Ask most business owners how well their website converts, and you'll likely get one of two answers: a shrug or a vague guess. It's not because they aren't smart or don't care—it's because few know how to truly measure and improve conversion rate. If you’ve ever felt like your website looks great but doesn’t seem to "do" much, this post is for you. Today, we’re taking a deep and practical dive into improving your website’s conversion rate—in 8 clear, strategic steps.
But first, some real talk.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is one of those phrases agencies throw around like sprinkles on a cupcake. It sounds fancy. It feels necessary. But it can also feel totally abstract if you’re not embedded in the world of analytics, behavioral data, or A/B testing. As someone who’s built and rebuilt dozens of websites in Webflow, WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace—and more importantly, as someone who’s had weekly strategy calls with people figuring out how to run a business—I want to offer an approach that’s smarter, more practical, and more human.
This might sound obvious, but I’ve worked with multi-million dollar businesses that had never sat down to define what a "conversion" means for their site. Without that understanding, improving conversion rate is like fixing up a house without knowing who’s supposed to live in it.
A conversion could be any of the following:
I worked with a Nashville-based interior design firm whose initial focus was on contact form submissions. But after checking their analytics, we discovered most users were dropping off after browsing the portfolio—and never even reaching the form. After redefining the conversion goal as "visiting the contact page," we rebuilt their strategy, and saw conversions increase by over 40% in two months.
Action Step: Ask yourself: What is the ONE thing you want your website to get visitors to do? Then, identify any smaller micro-conversions that lead up to that.
You can’t improve what you haven’t measured. And in most cases, digging into your numbers doesn’t require anything fancy. Google Analytics (GA4) or a built-in analytics dashboard from services like Squarespace or Wix will usually show what you need.
Let’s talk averages. Across industries, average website conversion rates usually fall between 2%–5%. That means for every 100 visitors, 2–5 take meaningful action. Of course, that can vary widely depending on your industry and how targeted your traffic is.
One Webflow site I built for a legal consultant in New York had a starting conversion rate of just 0.7%. It seemed low, but once we layered in UX improvements and simplified the content around their value proposition, we raised that number to 3.4% within 10 weeks. That increase turned into thousands of dollars in new monthly revenue.
Action Step: Set up your analytics to track your chosen conversion goals. Look at your current conversion rate, and keep an eye on bounce rates, average time on site, and exit rates on key pages.
Here’s something I tell almost every small business owner I coach: people don’t get sold by bullet lists—they get sold by clarity. Your visitors should know what you do, who it’s for, and the value you provide within 5 seconds of landing on your site.
Case in point: a fitness apparel brand I worked with in Tennessee had a hero header that said “Fuel Your Grind.” Cool vibe. But not clear. We changed it to: “Premium Workout Wear Designed for Powerlifters and Athletes, Not Trendy Fashion.” The result? A 38% lift in add-to-cart rates.
Good questions to ask yourself:
Action Step: Read your homepage out loud, to someone who isn’t in your industry. Watch their face. If they don’t “get it” immediately, neither do your site visitors.
This isn’t just a technical note—it’s at the heart of user experience. A slow or broken mobile site kills conversions faster than anything.
Research shows that over 50% of users bounce if a page takes longer than three seconds to load. That’s enough to turn thousands of potential leads into a list of "could-have-beens."
One of my clients—a Franklin-based dog trainer—had a Wix site that looked great on desktop, but the mobile version had clunky grid formatting and slow asset load times. After migrating her site to Webflow and optimizing images, we cut the mobile load time from 5.1s to 1.7s. Her conversions from mobile traffic tripled.
Action Step: Check your site on mobile right now. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or Screaming Frog to diagnose load time issues. Compress images, remove unused scripts, and eliminate autoplay videos where possible.
I like to say that every click is a leap of faith—and each one introduces the chance that someone will give up. Great navigation reduces friction and increases trust.
One common trap I see small business owners fall into is the cluttered nav bar. Eight options in the header. Dropdowns inside dropdowns. Before long, it becomes like a digital Cheesecake Factory menu—overwhelming and paralyzing.
Instead, prioritize your top 3–5 pages: Home, About, Services, Testimonials, and Contact typically do the job. For one personal branding coach in Chicago, we cut her 11-page nav down to 4. Her site analytics showed a 60% improvement in session depth (people exploring more of the site) after that change.
Action Step:
Have you ever landed on a site and seen four glowing reviews that look vaguely flattering—but also kind of fake? Social proof isn’t about quantity. It’s about demonstrating relevance, trust, and transformation.
Instead of putting all testimonials on one page, integrate them contextually. On a site I built for a therapist in Franklin, we placed specific quotes tied directly into the service being described. On the couples therapy page? A testimonial from a couple. On the individual trauma therapy section? A quote about that exact journey. That change resulted in higher average time spent per section and a noticeable uptick in contact submissions for specific services.
Also consider:
Action Step: Go page by page. Ask yourself: what proof supports this message? Place your social proof right at the moment someone is deciding whether to believe you.
The shorter and more intuitive your forms are, the more likely people are to complete them. There’s actual neuroscience behind this: too many choices or steps triggers cognitive friction.
One Webflow project I did for a commercial painter originally had a quote request form with nine fields. We reduced it to four fields, and added a conversational headline (“Let’s paint something together”). Quote inquiries increased by 57% almost immediately.
Crafting Better CTAs:
Action Step: Audit your forms and CTAs. Could any fields be removed? Is your CTA phrase actually enticing? A/B test different phrasing with tools like VWO or Google Optimize.
We often think of the website as a one-time interaction. But people rarely convert on the first visit. That’s okay—it just means your follow-up strategy matters.
You can use tools like Meta Pixel or Google Ads to retarget people who visited your site but didn’t convert. The key is to offer real value in the follow-up: maybe a quick win, a piece of education, or proof of your people-first approach.
Email works even better when used to nurture. A Webflow client of mine who runs a podcast production service added a free “Podcast Planning Toolkit” download in exchange for email signup. We then created a 3-series welcome sequence with tips, examples, and a soft CTA to book a call. Their conversion rate for those contacts? 21%.
Action Step: Add a meaningful lead magnet for high-exit pages. Then build a simple email follow-up series that continues the conversation from your site.
Improving your website's conversion rate isn’t about hacks. It’s not about shouting louder or coloring buttons orange. It's about empathy, clarity, and refinement.
Here’s what we covered:
At its best, CRO work is not just technical—it’s deeply human. It’s understanding the story your visitors are trying to tell and helping them take the next step in it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years building with Webflow, WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace—it’s that clarity creates trust, and trust leads to action.
And that’s the real conversion.
Copyright © Zach Sean Web Design
