What are some of the most overlooked factors that can influence conversion rates?

Many factors that influence conversion rates can often be overshadowed by a focus on design and traffic generation. However, from my experience conducting CRO audits across +150 B2B & B2C industries, several key elements are frequently overlooked:

1) First Impressions Matter
The first 5 seconds set the stage for a user's perception. A professional design, clear messaging, and fast loading times create a positive initial experience. Even the best product or service can fail to convert if users feel lost or frustrated right away.

2) Navigation & Layout
Users should find it easy to navigate and locate information. Confusing layouts and cluttered interfaces lead to high bounce rates. My approach focuses on clear pathways using AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) to guide users towards conversion goals. An intuitive flow is critical to retaining user interest.

3) User Experience & Interface
A good UI/UX combination is about more than aesthetics—it’s about functionality. Elements like interactive features, clean visual hierarchy, and responsive design can make or break the user experience. Simple, intuitive interfaces enhance user trust and engagement.

4) 7P Marketing Strategy
Here’s where I believe most CRO audits fall short. A visually appealing website is only as effective as the strategy behind it. My heuristic emphasizes the 7Ps—Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence. Even if the website looks flawless, if the product offering or messaging doesn’t align with the target audience’s expectations and pain points, conversions will suffer. That’s why I conduct a 7P analysis in all my audits, ensuring that the entire customer journey and marketing approach are consistent, cohesive, and targeted.

In summary, I emphasize a comprehensive review that integrates UX, UI, navigation, first impressions, and a detailed 7P Marketing Strategy analysis. This holistic approach ensures that your website not only looks good but also resonates with your target audience, leading to sustainable improvements in conversion rates.

While design and traffic generation often take centre stage, some of the most impactful factors influencing conversion rates are less obvious. Here are a few key ones that can significantly impact your site’s ability to turn visitors into customers (from personal experience with clients)

Website Speed and Performance

Why it’s overlooked: Many businesses prioritise design and functionality but neglect the impact of site speed on user experience.

How it affects CRO: A slow-loading site leads to higher bounce rates and fewer conversions. Even a delay of a second or two can cause users to abandon the site, especially on mobile devices. Improving site speed, optimising images, and reducing the number of scripts can directly improve conversion rates.

Mobile Optimisation

Why it’s overlooked: Some businesses don’t prioritise mobile experiences, assuming desktop users are more valuable.

How it affects CRO: With mobile traffic continuing to rise, a poorly optimised mobile experience can turn away potential customers. Mobile-friendly design, fast loading times, and easy navigation on smaller screens are critical for increasing mobile conversion rates.

Trust Signals

Why it’s overlooked: It’s easy to assume that your audience inherently trusts your brand without actively building credibility.

How it affects CRO: Lack of visible trust elements, such as security badges, testimonials, reviews, or clear refund policies, can create friction. Adding these trust signals reduces anxiety around purchasing and increases conversions, especially for new visitors.

Clear Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Why it’s overlooked: Many sites fail to make their CTAs stand out, or they use vague language.

How it affects CRO: A clear, bold, and action-oriented CTA that stands out visually can improve user engagement. If users aren’t sure what action to take or feel overwhelmed by choices, they’re less likely to convert.

Consistency in Messaging

Why it’s overlooked: Businesses often focus on testing design elements while leaving copy and messaging inconsistencies across different pages.

How it affects CRO: Inconsistent messaging, tone, or style can confuse potential customers. Maintaining consistency from ad campaigns, landing pages, and checkout processes builds trust and encourages users to follow through.

Navigation and User Experience (UX)

Why it’s overlooked: Many websites focus on aesthetics but overlook intuitive navigation.

How it affects CRO: If users can’t find what they’re looking for quickly or get confused about where to go next, they’ll leave. Simplifying navigation, using clear labels, and creating an intuitive flow can greatly enhance the conversion rate.

Personalisation

Why it’s overlooked: Personalisation is often seen as complex or resource-heavy, but it can be overlooked when businesses don’t leverage available tools.

How it affects CRO: Personalised experiences, like dynamic content, targeted offers, or product recommendations based on browsing behaviour, can increase engagement and conversions. Even small touches like addressing the user by name or offering location-specific content can improve results.

Optimising Forms

Why it’s overlooked: Businesses often overlook the importance of form simplicity and usability.

How it affects CRO: Long or complicated forms can be a major barrier to conversion. Reducing the number of fields, offering autofill options, and providing clear guidance can reduce friction and increase form submission rates.

Exit Intent Pop-ups

Why it’s overlooked: Exit intent pop-ups are sometimes underutilised or poorly executed.

How it affects CRO: Strategically timed exit pop-ups can help recover users who are about to leave by offering an incentive (e.g., discounts, limited-time offers). When done thoughtfully, they can capture leads or convert hesitant visitors into buyers.

Post-Purchase Experience

Why it’s overlooked: Many focus solely on the initial sale and neglect the follow-up (this is a very, very common overlook in my experience, too)

How it affects CRO: A seamless post-purchase experience (confirmation emails, easy returns, follow-up offers) can encourage repeat purchases. Satisfied customers are more likely to return and recommend your brand, leading to higher lifetime value and ongoing conversions.

Conversion rate and online sales in general is best solved by taking a bottom-up approach. Most brands are stepping over dollars to pick up pennies, locked into one inefficient way of selling their products, when they'd be much better served by thinking about the big questions.

