S11 · Growth Channels

Website & Conversion Optimisation

Product Pages, Homepage, Checkout, Email Capture

Section 11 / Growth Channels / by Rob Ward

Founder's Principle

Never Done

Optimisation is never finished. Your website is a living thing that shouldn't look the same week to week. Always have tests running. Always be optimising every step of the customer journey. At Quad Lock, 10+ years after launching our original bike mount, we were still working out the best way to sell it. The best images, the best video, the best detail on the product page. It was a continuous process at every level. We were never done; we were always striving to be better.

Key topics covered

Product Page Anatomy and Best Practices
These are typically some of the highest-intent visitors on your site.
Homepage Optimisation
Much of your traffic lands on product pages via organic, review links, ads, Instagram bio and the like. The homepage catches the 20-30% who arrive directly.
Collection Page Optimisation
As your product range grows, more choice can actually mean fewer sales. Customers freeze when they can't figure out which product is right for them.
Email Capture: Popups, Exit Intent, and What Works
Exit-intent popups detect when a visitor is about to leave and trigger a last-chance offer. Results vary - we never had great results with traditional exit-intent at Quad Lock.
Checkout Flow Optimisation
Source: Baymard Institute aggregated research
Cross-Sell & Upsell Implementation
Cross-sells and upsells are the fastest way to increase AOV and deepen the customer relationship in a single session. Done well, they feel like a service. Done badly, they feel like a used car lot.
Mobile-First Design
Nav: Hamburger, prominent search, sticky header with cart count.
Site Speed Essentials
Every 100ms matters.
A/B Testing Framework
Test things that move the needle:
Measuring Conversion Performance
Directional benchmarks - vary by category and traffic source.

Rob's take

I see founders spend way too much money and time on their website pre-launch, thinking everything has to be perfect before they go live. The reality? You're not even in a position to build the perfect website yet because you don't know enough. You haven't had real customers use it, you haven't seen where they drop off, you don't know what messaging actually resonates.

What you need is something you're not too precious about. Something you can get out there and start learning from. As you learn, you'll rip it apart, rebuild it, tweak it, test it. That's the process. Spending a lot of money trying to get it perfect from day one is not the best strategy.

Get something that's good and serviceable, that you're proud to put out there, but know it's going to look very different a week, a month, a year from now. The website you launch with is the worst version of your website you'll ever have. That's the point.

This section walks through the parts of the website that move conversion most, from product pages and cart flow to homepage structure, email capture, and the testing cadence behind it.

5-8 images. Hero, lifestyle, close-ups, scale, packaging
Zoom on hover (desktop). Variant-linked. Swipeable mobile
Videos a must for complex products

For more on video as an acquisition tool, see Section 13: Meta Ads - Setup & Infrastructure.

Above fold, high contrast, 44px+ height
Sticky on mobile - often lifts conversion materially, especially on longer PDPs
Clear label - "Add to Cart", nothing clever

At Quad Lock, we found that having multiple add-to-cart buttons on desktop and a persistent add-to-cart button on mobile greatly increased our ATC rate - especially since our buying journey was fairly involved. The key insight: don't force the user through every possible option before they see an active add-to-cart button. You can always upsell and cross-sell on the cart page without overwhelming them on the product page. Get them to commit first.

Star rating + count above fold, clickable to reviews
Full reviews below fold, photos first
Build volume on hero SKUs fast consider higher frequency of review request emails initially.

Tip: if you have multiple variants, make sure reviews are grouped at the product level, not split across individual variants.

Opening: What it does, who it's for
4-6 benefit bullets: Outcomes, not specs
Expandable specs: For those who want detail
3-5 FAQs: Handle objections

Returns, shipping, security badges. Stock indicators only if truthful.

Free access · No subscription

Keep reading in the full playbook.

All 30 sections, the diagnostic Health Check, 400+ checklist items, and 8 tools. Free and always will be.

Open the full playbook

What you'll walk away with

Pass Core Web Vitals on mobile for the homepage, collection, PDP, and cart templates.
Heatmap/session recording tool active (Hotjar or Clarity)
Hero section answers: what you sell, who it's for, why it matters
Single primary CTA above the fold
Show quantified social proof on key buying pages.
Price and star rating visible on every product tile
Filtering by price, colour, size, product type
Upload 5-8 conversion-focused media assets to every hero PDP.
Video for complex or hero products
Star rating and review count above the fold

Website & Conversion Optimisation

Never Done

Key topics covered

Keep reading in the full playbook.

What you'll walk away with

Related sections