Contents
- Expecting users to know more than they do
- Using vague statements
- No clear reasons to buy
- A lack of a value proposition or statement
- Underutilisation of social proof
- Not showing the product or service
- No AI driven chat bot/conversational tool
- Primary CTAs the same as secondary and tertiary CTAs
- Mandatory phone number fields
- No contents
Having carried out more site audits than I can count, I’ve come to recognise a few patterns in terms of common conversion rate optimisation (CRO) mistakes. With this short list, hopefully you can spot them on your own site and avoid falling into the same trap.
1. Expecting users to know more than they do
You might think this point only relates to sites selling technical products or services. Whilst it does apply there, I’ve also seen it on non-technical sites. Whether it’s agencies expecting users to intuitively ‘get’ what they do even though their services are a bit unusual, or product pages that use medical terms with no explanation, this point can affect sites of all kinds.
How to avoid it:
Remember that the average reading age in the UK is between 9-11 years old. In the US, it is a little higher. If a child could understand the words you are using (even if this requires a little explanation for technical terms), then you are doing well.
If you expect the reading age of your target audience to be higher (perhaps they are educated to university level), you can absolutely use more complex sentences if you need to. But remember, the easier something is to understand the more likely it will be read as it takes fewer ‘brain cycles’ (mental effort) to work through.
When it comes to technical terms, sometimes there is no avoiding them, but explanations should be provided unless they are likely to be very familiar to the target audience. Acronyms should also only be used when these are written in full as well.
2. Using vague statements
The specificity principle (being specific) states that specific statements are more believable than vague ones. They are also much less confusing and therefore more appealing to users (as they take less mental energy to comprehend). But I’ve often seen vague statements that don’t really mean anything or add any value being used on sites, particularly agency sites.
How to avoid it:
Use plain English (or whatever other language you write in) to get across points. Be more detailed as to how your product or service achieves what you say it will. Aim to use quantitative statements where you can as these seem even more believable. For example, “Voted best X, Y years running” or “XX% customers agree that Y works for reducing fine lines”.
3. No clear reasons to buy
One of the things I often ask clients when they first come on board is “Why should users choose you?”. This question seems to cause more people than you might expect to pause and ponder for a moment. Usually, with a little digging I can draw out the reasons to buy, but these are often not clear on the site, being hidden in an ‘about us’ section or worse, not included at all.
How to avoid it:
If you have an e-commerce store, listing your reasons to buy in bullet format (preferably with relevant icons rather than bullet points) under your add to cart CTA (call to action) will draw users’ attention to reasons to shop with you.
Rotating banners at the top of the page with reasons to buy can also work well for e-commerce stores as this gets them seen whatever page users land on.
Regardless of your industry, I would recommend listing reasons to buy on your homepage and any dedicated landing page. Again, you can use bullet points or small icons here. On mobile, I wouldn’t suggest adding too much explanation to your points, but on desktop where space isn’t as much of a limiting factor a very short sentence that clarifies the bullet point can be helpful.
4. A lack of a value proposition or value statement
This one is similar to not showing clear reasons to buy. Without a clear value proposition or value statement users could be left subconsciously wondering, “why should I continue exploring this site?”. This point is most important for lesser-known brands or brands that have a somewhat complex product offering (such as SaaS companies).
How to avoid it:
Your value proposition or value statement should be the first piece of messaging on your homepage and targeted landing pages. Ideally your value proposition/statement should only be 5 words long, which as you will see can be tricky to do!
This is because ideally, your value proposition/statement should:
- Make it clear who the target audience is so that users know they are in the right place (on a site for them).
- Tap into a negative pain point motivator or value-based motivator (which one will depend on which is strongest for your target audience).
- Differentiate you from your competitors to give users a reason to consider you above others.
I suggest basing your value proposition on moderated user research if you can. This will give you the best understanding of what motivates your users and the language they use.
Once you have this, it would be great for you to build customer personas (representations of your different types of customer). HubSpot have a quick and easy basic persona builder to get you started. It has an option to add new sections where you can detail your ideal customer’s motivations and the language they use.
The next step would be to hold an internal workshop where all team members work together to come up with a value proposition and supporting subtitle. This should be a judgement free session where everyone gets a chance to put forward their ideas and then voting is carried out as anonymously as possible for the best versions.
The final step is naturally to test out your value propositions/statements by running A/B tests. If you struggle for traffic volumes then you can benchmark test (where you take a period of time with one message in place and compare this against another). Just be mindful that there can be more external factors that influence your results with benchmark testing than with A/B testing.
5. Underutilisation of social proof
Whether it’s product reviews missing from product listing pages (collection pages), case studies hidden within an ‘Our work’ section, or testimonials that are used sparingly throughout the site, social proof is often underused.
How to avoid it
If you have an agency site or similar, make sure you are scattering testimonials throughout your key pages. If you can, link these testimonials to case studies through tertiary CTAs to further back up the testimonial. Always aim to include the person’s photo, name, role, organisation, and organisation logo for extra credibility.
