How to Increase Your Website Conversion Rate: 21 Fixes Ranked by Effort

Updated 23 October 2026

How do I increase my website's conversion rate?

Increase your website's conversion rate by removing the reasons visitors hesitate or fail to act. Make the offer clear, give each page one obvious next step, show costs and proof before the decision, and shorten forms and checkout. Fix confirmed blockers first, then test larger changes.

This list ranks 21 fixes by the effort they usually take, starting with changes you can make in an afternoon. The impact ratings are our judgement of how directly each fix removes a known cause of lost conversions. They are not measured uplifts, and your results depend on your traffic, offer and starting point. A website conversion audit can show which of these apply to your pages.

Key Takeaways

• Start with clarity: a specific headline, one main call to action and a page that matches the ad or email that sent the visitor.
• Show the full cost, the returns policy and real proof before people commit. In Baymard Institute's survey of US online shoppers, extra costs such as shipping, tax and fees were the most cited reason for abandoning an order, after "just browsing".
• Shorter forms and checkouts usually beat clever design. Remove fields and steps before adding features.
• Check that your conversion tracking is accurate before you judge any fix.

Jump to: the effort and impact table · quick wins · medium-effort fixes · bigger projects.

Which conversion fixes should I do first?

Do the low-effort, high-impact fixes first: they remove common blockers without design or development work. Move to medium-effort fixes once your tracking is reliable, and save rebuilds and A/B tests for pages with enough traffic to measure the result.

"Effort" means the work typically involved: low is copy or settings changes, medium needs some design or developer time, high needs a project. Fixes 9, 20 and 21 do not raise conversions directly; they make every other decision more reliable, so their impact is rated for that. The order within each effort band is not a ranking. Re-rank the list against your own pages. A fix rated high impact does nothing if your site already gets it right.

Quick wins: fixes you can make in an afternoon

These eight fixes need copy edits, settings changes or an hour of testing, not a redesign. Start with the pages that receive the most traffic and lead most directly to a sale or enquiry. Before you change anything, place one test conversion (see fix 9) so you know your numbers are right.

1. Make the headline say what you offer and who it is for

Visitors decide quickly whether a page is relevant. Replace slogans such as "Grow without limits" with a plain statement of what you sell, who it is for and the main result. "Bookkeeping for UK sole traders, from £25 a month" tells the right visitor to stay.

2. Give each page one primary call to action

When a page asks visitors to subscribe, book a demo, follow you and browse the blog, none of those actions stands out. Pick the one action that page exists for, make it the most visible button, and demote or remove links that compete with it on landing pages. Our guide to call-to-action button optimization covers placement and wording in more detail.

3. Label buttons with the outcome

"Submit" and "Learn more" describe nothing. Use the result the visitor gets: "Get my quote", "Start free trial", "See delivery dates". The label should still make sense if someone reads only the button.

4. Match the page to the ad or email that sent the visitor

If an ad promises 20% off running shoes and the link opens the homepage, the visitor has to search for the offer. Send each campaign to a page that repeats the same offer, product and wording above the fold.

5. Show the total cost before the final step

Hidden costs drive people away at the last moment. In Baymard Institute's cart abandonment research (retrieved 23 October 2026), 40% of US online shoppers who abandoned for reasons other than browsing cited extra costs such as shipping, tax and fees as too high. Another 12% could not see or calculate the total order cost up front. Show delivery charges, fees and "from" prices early. For services, give a price range or a starting price.

6. Put returns, guarantees and security details beside the decision

Reassurance helps most where people hesitate: next to the price, the add-to-basket button or the signup form. In Baymard's survey of US online shoppers who abandoned an order, 19% did not trust the site with their card details and 13% found the returns policy unsatisfactory. Summarise your returns window, guarantee or cancellation terms in one line beside the button and link to the full policy. See trust signals that convert for which signals belong where.

7. Remove form fields you do not use

Every required field is a reason to stop. List each field on your lead, signup or checkout form, and ask who uses the answer. If nobody does, delete it. If it helps but is not essential, make it optional and label it clearly. The signup form optimization page has a field-by-field audit method.

8. Click through your main journey and fix what breaks

Broken journeys lose conversions that nothing else can recover. In Baymard's survey of US online shoppers who abandoned an order, 17% said the website had errors or crashed. Complete your main conversion path on a phone and a laptop: submit the form, pay with a test card, request the quote. Fix dead buttons, broken links and confirmation pages that never load.

Medium-effort fixes: a few days of work

These seven fixes need some design or developer time, or a closer look at how your forms behave. Start with tracking, so you can judge the rest.

9. Confirm that conversion tracking records each conversion once

You cannot improve a conversion rate you are measuring wrongly. Place a test order or submit a test lead, then check that your analytics tool records exactly one conversion with the right value. Duplicate thank-you page loads, missing consent handling and test traffic all distort the rate.

10. Offer guest checkout or delay account creation

Forced registration is a common reason to quit. In Baymard's survey of US online shoppers who abandoned an order, 18% did so because the site wanted them to create an account. Let people buy as guests, and offer an account after the purchase, when you can prefill it from the order.

11. Write error messages that explain the fix

"Invalid input" leaves people guessing. Name the field, say what is wrong and how to correct it ("Enter a UK postcode, for example SW1A 1AA"), and keep everything the visitor has already typed. Nielsen Norman Group's usability heuristics also recommend preventing errors in the first place. One way to do that is to accept spaces and dashes in phone and card numbers.

