Heatmaps can give us insight into how far users scroll down the page, where they click (or don’t click), and how they move through a webpage. Recordings give me a more holistic view of the user journey from the beginning of a session and provide details about why users are getting frustrated, rage-clicking, making U-turns, and failing to convert.  

The above image is a heatmap of portent.com illustrating scroll depth.

The above image is a heatmap of portent.com illustrating a click map.

The image above is a heatmap of portent.com illustrating mouse movement.

In specialized cases, gather Voice Of the Customer insights.

When clients come to me for a specific problem in their conversion funnel, perhaps user messaging or pricing plans, I can incorporate user surveys or user interview recommendations into my assessment to help me gather the voice of the customer insights. These insights allow me to dive deeper into understanding specific user journeys and build highly specialized AB testing plans based on those findings. 

How to perform Usability Tests for CRO

Ensure the website is in line with heuristics. 

A heuristic evaluation is an inspection of the usability of a website and how easy it is for a user to navigate through the conversion funnel. Website evaluators use a set of pre-determined guidelines set by industry pioneers (heuristics) to identify design-related problems in the user interface. These heuristics are based on previous studies on human behavior, psychology, and information-processing principles. CRO professionals use heuristics to guide us on how we can make the website experience more accessible for everyone who navigates it.

One of the earliest pioneers of this method is Jakob Nielson, whose list of heuristics is the one I follow closest. Following these methods allows me to look at the website from the perspective of a customer while I thoroughly document what hang-ups I may experience in the process. This experience will often allow me to identify easy fixes or quick wins that I can implement immediately into a web page to eliminate common friction points such as website bugs, form fields that may cause churn, or accessibility errors. 

Analyze what competitors are doing.

It is essential to understand my client’s direct competitors so that I can determine why users may be converting elsewhere. I want to note that within this step, I am not performing a full competitive analysis but simply understanding who my client’s main competitors are so that I can help my client have a competitive advantage. 

This process will help me determine if the messaging does not convey intent or if the conversion process needs to be simplified, resulting in drop-offs. 

NOTE: It is essential to understand that when analyzing competitors, I don’t want to copy what they do directly. I want to know where to improve my processes and brainstorm unique solutions to remedy user churn. 

Gain additional insight from internal stakeholders.

Lastly, gaining feedback from my peers who are also working with the client is valuable, especially if they have had more face time with the client. Spending the time to evaluate their previous projects, like content gap analyses, can give me context into what the client has implemented and what opportunities are still possible to pursue that I may have yet to consider. It also forms cohesion between departments and shows that I am willing to resurface ideas essential to the client’s success. 

STEP 3: Deliverable Work Time (pulling everything together) 

Determine a ranking scale. 

A set of difficulty, priority, and action ratings throughout my assessment accompanies each recommendation provided. These rankings help me summarize how I will organize my next steps on the roadmap. 

Difficulty

• Low – requires little expertise to execute. These recommendations fall under “low-hanging fruit” and can describe CTA verbiage changes or content updates. 
• Medium – requires some expertise to execute. These recommendations may require an intermediate understanding of basic coding skills that involve tweaking existing website elements, such as moving content blocks. 
• High – requires a high level of expertise to execute. These recommendations will involve the assistance of a web developer as they can involve design template changes or building new website elements. 

Priority

• Low – A non-critical issue that can be addressed within the next three months.
• Medium – A non-critical issue that can be addressed within the next month. 
• High – A critical issue that should be addressed ASAP. 

Action

• Test – These items will be roadmapped and fall under a redirect, multivariate, or AB test. 
• Implement – We will strongly recommend our findings be added to the website ASAP as these will most likely fall under broken website elements or accessibility issues that I will not need to test as they are negatively impacting website performance. 
• Develop – I will call a web developer to help me build an essential element on the website, such as a new contact form. 
• User Survey – These recommendations often need additional investigation to help me determine how to test properly. 
• Scope – These recommendations often fall under net new design recommendations, such as a full website redevelopment. 

CRO will add more action definitions depending on the details of our recommendation and how I feel I should best proceed.

Run the assessment by internal stakeholders and make any necessary updates. 

As a final step of my assessment, teammates within CRO, development, and others would review and provide feedback on my CRO Assessment. These individuals will weigh in on recommendations provided in the analysis, priority, and difficulty of implementing changes to websites/pages. Internal development team members will provide knowledge and feedback on the feasibility or difficulty of the test recommendations.

I will then coordinate with the client to find a time to present and review the results with all stakeholders.

STEP 4: Delivery to the Client & Build out AB Testing

Finally, I will review the results of my CRO Assessment with the client. This meeting is more of a discussion than a formal presentation, as we will narrow down which one of my hypotheses aligns the closest with the KPIs the client wishes to achieve. 

We then implement the tests into the roadmap and build them in an AB Testing Platform. I have experience in a few various AB testing environments and am happy to accommodate any testing platform a client may already have in place.

STEP 5: Document Learnings and re-iterate as needed

The exciting part of AB testing is that I am never done iterating and learning more about user behavior and intent. Throughout my testing process, I check in often on how tests are performing, gather learnings from those tests, and put together new testing iterations to expand on ideas. 

STEP 6: Plan for your next audit 

Remembering that a CRO audit isn’t a one-time document is important. Over a year, clients could have new competitors, offer more product offerings, or wish to enter a new market segment. Because the best companies are constantly evolving to meet consumer demand, I will evolve my testing to ensure clients stay competitive in whichever direction they wish. Iterating on previous CRO audits allows me to remain agile in my recommendations, ensure I continue understanding my client’s customers, and constantly identify new opportunities to improve their user experience.