Conversion rate
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action, such as requesting a quote or calling. You divide the number of conversions by the number of visitors and multiply by a hundred.
- 3 min read
What is the conversion rate?
The conversion rate shows how many of your visitors do what you hope. If a thousand visitors come to your website in a month and twenty request a quote, your conversion rate is two per cent. You can calculate it for your whole website, for one page or for one ad campaign.
Which action you count is up to you. For trade businesses it is usually an Conversion such as a Quote request, a call-back request, a phone call or a scheduled appointment. In Google Ads the conversion rate is calculated on the basis of clicks, in Google Analytics it is based on sessions or users.
Why the conversion rate matters for your business
The conversion rate determines how many enquiries you get from your traffic. If you double it, the number of enquiries doubles without you spending a euro extra on ads. That is why it is often the cheapest way to grow.
It also feeds through into all your other figures. A higher conversion rate lowers your cost per enquiry, so you can bid more on good keywords and overtake competitors. Conversely, a low conversion rate makes every channel expensive, however good your ads are. That is why in 9 out of 10 cases it starts with a better foundation, and only then with buying more traffic.
How the conversion rate works
A visitor decides within a few seconds whether your page is worth their time. Speed, a clear heading, recognisable photos of real projects and a visible button weigh heavily. Then come trust and ease: reviews, quality marks, a phone number and a short form.
An example. Say a roofer gets five hundred visitors a month via Google Ads on a page about roof leaks. Five enquiries come out of that, a conversion rate of one per cent. The page opens with a long text about the history of the company and the form is at the bottom with twelve fields. The roofer puts a clear heading at the top, shows a few photos of repaired roofs, adds a call button and cuts the form down to four fields. A month later fifteen enquiries come out of the same traffic. The budget has stayed the same.
What happened here is not a trick. The visitor found what they were looking for faster, saw proof that the roofer does this regularly and had to make less effort to get in touch. Exactly those three things, clarity, trust and ease, almost always decide whether someone converts.
The origin of the visit also counts. Someone who searches for “lekkage dak reparatie spoed” converts much better than someone who arrives via a general social ad. So always compare conversion rates per channel and per search intent.
Common mistakes with the conversion rate
Counting everything as a conversion. If you count page visits, scrolling or clicks on a menu, you see a nice conversion rate that says nothing about enquiries.
Comparing averages. An average across your whole site hides where it goes wrong. One service page can score well while another page brings in almost nothing.
Forgetting mobile. In construction and installation, a large part of visits come from a phone. A form that is awkward on mobile costs you enquiries straight away.
Too little data. With a few enquiries a month, one extra enquiry can make your conversion rate jump considerably. Only draw conclusions when you have enough visits and enquiries to rule out chance.
Changing on gut feeling. A new button colour or a different photo can help, or not. Without measurement you do not know what the effect was.
How to approach the conversion rate
Measure properly first. Make sure only real enquiries and phone calls count as a conversion, and that you can look per page and per channel. We set that up at conversion tracking.
Then look for the biggest leaks. See which pages get lots of visits but bring in few enquiries. With heatmaps and recordings you can see where visitors drop off or get stuck.
Then improve the basics: a fast page, a heading that says what you do and for whom, proof of earlier work, a clear call-to-action and a short form. Test bigger changes with A/B testing if you have enough traffic.
After that, keep adjusting. A conversion rate is not a one-off project. A few targeted improvements every month give you, after a year, a website that gets much more out of the same traffic. That is exactly what conversion optimisation is all about.
Frequently asked questions
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What is a good conversion rate?
That depends on your sector, the channel and what you measure as a conversion. A page that gets visitors through keywords with buying intent should score better than a page with general traffic. Above all, compare with your own figures from previous months and steer on improvement.
How do you calculate the conversion rate?
Divide the number of conversions by the number of visitors or clicks and multiply by a hundred. A thousand visitors and twenty-five enquiries gives a conversion rate of 2.5 per cent. Use the same period and the same source for both numbers.
What raises the conversion rate fastest?
Usually a faster page, a clearer heading, visible proof of earlier work and a shorter form. A call button on mobile also often helps straight away in construction and installation. Start with the pages that get the most visits, because that is where every improvement pays off most.
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