Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate is the share of visitors or sessions that complete a defined desired action: a sign-up, a purchase, a download, a scroll past the fold. It turns raw traffic numbers into a quality signal. 10,000 visitors mean nothing if none of them sign up; 500 visitors with 100 sign-ups means everything.
This page explains the metric, how Statable computes it via Goals, and how to read it in the dashboard.
Definition
The general formula:
Whether the denominator is sessions, visitors, or pageviews varies between tools. Statable uses sessions. It answers "what fraction of visits resulted in the action".
A "conversion" is whatever you decide it is. Common examples:
- A signup-form submission
- A purchase completed
- A pricing page reached
- An email-newsletter button clicked
- A video watched to the 75% mark
How Statable measures conversion rate
Statable records conversions through Goals. A Goal is a named rule that turns a stream of events into a counted conversion. Three types are supported:
| Goal type | Triggered by | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Pageview Goal | A pageview matching a URL pattern | "Thank-you page reached" → /thank-you |
| Custom Event Goal | A custom event fired with a given name | "Subscription started" → event Sign Up |
| Scroll Depth Goal | A visitor scrolls past a threshold percentage | "Article read" → 75% scroll |
Once a Goal is configured under Site settings → Goals, the dashboard computes its conversion rate as goal_completions / sessions × 100. The number appears next to every Goal in the Custom Analytics → Goals report and as a column in the Details panel.
All Goal types (Pageview, Custom Event, Scroll Depth) work out of the box once s.js is on the page.
Setting up your first Goal
- Navigate to Site settings → Goals.
- Click Create Goal.
- Pick the type (Pageview, Custom Event, or Scroll Depth) and fill in the matching rule.
- Save.
Conversions count from the moment the Goal is created. Statable does not retroactively scan past events for matches. A Goal created today only reflects sessions from today onward.
For the full UI walkthrough, see Goals.
Reading conversion rate in the dashboard
Once Goals exist, every breakdown report (Sources, Pages, Geo, Browsers, etc.) gains a conversion-rate column when a Goal is active. This makes optimisation work concrete: which traffic source converts best to Sign Up, which pages convert, which countries drop off.
You can also filter the dashboard by Goal. Selecting Goal is "Sign Up" reduces every report to sessions that completed it. Combined with Compare mode, this is the standard way to compare conversion before and after a change.
Goals stack on filters and compare
A Goal filter combines naturally with other filters. Goal = "Sign Up" AND Source = "google.com" shows organic-Google sign-ups; layer Compare mode on top and you have a week-over-week read on organic-Google sign-ups in three clicks.
Improving conversion rate
Conversion rate is the metric most teams want to move. The general approach:
- Segment first. A site-wide number averages everything. The interesting numbers are per-source, per-device, per-page. Use filters to isolate.
- Find the bottleneck. If 10% of visitors reach pricing but only 1% sign up, the pricing-to-signup transition is the focus.
- Test changes deliberately. A/B testing infrastructure lives outside Statable (see A/B Testing for tracking variants via custom properties). Don't read trend changes after a deploy as causal. They could be seasonal.
- Compare honestly. Use Compare mode for period-over-period instead of eyeballing two screenshots.
Pitfalls
- Conversion rate can rise because traffic dropped. Cutting a low-converting paid channel raises the overall rate. That's not the same as the business getting better. Read absolute conversions next to the rate.
- Bot traffic dilutes the rate. Bots load pages and don't sign up. Use the IP / hostname blocklist to keep your team and obvious bots out.
- Goal-creation timing matters. A Goal created mid-period only counts conversions from its creation forward. The dashboard does not warn you. Be deliberate when comparing periods that span Goal creation.
For the conceptual underpinnings, see Sessions (the denominator) and Goals (the numerator).
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