What is the conversion rate?
SEO Definition and Examples
The conversion rate is the percentage of site visitors who complete a desired action — a purchase, booking, form submission or phone call.
Full Definition: What is the conversion rate
The conversion rate is calculated as: (conversions / total visitors) × 100. A conversion can be any valuable action: a sale, a booking, a completed form, a call, a download or a newsletter subscription. CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is the discipline of improving the conversion rate through A/B tests, optimizing CTAs, improving user experience and clarifying the message. The average conversion rate for e-commerce sites is 1.5-3%. For services: 2-5%.
Why Does Conversion Rate (CRO) Matter for SEO?
Doubling the conversion rate has the same effect as doubling traffic — but costs much less. A site with 1,000 visitors/month and a 1% conversion makes 10 sales; at 2% it makes 20 sales from the same traffic.
Source: CXL — Conversion Rate OptimizationFrequently Asked Questions about Conversion Rate (CRO)
Related Terms
Organic CTR (Click-Through Rate)
IntermediateOrganic CTR is the percentage of users who click your Google result out of all who see it — a key indicator of how effective your titles and metas are.
Search Intent
BeginnerSearch intent is the purpose behind a Google search — why the user is searching that term: to learn, to compare, to buy or to navigate to a specific site.
Bounce Rate
BeginnerBounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on a page and leave without interacting with other pages, indicating the page's relevance and quality.
On-Page SEO
BeginnerOn-page SEO covers all the optimizations made directly on your site's pages — titles, headings, content, meta descriptions and URL structure.
Put Conversion Rate (CRO) into practice
Explore how to apply this concept to your industry and city.
