Why “Best Practices” Don’t Exist in CRO (And What to Do Instead) (1/2)

The myth of best practices

Let’s start with a hard truth: there’s no such thing as universal “best practices” in CRO.

Copying what worked for another brand – even one in your industry – is rarely a winning move. Each audience is different. The way your users perceive risk, trust signals, or motivation isn’t the same as someone else’s customers.

That’s why at Tui Experiments, we treat “best practices” as hypotheses, not blueprints.

Still, teams often ask for guidance on where to start. And that’s fair. Some patterns have proven useful across hundreds of tests and industries. This article shares those – not as rigid rules, but as practical good practices that help you make smarter, faster optimisation decisions.

This is part one of a two-article series on good CRO practices.

1. Design for trust and clarity

First impressions matter. Users judge your website in less than 50 milliseconds, and 94% of those impressions are design-related.

Simple, familiar design consistently outperforms overly “creative” layouts. In Google’s research, visually complex websites were rated less beautiful than simple, prototypical ones. The more your layout aligns with what users expect for your category, the easier it is for them to trust and act.

Good practice:

• Keep layouts consistent with user expectations (prototypicality).

• Use simplicity to focus attention, not strip content.

• Lead with a clear visual hierarchy: logo → headline → CTA.

2. Make your calls to action impossible to miss

CTAs aren’t decorative – they’re the bridge between interest and action. Users need to notice, understand, and value the next step before they’ll click.

Good practice:

• Define one primary action per page and make it visually dominant.

• Use buttons (not text links) with enough white space around them.

• Use language that finishes the sentence: “I want to…” (e.g., Get a quote, Start my free trial).

• Don’t overthink button colour – just make it contrast your background.

In one test, increasing button visibility improved click-throughs by 234%

3. Structure category pages to guide decision-making

For eCommerce, the category page isn’t about showing everything – it’s about helping users narrow down their choices and feel confident choosing one.

Good practice:

• Use filters that match real buying criteria (size, colour, specs).

• Highlight top products with badges like “Most Popular” or “Staff Pick”.

• Use large, high-quality product images (one retailer saw a 25% sales increase after enlarging images).

• Reduce noise. Every element should help users find the right product, not distract them.

4. Treat the fold as prime real estate

Yes, people scroll – but the fold still matters. The top 700 pixels of your page get the most attention. If users don’t find clarity or motivation above the fold, most will never see what’s below.

Good practice:

• Place your value proposition and primary CTA above the fold.

• Prioritise key information in descending order of importance.

• On long pages, use design cues (arrows, anchors) to guide scrolling.

5. Reduce friction at checkout and sign-up

Your checkout flow is where your profits either scale or leak. Simple changes here often outperform any design update elsewhere.

Good practice:

• Ask for payment details last to increase commitment rates.

• Make the form look secure and explicitly say so (“Safe 128-bit SSL checkout”).

• Offer guest checkout and optional registration – forced sign-ups can kill up to 25% of sales.

• For returning users, store card details securely to make repeat purchases effortless.

6. Eliminate the need for FAQs – but show them anyway

The best digital experiences don’t need FAQs. If your users have to search for answers, it usually means your content or design isn’t clear enough. Ideally, your copy should anticipate objections and address them directly within the page.

But here’s the nuance: you should still include an FAQ section.

Why? Because search engines and LLMs (like Google’s AI Overviews) do. FAQs help these systems understand your content’s context, structure, and relevance – improving your visibility in GEO and SEO results.

Good practice:

• Write FAQs to strengthen your semantic relevance – focus on the real questions your customers ask, not what you wish they’d ask.

• Place them at the bottom of key pages (like pricing, product, and checkout) so they add value without distracting from conversion.

• Keep answers short, factual, and written in conversational language that mirrors how people search.

• Use structured markup (FAQ schema) so LLMs and search engines can index them correctly.

Think of FAQs as content for machines that benefits humans. If your site reads naturally and answers key questions, both users and algorithms will trust it more.

7. Focus your homepage on one action

Your homepage sets the tone for trust, clarity, and flow. Its job is to communicate what you do and guide users to the next logical step.

Good practice:

• Keep your value proposition above the fold and make it specific.

• Have one main CTA (e.g., Start free trial, Explore products).

• Test page length. Generally, user behaviour (e.g. click behaviour) often changes when there are fewer or more elements on the page.

Why this matters

Good practices are not templates – they’re starting points for learning.

When you test these principles, measure impact on motivation and clarity, not just clicks. Every insight you gather from testing is another data point about what your audience values.

That’s the essence of evidence-driven optimisation – adapt, test, and refine until your design decisions are backed by data, not convention.

More to come...

This is just the first part of our series on good CRO practices. In the next article, we’ll dig deeper into how design, copy, and psychology shape user decisions – from building trust to increasing motivation on every page.

Stay tuned.