Blog · 5 min read ·
CRO Audit: Find Where Your Website Loses Sales
Direct answer: A CRO audit shows where visitors drop out between your first screen and the sale. Start with measurement, because without clean tracking you cannot tell which step leaks.
What a CRO audit checks
A conversion audit is a structured check of the pages and screens a visitor passes through before buying, booking or sending an enquiry. It is not an opinion about colours.
Most owners who ask "why is my website not converting?" find several small leaks, not one big flaw. These are the places we look first.
- First-screen clarity. Can a visitor say what you sell, who it is for and what to do next within five seconds? If not, many will leave right away.
- One main call to action. If a page pushes "Buy now", "Book a call", "Download" and "Follow us" with equal weight, attention splits.
- Price and scope. Missing prices, vague delivery times and hidden minimums create doubt. If you cannot show an exact price, explain how the price is worked out.
- Form length. Every extra field gives people a reason to quit. Ask only for what you need at that step.
- Checkout errors. Try odd address formats, failed payments, double submits, the back button and guest checkout.
- Mobile layout. Check tap targets, text size, sticky headers, pop-ups and sideways scrolling.
- Trust signals. Use real contact details, clear delivery and return terms, and genuine reviews. Never use fake reviews, invented counters or logos that imply a relationship you do not have.
If the whole design feels dated or confusing, the problem may be bigger than conversion. Our website development page explains what a rebuild involves.
Measurement comes first
A funnel audit built on broken tracking is guesswork. Before we judge any page, we check three things.
| Check | What we look for | Common problem |
|---|---|---|
| Goal definition | One main goal per flow, plus smaller steps | Too many goals marked as primary |
| Event consistency | The same action has the same name everywhere | Different names on different pages or devices |
| No double counting | One finished action counts once | A button click and a thank-you page view both count |
For a shop, the main goal is usually a purchase. For a service business it may be a qualified enquiry or a booking. If no measurement exists yet, we can still review clarity and checkout, but the conversion numbers will not be reliable until tracking is fixed.
Speed on the conversion path
A slow page adds friction before the visitor reaches your button. Google's Core Web Vitals guidance sets three targets: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) at 2.5 seconds or better, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) at 200 ms or better, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) at 0.1 or better. They are judged at the 75th percentile of page loads, for mobile and desktop separately.
We do not turn these numbers into a promised sales gain. We report where your key pages sit against the targets and name the elements that most likely cause the problem. A checkout page with a layout-shift problem deserves priority, because a button that moves can cause a wrong tap or a failed order.
From findings to a priority list
A long list of problems is not much use. We rank each finding by its likely effect on the sales path and by the effort to fix it, then give it a priority from P0 (most urgent) to P3.
Here is a hypothetical example.
| Finding | Likely effect | Effort | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy button sits far below the fold on mobile | High | Low | P0 |
| Checkout shows an error for valid postcodes | High | Medium | P0 |
| Quote form asks for 11 fields | Medium | Low | P1 |
| Cookie banner shifts the page layout | Medium | Medium | P2 |
Fixing the P0 items usually matters more than ordering another report. Our fix and care page describes how we handle the first round of changes.
Where this sits in our audit
Our audit report covers conversion and sales funnel as one of six areas. The others are SEO and AI-search visibility, security, speed, legal and privacy, and measurement. Each area gets a score, and you also get an overall score and a P0 to P3 priority list.
- S, $490: 5 business days, up to 10 pages or screens, or 1 app flow. PDF and CSV, 1 language, a 30-minute walkthrough and 1 re-scoring within 30 days.
- M, $890: 8 business days, up to 30 pages or screens, or 2 app flows, plus a comparison with 2 competitor sites.
- L, $1,690: 12 business days, up to 100 pages or screens, or 4 app flows (sampled), up to 2 languages.
Each extra 10 pages cost $150. Prices are excl. VAT. The audit uses passive, permitted checks only: no penetration test, no code review and no legal opinion.
What a CRO audit cannot promise
It cannot promise a sales increase, a conversion rate or more traffic. Those depend on your offer, your price, your market and how well the fixes are carried out. We find the friction and show you the order to fix it in.
For legal and privacy findings, the final judgement belongs to your lawyer. We may use AI tools to spot issues, but a person reviews every finding before you receive the report.
FAQ
What is a CRO audit?
A structured review of where a site loses sales or enquiries. It checks clarity, calls to action, trust, forms, checkout, mobile use, measurement and speed, then ranks problems by effect and effort.
Why is my website not converting even though it gets traffic?
Usually because of a mix of small things: an unclear first screen, a weak call to action, a long form, missing trust or a slow page. The audit finds which ones apply to you.
How long does the audit take?
5 business days for S, 8 for M and 12 for L.
Does the audit include fixes?
No. The report gives you findings and priorities. Fixes are a separate order, and the audit fee is credited if you order within 30 days, up to 50% of the fix price.
Can you promise a better conversion rate?
No. We show likely problems and a sensible order to fix them. The result depends on factors outside the audit.