Convert Every Click: Make More Money Online with Holistic Conversion Rate Optimization

Chapter One

What Is Holistic Conversion Rate Optimization?

When talking about conversion rate optimization, we often talk about low-hanging fruit in reference to ideas that easily and/or quickly improve conversions. Who wouldn’t want some low-hanging fruit? Easy pickings are often where we find some of the fastest and highest returns.

When I look at the idea of low-hanging fruit, a whole series of questions comes to my mind. What is low-hanging fruit? What makes one fruit a better pick than another? Can you tell if a conversion idea is ripe just by looking at it? If you have to start cutting branches, which branch is best? And when you get right down to it, isn’t all fruit low-hanging if you cut down the tree?

Let me be clear, I am not suggesting you cut down your marketing tree because then the tree will die. I am also not necessarily suggesting that you have to start over with your website to improve conversions. The secret to why a fruit hangs low on a tree is often embedded in the roots. Who is to say that you can’t go after the low-hanging fruit of conversion while simultaneously building a better and longer-lasting foundation, which will bear more branches and higher volumes of fruit? Who is stopping you from planting a second, third, or even fourth tree? What is keeping you from selectively improving the DNA of the tree so that it bears more delicious and low-hanging fruit? And what’s the best way to reach the not-so-low-hanging fruit?

These are the kinds of questions most ...