Conversion & UX Terms

A/B testing is a controlled experiment where you split traffic between two versions of something: the original (A, the control) and a changed version (B, the variant). You measure...

A/B/n testing is a conversion-rate optimisation (CRO) method where you test three or more versions of a page or element against each other at the same time, instead of just two. Th...

Above the fold is the portion of a web page visible in the browser window before a visitor scrolls. The term comes from newspaper printing, where the stories on the top half of a f...

Accessibility, often measured against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), is the practice of building websites that people with disabilities can use. That includes scr...

Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions where someone lands on a page and leaves without visiting a second page. Exit rate is the percentage of visits to a specific page where th...

A call to action (CTA) is any prompt that tells a visitor what to do next. A button that says 'Get a quote', a banner inviting someone to subscribe, or a link asking readers to boo...

Cart abandonment occurs when a shopper adds products to an online shopping cart but leaves without completing the purchase. The cart abandonment rate measures the percentage of ini...

Checkout abandonment is when a shopper starts the checkout process, entering shipping or payment details, but leaves before completing the purchase. It's measured as the percentage...

A confetti report is a click-tracking visualisation that plots every click a visitor made on a page as an individual dot, rather than blending them into a heatmap's colour gradient...

A conversion is when a visitor completes a specific desired action — a purchase, form submission, call booking, download or any other goal that represents progress through your mar...

Conversion rate is the share of visitors who complete a defined action like a purchase, signup, or form submission. Calculated as conversions divided by total sessions (or visitors...

Conversion rate by channel, device or source is the same conversion rate calculation, calculated separately for each traffic segment. Instead of one blended number, you get a conve...

The practice of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — purchase, enquiry, sign-up. CRO uses data, user research and testing to systematically rem...

CTA hierarchy is the deliberate ranking of every call-to-action (CTA) on a page so visitors know which action matters most. It's usually expressed through visual weight, colour, si...

A dark pattern is a user interface design that tricks or pressures people into doing something they did not intend to do, like signing up for a subscription, sharing more data than...

A dead click is a click or tap on a webpage element that produces no visible response. The user clicks something that looks interactive, like a button or a link, and nothing happen...

An empty state is the screen a user sees when there's no content or data to show yet. It appears on a new account, an empty search result, an inbox with nothing in it or a dashboar...

An error click is when a visitor clicks or taps an element expecting it to work, and instead triggers an error message, a broken link, or nothing at all. It's a signal that somethi...

A popup or overlay triggered when a visitor's cursor movement indicates they are about to leave the page, designed to capture their attention before they go.

F-Pattern and Z-Pattern describe how eyes tend to scan a web page based on eye-tracking research. The F-Pattern shows up on text-dense pages, where people read left to right across...

A feature flag is a setting in code that lets a team turn a feature on or off, or show it to some users but not others, without releasing new code. It's the switch that decides who...

Field-level drop-off is the percentage of people who start filling out a form but abandon it at one specific field rather than finishing it. It's measured field by field, not for t...

When a visitor starts filling out a form but leaves before submitting it, losing a potential lead or conversion.

Form analytics is the practice of tracking how visitors interact with a specific form, including which fields they abandon, how long they spend on each one, where validation errors...

Any element of the user experience that creates effort, confusion or hesitation and reduces the likelihood of conversion.

Funnel analysis is the practice of tracking how many people move from one step of a process to the next, such as landing page to product page to cart to purchase, so you can see ex...

A goal is the old Universal Analytics term for a tracked outcome like a purchase or a form submission. An event is the GA4 (Google Analytics 4) term for any recorded user action, f...

The primary visual section at the top of a webpage, typically the first thing a visitor sees before scrolling, containing the headline, supporting copy, primary CTA and a visual el...

Heuristic evaluation is a usability review method where an experienced evaluator inspects an interface against a set of established usability principles, or heuristics, to find pro...

A landing page is a standalone web page built for a single campaign goal: to convert a visitor into a lead, subscriber or customer. Unlike a homepage, it removes navigation and dis...

Minimum Detectable Effect (MDE) is the smallest improvement in conversion rate a test is designed to reliably detect. Sample size is the number of visitors needed to detect that ef...

