The number most often quoted is two to three percent, and it is close to useless. Conversion rate varies so much by industry, traffic source and what you count as a conversion that a single benchmark tells you almost nothing about whether your site is doing its job.
How to calculate your conversion rate
Conversions divided by sessions, times one hundred. If 1,000 people visited and 20 enquired, that is 2%. The complication is deciding what counts as a conversion — for most service businesses it should be an enquiry or booking, not a newsletter signup or a PDF download.
Realistic ranges by situation
These are broad, and the variation within each is larger than the differences between them.
- Service businesses with a phone or form enquiry: roughly 2–5% of total traffic
- Ecommerce: typically 1–3%, with wide variation by category and price point
- Paid search landing pages: often higher, 5–15%, because traffic is pre-qualified
- Broad informational blog traffic: well under 1%, and that is normal, not a failure
Why the average is misleading
Conversion rate is a ratio, and you can improve it by getting worse. Cut all your informational traffic and your rate rises while enquiries fall. Rank for a highly specific commercial term and your rate looks superb on tiny volume. Judge total enquiries alongside the rate, never the rate alone.
What actually moves it
In our experience the order is fairly consistent, and design sits well down the list.
- A clear offer — can a visitor tell what you do and who for, within seconds?
- A conversion path on every page, not only the contact page
- Removing friction — shorter forms, fewer required fields, no unnecessary steps
- Answering objections before they are raised: price guidance, process, credentials
- Mobile speed, since most Australian service traffic arrives on a phone
The number that matters more
Cost per enquiry, and then cost per customer. A 1% conversion rate on cheap, plentiful traffic can be far more profitable than 8% on traffic that costs a fortune. Conversion rate is a diagnostic, not a goal.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good conversion rate for a website?
For service businesses, roughly 2–5% of total traffic converting to an enquiry is a reasonable target, but the variation by industry and traffic source is larger than any benchmark.
What is a good conversion rate for a landing page?
Higher than a general site, often 5–15%, because landing page traffic is usually pre-qualified by the ad that sent it.
Is a 1% conversion rate bad?
Not necessarily. If much of your traffic is informational, 1% can be entirely healthy. Look at total enquiries and cost per enquiry alongside it.
How do I improve my conversion rate?
Start with clarity of offer and having a conversion path on every page. Those two account for most of the improvement we see, well ahead of visual design.
How do I track conversions?
Configure conversion tracking in your analytics before anything else. Without it you cannot tell what is working, which is the position most business websites are in.
Related reading
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If you want this assessed on your own site rather than in general, tell us what it is meant to do and what it is doing instead. We will come back within one business day.