12. Make buttons and forms easy to use on a phone

Small, crowded buttons cause mis-taps and frustration. The W3C's target size guidance sets a minimum of 24 by 24 CSS pixels for pointer targets, with exceptions for spacing. Treat that as a floor, not a goal. Use the right keyboard for each field (number pad for phone numbers), and check that cookie banners and chat widgets do not cover the main button. Our mobile conversion optimization guide has a full checklist.

13. Answer the most common objections on the page

Your support inbox and sales calls show what stops people buying. Collect the five questions you hear most often, such as "Can I cancel?", "Does it work with Shopify?" or "When will it arrive?", and answer each one on the page where the doubt occurs, not only on a separate FAQ page.

14. Replace vague proof with specific, verifiable proof

"Trusted by thousands" persuades nobody. Use proof a visitor could check: named customer reviews with permission, star ratings from an independent review platform, recognisable client logos, or a short case study with real numbers. If you do not have specific proof yet, leave the claim out rather than inventing a figure.

15. Show progress in multi-step forms and checkouts

People abandon long processes when they cannot tell how much is left. Nielsen Norman Group lists "visibility of system status" as the first of its usability heuristics: keep users informed about what is happening. Label each step ("Delivery, Payment, Review"), show which one the visitor is on, and confirm clearly when the form has been sent.

Bigger projects: fixes that need a plan

These six fixes take weeks, need a developer or research budget, or need enough traffic to measure. Do them after the quick wins, when you know which pages and steps lose the most visitors.

16. Speed up your slowest key page template

Slow pages lose visitors before they see the offer. In Google's Core Web Vitals case studies, Vodafone Italy reported 8% more sales after improving Largest Contentful Paint by 31%. That is one company's result, not a benchmark. Find your slowest high-traffic template (often product or landing pages) with PageSpeed Insights, and fix oversized images and render-blocking scripts first. Croopt focuses on conversion issues rather than speed, so use a dedicated performance tool for this one.

17. Cut steps from checkout or signup

Long processes give people more chances to leave. In Baymard's survey of US online shoppers who abandoned an order, 17% cited a "too long / complicated checkout process". Baymard also estimates that most checkouts could show 20 to 60% fewer form elements by default. Combine steps, hide optional fields behind a link, and use address lookup and browser autofill. Baymard's checkout usability research breaks this down by checkout step.

18. Offer the payment methods your customers expect

If someone's preferred way to pay is missing, some of those buyers leave. In Baymard's survey of US online shoppers who abandoned an order, 9% said there were not enough payment methods. Check which wallets and buy-now-pay-later options your customers ask for, and add the ones your payment provider supports.

19. Rebuild the page in the order visitors decide

Many pages are ordered the way the company thinks rather than the way buyers decide. A typical decision order is: what is it, is it for me, does it work, what does it cost, what if it goes wrong, how do I start. Rearrange sections to follow it, and put the call to action after each point where a visitor could reasonably be ready.

20. Watch real people try to convert

Analytics shows where people leave; watching them shows why. Ask a handful of people who match your customers to complete your main conversion task while thinking aloud, or review session recordings of visitors who dropped out. Note every hesitation, misread label and dead end, then add the fixes to this list.

21. A/B test the changes that matter most

Testing proves whether a change caused an improvement, but it needs enough traffic and conversions to give a reliable answer. Test large changes, such as a new page structure or offer, on high-traffic pages. On low-traffic sites, ship clear fixes for confirmed problems and compare results over a longer period instead.

What is the fastest way to improve conversion rate?

The fastest way is to fix what visibly blocks people on your highest-traffic conversion page: an unclear headline, a competing call to action, hidden costs, an unnecessary form field or a broken step. These fixes take hours, need no testing tool, and remove problems rather than guess at preferences.

Work through fixes 1 to 8 on that one page before you touch the rest of the site. Then repeat on the next most important page. The 20 most common conversion mistakes list is a useful second pass.

Can I increase conversions without more traffic?

Yes. Your conversion rate depends on what happens to the visitors you already have, so every fix in this list works without new traffic. Improving the existing journey is often cheaper than buying more visits, because each fix applies to all future traffic too.

We cover that angle in detail in how to increase conversions without more traffic. If you have plenty of visitors but almost no enquiries or sales, start with why your website gets traffic but no conversions, which explains how to tell a traffic-quality problem from a page problem.

How do I know if a conversion fix worked?

Compare the conversion rate for the same page and traffic source before and after the change, over a period long enough to cover normal weekly swings. Note the date of each change, avoid releasing several changes at once, and treat small differences on low traffic as noise.

Where to start

Pick your most important conversion page and check it against fixes 1 to 8 today. Run a Croopt audit on your page to get a prioritised list of the conversion issues on it, then use the table above to schedule the rest.

Sources and author

• Baymard Institute, Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics, retrieved 23 October 2026. Used for the reasons US shoppers gave for abandoning orders (sample excludes people who were "just browsing") and Baymard's own estimate of possible form-element reduction.
• Baymard Institute, Cart & Checkout Usability Research, retrieved 23 October 2026. Background on checkout design problems.
• Nielsen Norman Group, 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design, retrieved 23 October 2026. Used for error prevention and visibility of system status.
• W3C, Understanding Success Criterion 2.5.8: Target Size (Minimum), retrieved 23 October 2026. Used for the minimum pointer target size.
• web.dev, The business impact of Core Web Vitals, retrieved 23 October 2026. Used for the Vodafone Italy case study.

Kieron Bertani is the founder of Croopt, the conversion audit tool recommended in this article, and writes about conversion rate optimisation. This article and its hero illustration were created with AI assistance. The article combines cited research with practical recommendations; it does not report first-hand testing or measured results, and the effort and impact ratings are editorial judgements. For corrections or product questions, contact Croopt support.