A macro-conversion is the main goal of a page or campaign, like a purchase or a signed-up lead. A micro-conversion is a smaller action a visitor takes on the way there, like adding...

A small, measurable action a user takes that signals progress toward a main conversion goal. Examples: scrolling 75 percent down a page, clicking a CTA, adding a product to cart, o...

Microcopy is the small pieces of text that guide someone through a digital experience, things like button labels, error messages, form hints and confirmation notes. It rarely gets...

Mobile-first design is a design process that starts with the smallest screen and builds up to desktop, rather than designing for desktop and shrinking it down. The constraint of th...

A mockup is a static, high-fidelity visual of a webpage, app screen or piece of marketing material. It shows colours, typography, imagery and layout as they will actually appear, b...

Multivariate testing (MVT) is a method of testing multiple page elements at the same time to find which combination performs best. Unlike an A/B test that compares two whole-page v...

The menus, links and structural elements that help users move through a website. Good navigation reduces friction, helps users find what they need quickly, and guides them toward c...

Page speed is how fast a web page loads and becomes usable for a visitor. It covers how quickly the main content appears, how fast the page reacts to taps and clicks, and whether t...

Page speed and conversion describes the relationship between how quickly a web page loads and the share of visitors who complete a desired action on it. Faster pages tend to keep m...

Progressive disclosure is a user experience (UX) design principle where you show only the information or options someone needs right now, then reveal more as they ask for it or mov...

A prototype is a working draft of a website, app or product feature used to test how it looks and behaves before it's actually built. It ranges from simple clickable mockups to nea...

A rage click is when a visitor clicks the same spot on a page rapidly, usually three or more times in quick succession, because something isn't responding the way they expect. It's...

Scroll Depth measures how far down a webpage a visitor scrolls before leaving, tracked as a percentage of the page's total height. It's recorded in tools like Google Analytics 4 (G...

Segment-based personalisation shows different content, offers or messaging to groups of website visitors who share a trait, like location, device or referral source, rather than ta...

Server-side testing is a way of running A/B testing where the variant a visitor sees is decided on the server before the page ever reaches their browser. It's used for tests that i...

Session recording captures and replays the complete browsing behaviour of individual website visitors, including mouse movements, clicks, scroll behaviour and form interactions. It...

Session replay is a tool that records a real visitor's on-page behaviour and plays it back like a video. It captures mouse movement, clicks, scrolling and form interaction so you c...

A skeleton screen is a placeholder layout, usually grey blocks and lines shaped like the content to come, shown while a page or app loads real data. It replaces the older spinner o...

Social proof is evidence that other people have already made a decision and found it worthwhile. It reduces the perceived risk of buying by showing that real customers, credible or...

Social proof placement is the deliberate positioning of trust signals such as reviews, testimonials, logos and user numbers at the exact points where a visitor is hesitating. It is...

Split URL testing is a method of comparing two or more completely separate web pages, each with its own URL, by sending a share of traffic to each. Unlike standard A/B testing, whi...

A trust badge is a small icon or logo placed on a website to reassure a visitor that a purchase, signup or data submission is safe. Common examples include payment provider logos,...

Trust signals are elements on your website or marketing materials that reduce buyer anxiety and increase confidence in your brand. They include reviews, security badges, client log...

Urgency is giving someone a genuine reason to act now rather than later, whether a deadline, limited stock or a closing offer. It works because delay is where most conversions quie...

Usability testing is watching real people try to complete a task on your website or app, then noting where they hesitate, get confused or give up. It's an observational method, not...

User experience (UX) in a marketing context refers to the quality of the interaction a person has with your website or digital product. It encompasses page speed, navigation clarit...

User Interface (UI) refers to the visual and interactive elements of a digital product — buttons, typography, colours, layouts and controls. It is distinct from UX (user experience...

Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of design elements so the eye naturally lands on the most important thing first, then the next most important thing, and so on. It uses size, co...

A wireframe is a simplified, black-and-white layout of a webpage or app screen that shows where elements sit without any colour, imagery or branding. It maps structure and hierarch...