Conversion & Experimentation
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
A plain-language Open Developer definition.
Definition
What it means
CRO is the practice of increasing the percentage of visitors to a website or page who complete a desired action — a purchase, a signup, a form submission — through testing and refining design, copy, and user experience. It's distinct from acquisition work (driving more traffic); CRO focuses on converting the traffic already arriving.
Why teams track it
Why it matters
Improving conversion rate is often cheaper than acquiring more traffic, since it makes existing spend more efficient rather than requiring additional budget. This is the whole premise behind our AI Personalization & CRO category, and it's a real prerequisite before most of those tools are worth paying for — you need enough traffic to test against first.
Applied context
Where you’ll see this term
Our entire AI Personalization & CRO category — VWO, Optimizely, Dynamic Yield, and Mutiny — is built around this discipline.