Most small business websites are optimised for getting visitors to the site and under-optimised for what happens once they arrive. SEO earns the click; conversion rate optimization (CRO) is everything that happens after it - whether that visitor actually calls, enquires, or buys. A site that ranks well but converts poorly is a leaky bucket: fixing the leak is usually cheaper and faster than pouring in more traffic to compensate for it. Here's a practical checklist, roughly in the order it's worth working through.
1. Speed - The Silent Conversion Killer
Nobody abandons a page and tells you it was because it loaded slowly - they just leave. Page speed is one of the most consistent, well-documented conversion factors there is, and it's also one of the easiest to measure.
- Check your load time and Core Web Vitals - particularly Largest Contentful Paint, since visitors judge speed by when they can see the main content, not the technical "load complete" event.
- See why website speed matters for the fuller case and what to prioritise fixing first.
2. Is the Value Proposition Obvious in Five Seconds?
A visitor who lands on your homepage or a service page should be able to answer "what is this, and is it for me?" without scrolling. Common failures: a hero section that leads with a vague tagline instead of what you actually do, or a value proposition buried below a large image with no text.
3. Is the Call to Action Actually Visible?
- One primary action per page, stated clearly ("Get a quote", "Book a call") rather than a generic "Learn more".
- Visible without scrolling on both desktop and mobile - not just above the fold on a 27-inch monitor.
- Repeated further down the page for anyone who scrolls to read more before deciding.
4. Trust Signals, Especially for First-Time Visitors
A visitor who doesn't already know or trust your business is silently checking for reasons to bounce. Reviews, recognisable client logos, clear contact details, and basic technical trust markers (a valid SSL certificate, no browser security warnings) all reduce that hesitation. See HTTPS, security headers, and website trust for the technical side of this.
5. Forms: Every Extra Field Costs You Submissions
- Ask for the minimum needed to follow up - name, email or phone, and the one detail you actually need to qualify the enquiry. Every additional field is a small extra reason to abandon the form.
- Make required fields and error messages obvious - a form that silently fails validation loses submissions without ever showing up as an "error" anywhere you'd notice.
- Test the form on mobile specifically - a form that's merely annoying on desktop is often unusable on a small screen.
6. Mobile Experience, Not Just Mobile-Friendly
"Doesn't break on a phone" and "converts well on a phone" are different bars. Check that your CTA button is thumb-reachable, tap targets aren't cramped together, and nothing requires horizontal scrolling or pinch-zooming to read.
7. Watch Bounce Rate and Behaviour, Not Just Traffic
Rising traffic with flat or falling enquiries is the clearest sign of a conversion problem rather than a visibility problem. See what is bounce rate for what a high bounce rate is actually telling you about a specific page, versus when it's normal and not a concern.
The Fast Way to Check Yours
Working through this checklist manually means reviewing speed, trust signals, forms, and mobile layout separately across every key page. AuditCrow's free CRO audit checks a page against this checklist automatically and flags the specific friction points costing you conversions, in plain language rather than a raw metrics dump.