Conversion: from the search click to the signup, and what stops it

Published conversion averages differ by source, industry and definition, so none of them is a target. A landing page conversion rate is conversions divided by the sessions that began on that page; a signup conversion rate is accounts created divided by the visitors of the signup path; a trial-to-paid rate is paying accounts divided by the trials started in the same cohort. Each needs a few hundred sessions before it says anything, and each is read per landing page, because the pages that bring people are not the pages that convert them.

That is the join the whole theme rests on: the landing page from Search Console, which knows the query and the click, against the signup event from product analytics, which knows what the visitor did next. Joined, they show the pages that win clicks and sign nobody up, and the pages that convert everyone and get no clicks. The analytics theme says how to build the join; this theme says what to do with it.

Three causes, told apart with the join. The query was informational and the page sells: the fix is to answer first, then offer. The page answers but the next step is missing or below the fold: the fix is one call to action where the answer ends, phrased as the reader's next step, never a modal that covers the text. The visitor is not the buyer, a student, a rival, an agency: nothing fixes that, and the page is left alone because it ranks and it informs.

Content pages follow one rule: one call to action, placed where the reader has just got the answer, saying what happens next in the reader's own words. Google's page experience guidance adds the constraint that interstitials covering the content on mobile cost the page its ranking.

What is documented about pricing pages that convert: two to four plans with one recommended, the difference between them in one line each, the price visible without a click, annual and monthly as a toggle with the saving stated, an FAQ that answers what support hears (cancellation, the card, the limits, what happens when a trial ends), and plan names that match the app, the docs and the emails. The pricing page also ranks on the product's name plus pricing and on rival comparisons, so it is written for search too.

A stranger checks, in the first minute, who is behind the site, whether it is alive, whether their data is safe and whether they can leave. The pages that answer are an About page with real names, a dated changelog, a security page, a status page, plain terms, a support address, and reviews on third-party sites linked from the page. Social proof with no customers is what can be shown honestly on day one: the founder's own use, real counts, a public roadmap, a candid comparison. A case study page, when there is one, has a fixed shape and ranks on the customer's name plus the category.

Signup friction that is documented to matter: every extra field, a card before the product is seen, email verification before the first screen, a password rule that rejects real passwords, no single sign-on, an error message that does not say what to fix. Free trial and freemium are different models with different rates and support costs; the guide on trials says how to measure each by cohort.

• First: pages that get search clicks and no signups, then landing page conversion rate. They set the join and the three causes.
• Then the pages that convert: pricing page examples, the SaaS pricing page, trust signals, social proof with no customers, the case study page.
• Then the flow: signup conversion rate, free trial conversion rate, calls to action on content pages.

Take the ten landing pages with the most search sessions and read their signup rate next to their query. The one with the most sessions and the lowest rate on a buying query is the page to fix this week: the first screen, the call to action, the friction after it. Change one thing, wait for a few hundred sessions, compare with the baseline, keep it if it held. A month of that is more than most sites do in a year.

The free check reads the site from the outside and names the pages that carry the searches. The growth report, bought once, connects PostHog and follows a search to the signup: the pages that take the clicks and sign nobody up, with the cause on each and the change as a brief. Turning visits into signups is the report's last chapter, because it is what the other ten are for.