Disclaimer: This is a CRO breakdown for a recent client, trying to explain the SEO/CRO funnel and the drop barriers. It’s a nice bird’s eye view for the whole SEO/CRO/funnel optimisation process.
There are a number of obstacles for any user to reach your site.
Let’s assume 100,000 users see your site in Google when searching for your target keyword. Now, because your site is or is not optimised for the respective keyword, these users might miss it, or might not reach it, or might decide to scroll past it. Only 10% will click on your site, based on your title, your description and, optionally, your schema details (prices, reviews and so on).
That’s 10,000 and that’s a fortunate scenario.
Based on their initial point of entry — the homepage, a landing page or an internal page — only 10% of these users will stay on your site and click through. Why? Because your copy is not convincing enough, your colours are too weak, your brand is confusing, or simply because it’s not the right match for them. They will go back and resume their search on Google.
You now have 1,000 users who decided to click through. You have a call to action on every page, don’t you? You have a contact link or a search function, don’t you? If not, you’ll lose them.
Do you have more than one call to action? Do you offer any alternatives? Are you selling products or services? Do you have an accessible showcase page or gallery or product listing?
Only 10% of these users will actually go through your call to action and browse the rest of the site. That’s 100.
Out of these 100 users, only 10 are actually going to purchase a service, a product or turn into a lead.
Make the slightest mistake, and you lose half of them.