Conversion rate

Conversion rate is conversions divided by the visits or visitors that could have converted, over a period, for one action such as a signup or a purchase.

Its value depends entirely on what you count: sessions or users, which action, and which pages are eligible. This is why published averages are not comparable.

On a small site, measure per landing page, per channel and per device. A single sitewide average hides problems and wins.

• Action: name one key action, for example signup, trial start or checkout success.
• Denominator: choose sessions or users, and stick to it across reports.
• Scope: choose which pages could have converted, for example all sessions that entered on /pricing or all sessions that saw /signup.
• Period: pick a window you can repeat, for example the last 28 days.

Write the formula once and reuse it: conversion rate equals key action count divided by eligible sessions or users in the same period and scope.

Example: for /pricing, in the last 28 days, users who landed on /pricing and later fired signup. Rate equals signups from those users divided by those users.

1. 1

   GA4, mark the action as a key event

   In GA4, mark your signup or purchase event as a key event. Conversions were renamed key events in 2024.

2. 2

   GA4, get eligible sessions

   Use Engagement, Landing page. Add a filter for pages that could convert, and add Device category as a breakdown if needed.

3. 3

   GA4, read by channel

   Use the default channel group. Organic search visits fall in Organic Search, based on source and medium such as google or organic.

4. 4

   Join Google Search Console

   Link Search Console in Admin, Product links. This adds Google organic search queries and Google organic search traffic reports that join clicks and impressions to landing pages.

5. 5

   Product analytics for funnels

   In a tool like PostHog, build a funnel from a landing page view to your product event, for example $pageview where $pathname equals /pricing to signup. Break down by initial referring domain to see organic search performance across later sessions.

Attribution choices change who gets credit. First touch credits the visit that brought the person. Last touch credits the visit before the conversion. GA4 defaults to data-driven, with first click and last click available in comparisons. For product sites, ask which landing pages bring people who later sign up.

Start with the Landing page report in GA4. Add key events and a conversion rate metric built from those key events divided by sessions for each page. Compare Desktop and Mobile.

Use the linked Search Console reports to find pages with clicks but few key events. These are candidates for content and UX fixes. Also find high-rate pages with few clicks. These are candidates for SEO work to earn more impressions.

If you need revenue from search, the clean answer needs your payment event joined to the person and their first landing page. Build that in product analytics to answer what a search click earns.

• Fix message match on key pages. If /pricing ranks for “free crm”, show the free plan and limits above the fold.
• Shorten the path. Cut dead steps between /pricing and /signup. Remove popups that block the form.
• Speed matters. Keep Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds and Interaction to Next Paint under 200 ms on converting pages.
• UTMs belong offsite. Never add utm_source to internal links. Internal UTMs start a new session and break attribution.
• Canonicalise any UTM URL that others might link. Point the canonical to the clean URL to avoid indexing the tagged version.
• Respect consent. In the EU, cookie-based analytics need consent. Every rate from consented sessions undercounts as of 2026.

A fixed page looks like this: /pricing, fast on mobile, clear plan cards, a short form, and one primary button with a clear next step.