If you have an e-commerce or SaaS site, make sure you are placing your company-wide review on your homepage and targeted landing pages. You may also want to look into a sticky side panel containing your reviews. Ideally, you will want to be using a recognisable rating such as Trustpilot, but if this is too expensive, then any reviews platform will do.
For SaaS sites, B2B and agency sites (or similar), showcasing your awards on your Homepage and targeted landing pages is also a good way to earn trust.
6. Not showing the product/s or service above the fold on the homepage
Which is more informative for a SaaS landing page?
- A cartoon style graphic showing features popping out of a device.
- Real screenshots of the software in use popping out of a device.
Which is more helpful to see on an e-commerce landing page selling protein supplements?
- A muscular man.
- A muscular man drinking a protein shake.
Hopefully you chose number 2 for both of those. It is always more helpful to show the actual product (or a sample of these) or services than it is to just suggest benefits. Not showing the product or service could lead to users wondering what the site is for, or feeling like they have gained nothing helpful from the content available to them above the fold (harming attention).
How to avoid it:
Show your product/s or services in use in the space that can be seen when the user first loads your homepage or dedicated landing pages.
7. No AI driven chat bot/conversational tool
People are using AI for everything nowadays. They expect it to be (relatively) smart and quick, an easy non-committal way to find information. But I see e-commerce sites that are still relying on users viewing their FAQs or worse, their policies, to gain the information they need to make a purchase. And it’s not just e-commerce sites that could benefit from AI conversational tools, using them within the service sector and SaaS can be even more effective.
How to avoid it:
Install a trustworthy chat bot/conversational tool that can be pre-programmed to show users common FAQs whilst giving them a way to get in touch with a real human and ask their own question. Ensure that this chat bot ‘learns’ based on your site information, rather than pulling in random information.
Personally, I would recommend Leadoo for the task. Their AI conversational tool is advanced as it can guide users along a journey towards conversion. The tool can take users to a page and then remember that they have viewed it so that it talks to the user with this in mind. It can also be embedded straight into the page, so the prompt to engage looks natural.
Plus, Leadoo comes with useful analytics insights such as which companies have been visiting your site and how they’re interacting with it. You can see which pages they visit, which questions they ask, and where they decide to convert (or drop off). This means you can see where your efforts are paying off and identify where to double down. Instead of relying on guesswork, you’ll know exactly which campaigns, landing pages, and conversational flows are driving results. These insights allow you to continuously optimise your site, turning each interaction into a learning opportunity that improves conversion over time.
8. Primary CTAs being the same as secondary or even tertiary CTAs
“Which button do I click?” may sound like a silly question, but on some sites the answer isn’t that straightforward. This is because all the CTA buttons look the same.
How to avoid it:
Make sure the button for your primary CTA (the main action you want users to take) has a good position in the visual hierarchy of the page. This means if you were to let your eyes go all fuzzy, the button would be the thing that jumps out to you on the page.
Your secondary CTA buttons can be distinguished from your primary CTAs by making them a less contrasting colour, or having their background be clear with a simple outline. For your tertiary CTAs you may want to make these smaller, to again signal that these are lower down in the visual hierarchy.
9. Mandatory phone number fields
Nothing quite kills a conversion like a phone number field. Well…actually there are a lot of things, but mandatory phone number fields are one of them. This is especially true when there is no rationale given as to why it would be needed, leading to fears of unwanted cold calls.
How to avoid it:
This is quite simple really, remove phone number fields wherever you can. If your phone number field is optional, consider if it is really needed.
If you have a sales team that needs to be able to talk to prospects, think about asking for an email address first and then once they have made contact, asking if they can call the individual or set up a video call. Yes, it creates a bit more work, but it could see the number of leads increase.
If you can’t remove a mandatory phone number field, tell users why you need it. Even a simple explanation such as “We need your phone number to contact you about your enquiry. We will not use it for general marketing purposes.” Can be reassuring.
10. No contents on longer blog article pages
This article is a pretty long one, so if you have stuck with me this far, thank you! If you have skipped to this section from the contents above, then I also thank you for reading this through.
Contents on longer blog articles are important because without them, they can look completely overwhelming. You need to provide users with a quick way to navigate to the content that interests them the most.
How to avoid it:
Add contents to the top of your longer articles to enable users to quickly skip to the parts that interest them. On desktop, you could also experiment with placing your contents in a sticky section to the right. (Although this is also a great spot for promoting your other articles).
Key takeaways
We have looked at 10 common CRO mistakes that I spot when doing audits. These centre around not communicating clearly or persuasively, not providing enough trust factors, not utilising AI, putting users off by asking for a phone number, and not helping users get to the content that matters to them.
If you have found this article useful, you might find an audit of your site useful also. Why not check out our CRO Mini-Audit and Full CRO Audit pages where you can learn more about our approach to auditing sites. If you are ready to dive in, then get in touch with us for your free consultation today.
Hi, I’m Charlotte. I love writing about user psychology and tips I’ve picked up from leading user research and CRO projects. Get in touch if you’d like to work with me to improve the user experience on your site or click here to learn more about your future CRO team.