The most important factors in the effectiveness of any marketing strategy are the following (in order of most important to least):

1. Audience

Who are you selling to? What do they need? More importantly, what do they want? (People often don't buy what they should *need* but rather spend money on the things they want.)

Too many businesses fail because they are selling something to a lukewarm audience. For example, trying to sell eco-friendly products to a mass market. Sure, people *should* be buying eco-friendly products. But your business is going to fail before you convince regular people that they need what you're offering.

Better to sell those same eco-friendly products to eco-warriors whose entire life is all about living eco-friendly, and forget trying to "educate the public" until you're already making a lot of money and you can afford to do that.

2. Offer

Is your offer a good one? Are you offering something that makes your specific audience interested?

One of the most overlooked factors in my experience (for beginning business owners) is the guarantee. You need a guarantee, you need to guarantee your products.

Usually beginning business owners look at a guarantee and think "what if I get taken advantage of?" and they don't want to offer a guarantee because of that. The truth is, the same fear you feel in offering a guarantee is exactly the fear that your customer feels when making a purchase without a guarantee "what if I get taken advantage of?"

Risk reversal is all about the business owner taking on that risk, and by doing so they remove the fear from the customer - who will then buy more readily. Remove the fear from the purchase and you can increase purchase rates dramatically in many cases.

To learn more about offers, read $100M offers by Alex Hormozi as a start.

3. Copy

What you say to sell your product is the third most important thing. Assuming you have the right audience, and the right offer - then how will you get them to make a decision to buy what you have to offer?

Copywriting is complicated, but here are the basics: if you were buying a similar product, what questions and concerns would you have before you buy?

To get the best idea of this, actually go and try to buy a product like yours from a competitor. While you are shopping, write down all the thoughts that occur to you. "Is this the best price? Will this one actually work? WIll this one clean up pet hair?" Etc.

If you can, do the same process with a friend. Group the questions into categories.

Then list them in order of importance. Then answer those questions in the order of importance on the page.

First "Will this work for my specific use case?" then, "Is this a good price?" then, "what makes this one unique?"

If you do this process, you'll have some good starter copy. It goes a lot deeper than that to write truly stellar copy, but this process will get you a decent rough draft.

4. Design

Finally, you'll want to look at the design. You can split test various elements, graphics, page layouts, and button placements to get the best results. If you've done everything else right, this will be less important but might still be worth it to optimize CRO.

The main thing with design are these 2 concerns:

- Is it clear and easy to navigate/read/follow what's going on on the page? It should be effortless for you to understand what's going on and follow the process.

- Does it convey trustworthiness? If it looks old, scattered, "ugly" - or as if it was slapped together by someone who doesn't know how to design websites - that's bad. It might look scammy or amatuer-ish.

The main purpose of design is to convey expertise, and make it easy for your website visitor to move around and understand what's happening. Anything that's antithetical to that needs to be fixed or cut out, even if it's "fancy."


Those are the main 4 factors. Anything else is essentially non-important to conversion rates.

When optimizing for conversions, it’s crucial to remember that conversion rate isn’t the only metric that matters—Average Order Value (AOV) is just as important. Boosting AOV can make a big difference in your bottom line, and there are several often-overlooked factors to help you achieve this:

Social Proof: Leverage customer reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content. This builds trust and can encourage higher spending by showing potential buyers that others are happy with their purchases. Positive experiences shared by previous customers can persuade new ones to spend more.

Page Load Speed: A slow website can frustrate users and lead to abandoned carts. Optimize your site’s speed to ensure a smooth shopping experience, keeping visitors engaged and less likely to drop off before completing a purchase.

Mobile Optimization: Ensure your site is fully optimized for mobile devices. Many users shop on their phones, and a seamless mobile experience is crucial. A clunky mobile site can deter potential buyers from completing their orders.

Clear Value Proposition: Make sure your value proposition is immediately apparent. Visitors should quickly understand what you offer and why it’s worth their money. A clear, compelling value proposition can boost both conversions and AOV.

Shipping Literacy: Display shipping information clearly on all pages. Make it easy for customers to understand how to qualify for free shipping and any related costs. Transparent shipping policies can reduce cart abandonment and encourage larger purchases.

Trust Signals: Use security badges, clear return policies, and visible customer service options to build trust. When customers feel secure, they’re more likely to make larger purchases.

Call to Action (CTA) Placement: Ensure your CTAs are prominently placed and easy to find. A well-positioned CTA can guide users through the buying process and encourage them to add more items to their cart.

Navigation Simplicity: Keep your site’s navigation clean and straightforward. This makes it easier for users to find products, which can lead to increased AOV as they discover more items they want.

Personalization: Use data to tailor product recommendations, content, and emails to individual users. Personalized suggestions, especially for upsells and cross-sells, can drive higher spending by showing relevant products to each customer.

Upsells and Cross-Sells: Implement effective upselling and cross-selling strategies throughout the customer journey. Recommend complementary products or premium options at key touchpoints—like on product pages, in the cart, or during checkout—to increase AOV.

Bundling: Offer product bundles that provide a discount or added value when customers purchase multiple items together. Bundling not only increases the overall order value but also enhances the perceived value of the purchase.

By focusing on these often-overlooked aspects and integrating strategies to boost AOV, you can significantly enhance your overall revenue. It’s about creating a seamless and valuable shopping experience that encourages customers to spend more while optimizing for conversions.