Average website conversion rate

Today, most marketing teams focus on directing traffic to your website and expect that traffic to convert into hot leads that sales reps can close. But that's only half the battle. By further leveraging existing traffic and leads (rather than entirely new traffic), enterprises can achieve long-term, sustainable growth. This is where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes into the picture.

You work on optimizing your website for the most optimal customer journey, which should increase the conversion rate and decrease the average cost per acquisition. In today's market average website conversion rates vary around 3.9%

Website conversion rates based on the business industry

To know what you’re aiming for, you should consider that website conversion rates vary not only by country but also by industry. For example, a project management software (average CVR 2.6%) cannot expect similar conversion rates to a travel agency (average CVR 4.7%).

For instance, the highest conversion rate is considered in the professional services industry - it can go as high as 9.3%. It includes such businesses as logistics, accounting and bookkeeping, architecture, and similar.

It’s no surprise, that the second-highest conversion rates are achieved by websites in the industrial and healthcare industries. Their average conversion rates reach 5.6%

Then we move to 4.7% and 4.3%. Such conversion rates vary in the travel and financial services industry.

What might come to a surprise is that B2B services reach better conversion rates at 3.5% than B2B eCommerce with 3.2%. It proves that the rising competition in the eCommerce industry shouldn't be taken lightly.

What surprised me most was the conversion rates in the legal and cosmetics and dental sector. My guess would have been that they are the ones that get the highest conversion rates, but no! Legal service CVR is around 2.6% and dental - 2.3%. I thought that this service is a must-have, so it should be easier to convert, but it seems, I was wrong.

2% goal for conversion rates can be set by B2C eCommerce and automotive service providers.

And according to the latest data, the lowest conversion rates fall for B2B tech and real estate business, as it requires many touchpoints and a lot of consideration to convert a single user. Here the conversion rates vary around 1.7%. This means every 1000 website visits, the business gets only 17 users to convert. But for them, that’s normal!

If you're not sure what are your conversion rates you can use our interactive calculator and check.

Conversion types

In simple terms, a website conversion happens when a visitor completes one of your preferred actions. So it’s also important to think about which conversions you count. For a typical b2b tech software it can be a conversion to a free user, conversion to a paid customer, or even both, conversion from a free customer to a paid customer.

The most popular types of conversions tracked are:

• Clicks on a certain type of content - articles, ads, affiliate links, or video
• Downloads - ebooks, guides, checklists, software
• Leads - or filled contact forms - orders, requests, consultation
• Sign-ups - when a visitor becomes a free user or start a trial
• Purchases - when a user becomes a fully paying customer.

So what is a good conversion rate?

Do not set your standards after general articles that state one average conversion rate for all of us to use. You might be above or below and base your performance on it, however, it will not be accurate.

If your average conversion rate is close to or above the industry average of your country, you can pat yourself on the shoulder for doing a great job. If it’s not, start by looking for improvement areas and we’re sure you can increase it. Just one last tip - before making an effort evaluate which improvements can make the biggest impact on your results!