{"id":4583,"date":"2015-07-15T16:02:56","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T16:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.printivity.com\/insights\/?p=556"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:44:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:44:02","slug":"your-websites-conversion-rate-vs-click-through-rate-whats-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/your-websites-conversion-rate-vs-click-through-rate-whats-the-difference","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Website\u2019s Conversion vs. Click-Through Rate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Knowing the difference between conversion rate vs click through rates can help a small business owner improve their web design and their online marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today I want to share two really important metrics that I think you should use to analyze your website. I use them all the time to analyze various parts of Printivity.com\u2019s web pages, and it\u2019s empowering to have a solid grasp of what they mean to your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.printivity.com\/landing\/insights\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"256\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.printivity.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/BannerBusinessCards-1024x256.png?resize=1024%2C256&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Get 20% off your first order at Printivity banner ad\" class=\"wp-image-2648\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Click Through Rate (CTR): % People Clicking on your Google Listing<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say that you have a website that\u2019s listed on Google\u2014it\u2019s not a great ranking, but you get some hits from time to time. That\u2019s where a lot of businesses are these days: they put up a website, but they don\u2019t know how to boost their rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your website\u2019s Click-Through Rate is the % of people that click on your website, when Google shows them your website. Let\u2019s say that your website is shown to 100 people (aka 100 impressions). If 5 people click on your webpage on Google, your \u201cclick-through rate\u201d is 5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The formula to calculate click-through rates is Clicks \u00f7 Impressions = Y x 100 (percentage) = % CTR. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, click-through rate is \u201chow likely someone is to click on your Google listing\u201d. There are many factors that would impact your click through rate, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The higher you\u2019re ranked, the more likely Google users are to click on you<\/li><li>Better written listing titles<\/li><li>Better written listing descriptions<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Conversion Rates: % of Visitors who Buy Online<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, let\u2019s discuss what \u201cConversion Rates\u201d means to your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conversion rate refers to the % of your online visitors who end up buying something from you online. In other words, if 100 people land on your website, and 3 people buy from you, your conversion rate is 3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means that conversion rate is how likely an online visitor to buy from you. You can influence the conversion rates online through better salesmanship (i.e. more enticing copywriting, product photos, coupons\/deals). Or, you can influence the conversion rates through better web design (easier\/better designs, clearer calls-to-action, online checkouts and instant quoters).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, my focus today is to summarize the difference and connections. If you\u2019d like to read more about conversion rates, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/cxl.com\/ways-to-increase-your-conversion-rate\/\">13 Ways to increase Your Conversion Rate Right Now<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Conversion Rate vs Click Through Rate<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Click-Through Rates target people before they land on your site. Conversion Rates target people that are already on your site. Both require different strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you notice how I described Click-Through Rates, you\u2019re targeting people searching on Google. You\u2019re trying to change up your listing to entice them to click-through on your website. Even though I mentioned Google as the example, you can actually take this same concept and apply it to all your other types of online marketing \u2013 social media, paid online ads, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fundamentally, you\u2019re changing up your listing, ranking higher to be more visible, and enticing visitors on other websites to click-through to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, improving conversion rates targets people that are already your website. You do so with through fairly traditional salesmanship\/marketing concepts. Improve your website\u2019s salesmanship, and you\u2019ll improve your conversion rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Here\u2019s How I Visualize the Relationship Between CTR and Conversion Rates<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a visual of the online sales funnel to illustrate how CTR is related to Conversion Rates:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this particular example, 600 users \u201cclicked through\u201d, out of the 10,000 \u201cimpressions\u201d (times my website was shown). That means I have a 6% Click-Through Rate (600\/10,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, I made 24 sales out of the 600 people that clicked through to my site. That means I have a 4% Conversion Rate (24 \/ 600).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Optimizing any part of the funnel translates pretty directly into improvements in sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. If you\u2019re able to double your impressions (i.e. by ranking higher on Google), it\u2019s as good as doubling your Google SEO sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2. If you increase your CTR by 10% (i.e. by improving your search listings), you\u2019ll increase your sales by 10%<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3. If you increase your conversion rate by 50% (i.e. by redesigning your most trafficked product page), you\u2019ll increase that product\u2019s online sales from Google SEO traffic by 50%!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tricky part is to experiment\u2014bit by bit\u2014with your web design to make all the small improvements to improve your online marketing performance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conversion rate and click-through-rates are only some of the analytics that your team should be keeping track of. Learn about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.printivity.com\/insights\/12-insights-to-start-your-business-analytics\">12 Insights To Start Your Business Analytics<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"768\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"1948\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.printivity.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/PhotoRetouch_SS_pg47_v3-1024x768.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Stack of saddle stitch booklet templates\" class=\"wp-image-1948\"\/><figcaption>Shop Saddle Stitch Booklets at Printivity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"1793\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.printivity.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/presentation-folders-pdp.jpg?ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1793\"\/><figcaption>Shop Folders at Printivity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"1776\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.printivity.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Postcards_Transparent.png?ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1776\"\/><figcaption>Shop Postcards at Printivity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-horizontal is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-499968f5 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-background\" href=\"https:\/\/www.printivity.com\/products\" style=\"background-color:#ef4129\">Shop at Printivity.com Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Knowing the difference between conversion rate vs click through rates can help a small business owner improve their web design [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,13],"tags":[42,61,95,107,135,184,226,317,422,425,429],"class_list":["post-4583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growing_your_business","category-marketing_101","category-running_a_small_business","tag-attract-customers","tag-bing","tag-business-owners","tag-click-through-rate","tag-conversion-rate","tag-digital-marketing","tag-google","tag-online-marketing","tag-seo","tag-small-business","tag-social-media-marketing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/conversion-rate-1-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgont1-1bV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4583"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10197,"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4583\/revisions\/10197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}