What is a conversion audit? A plain-English guide for store owners
What a conversion (CRO) audit is, what it checks, what it costs, and how AI audits compare with hiring a CRO agency or doing it yourself.
A conversion audit (or CRO audit) is a structured review of a website to find what stops visitors from buying. It checks the first impression, trust signals, navigation, product pages, mobile layout, page speed and checkout, then gives a prioritised list of fixes. Audits can be done by a CRO agency (usually hundreds to thousands of dollars), by yourself with a checklist, or automatically by AI tools such as StorePeek in a couple of minutes.
- An audit tells you what to fix. A/B testing tells you which fix works best. Audit first.
- Good audits rank issues by impact, so you know where to start.
- AI audits are fast and cheap enough to repeat every month. Agency audits go deeper into your analytics and customers.
What a conversion audit checks
A thorough conversion audit looks at your store the way a first-time visitor does, and then the way a sceptical one does. The usual areas are:
| Area | What gets checked |
|---|---|
| First impression | Headline clarity, hero image, call to action above the fold, pop-ups |
| Trust | Reviews, policies, contact details, payment badges, guarantees |
| Navigation | Menu labels, search, filters, dead ends |
| Product pages | Photos, descriptions, pricing clarity, variant selection, add-to-cart visibility |
| Mobile | Readability, tap targets, layout on small screens |
| Speed | Core Web Vitals: LCP, INP, CLS |
| Checkout | Hidden costs, guest checkout, payment options, form friction |
Agency audits also usually dig into your analytics (funnel drop-off, device and traffic-source splits) and sometimes customer surveys.
Conversion audit vs A/B testing
They solve different problems. An audit finds the issues: "your shipping costs are hidden until checkout". An A/B test compares two versions to see which performs better: "free shipping over $50 vs flat $4.95 shipping".
A/B tests need a lot of traffic to give reliable answers. Small and mid-sized stores often don't have enough, which makes an audit, plus fixing the obvious problems, the more practical first step.
Your three options
| DIY checklist | AI audit (e.g. StorePeek) | CRO agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free to $29/month | Typically hundreds to thousands of dollars |
| Time | A few hours | About a minute | Days to weeks |
| Objectivity | Low: you know your store too well | High: fresh eyes every time | High |
| Depth | Depends on you | Homepage and product pages, desktop and mobile | Full funnel, analytics and research |
| Repeatable | Tedious | Monthly re-checks | Costly to repeat |
For most small stores the sensible path is to run an AI audit, fix the high-severity issues, and bring in a specialist once traffic is large enough for testing to pay off. If you prefer to do it yourself, start with our 40-point conversion checklist.
How StorePeek's AI audit works
- 1You paste your store URL. No code, app install or store access is needed.
- 2A real Chrome browser opens your store on desktop and on a phone, captures the first impression, then closes cookie and newsletter pop-ups.
- 3AI reviews the screenshots against a conversion checklist, and Google PageSpeed measures load performance.
- 4You get a friction score, a performance score and a list of issues ranked High, Medium or Low, each with a specific fix.
The free check covers your homepage and shows the top three issues. Premium adds product page analysis, an estimate of sales lost, PDF reports and monthly re-checks. Try it on your store.
What makes an audit actually useful
- Specific fixes, not "improve trust". A good finding says what to change and where.
- Prioritisation. Twenty findings with no order is a to-do list you won't finish.
- Mobile and desktop separately. They fail in different ways.
- Repeatability. Your store changes, so the audit should be easy to run again.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a conversion audit cost?
A DIY audit is free. AI tools range from free to a small monthly fee (StorePeek is free for one audit, then from $9.99 a month). Agency CRO audits typically cost from a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on depth.
How long does a CRO audit take?
An automated AI audit takes a minute or two. A DIY review with a checklist takes a few hours. An agency audit usually takes one to several weeks.
Is a conversion audit the same as an SEO audit?
No. An SEO audit looks at how easily search engines find and rank your pages. A conversion audit looks at what visitors do once they arrive, and why they don't buy. Most stores need both.