What is conversion rate?
Conversion rate is the share of visitors who completed an action you care about. The action is your choice, and it changes the number: the same 10,000 visitors can give a 6% signup rate and a 1% purchase rate.
- Visitor to signup: people who created an account.
- Visitor to lead: people who submitted a contact or lead form.
- Visitor to purchase: people who paid.
- Visitor to demo request: people who booked a call.
Say which action a rate is for whenever you share it. A rate without its definition can't be compared with anything.
Conversion rate formula
Worked example: 350 of 10,000 visitors signed up. (350 ÷ 10,000) × 100 = 3.5%. The calculator keeps full precision and shows two decimals, so it reads 3.50%.
The top and bottom of the fraction must count the same thing. If one visitor submits a form three times, that's three events but one converted visitor. Dividing events by unique visitors mixes two units and can even pass 100%. This calculator counts people on both sides, so converted visitors can't exceed unique visitors.
Website conversion rate examples
Fictional numbers to show the arithmetic. They are not industry benchmarks.
| Example | Unique visitors | Converted visitors | Conversion rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS signup rate | 5,000 | 200 distinct visitors completed signup | 4% |
| Landing page lead rate | 2,000 | 80 distinct visitors submitted the lead form | 4% |
| E-commerce purchase rate | 10,000 | 250 distinct visitors purchased | 2.5% |
What is a good conversion rate?
There is no universal good conversion rate, and this page doesn't quote one. Published benchmarks rarely use the same action, unit or traffic mix as your site. Conversion rates vary with:
- Industry and price
- Traffic source and campaign
- Visitor intent
- The conversion action itself
- Device
- Funnel stage: a signup comes before a payment
The most useful comparison is with yourself: the same page over time, or one traffic source against another, with the same definition and the same date range.
How to improve conversion rates
- Make the value proposition clear in the first screen.
- Improve page speed, especially on mobile connections.
- Remove form fields you don't need.
- Make the call to action specific and easy to find.
- Test the page on a real phone.
- Match the landing page to the ad or post that sent the visitor.
- Find where visitors drop off before converting, step by step.
- Check that tracking counts completed actions, not attempts.
None of these comes with a guaranteed uplift. Change one thing at a time and compare like with like.
How to track conversion rates in SuprAnalytics
The calculator works with numbers you already have. Goal tracking in SuprAnalytics counts them from your website's real visits:
- Define a goal. A page goal is completed by viewing a page, such as /welcome after signup, and counts past visits too. An event goal is sent by your site: a
supr-goalattribute on a button,window.supr("signup")in your code, or the server API. - Read the rate. Each goal shows its conversions, every completion, and its unique visitors. Its conversion rate is those visitors divided by all the website's visitors in the period: the same formula as this calculator.
- Break it down. Filter by channel, source, UTM campaign, country or device to compare rates for different traffic.
- Follow the steps. Conversion funnels count unique visitors through ordered steps, and their conversion rate is the last step divided by the first.
- Connect payments. With a supported payment provider, the dashboard's Conversion rate is new paying customers divided by visitors, and revenue attribution shows the revenue behind each source.
Form submissions aren't tracked automatically: use a thank-you page goal, or send an event after the form succeeds. Visitor counts depend on recognising returning visitors; in cookieless mode a visitor is recognised for a day, and a phone and a laptop are two visitors. Visitor journeys show what one converted visitor did before converting. Setup is in the custom goals guide.
Common conversion rate mistakes
- Events over visitors
- Raw goal events divided by unique visitors, without saying so. Repeat completions inflate it.
- Counting failed submissions
- A click on Submit isn't a completed signup. Count the success page or a success event.
- Double-counting
- The same person converting on two pages, or a goal fired twice, counted as two conversions.
- Mixing sessions and visitors
- Conversions per visitor divided by sessions, or the other way round.
- Different date ranges
- Visitors from one month and conversions from another.
- Checkout clicks as purchases
- Starting checkout isn't paying. Use payment data for purchases.
- One rate for all traffic
- Search, social and email visitors convert differently. Compare sources separately.
- Rate over revenue
- A higher rate on a cheaper plan can bring in less money. Look at revenue too.
Related: goal trackingconversion funnelspricing