Hi, I'm Chris — a web designer, brand strategist, and the person who spent far too much time reading conversion studies so you didn't have to.
Over the past several years, I've worked with businesses across a wide range of industries, helping them improve their websites, strengthen their messaging, and generate more enquiries online. Like many people in this industry, I was surrounded by advice. Some of it useful. Some of it questionable. And some of it so confidently delivered that I assumed there must be evidence behind it. Sometimes there was. Often there wasn't.
That's what led to Conversion Science. I wanted to understand what actually influences buying decisions online — not opinions, not trends, not whatever LinkedIn is excited about this week, but evidence.
This site is where I share that work. Research notes, articles, and insights drawn from behavioural science, psychology, and the study of how people make decisions online. The goal is simple: to help you see your website through the eyes of the people who matter most — your visitors.
Latest Articles
The Hidden Cost of Uncertainty: Why Your Website Bleeds Revenue
Most optimisation advice focuses on button colours and headline tweaks. But the real money is in removing the quiet, invisible doubt that makes visitors hesitate.
Trust & PersuasionWhy Social Proof Backfires (And What To Do Instead)
Everyone tells you to add testimonials. But poorly executed social proof actually increases uncertainty. Here's how to do it right.
Conversion StrategyThe Priority Framework: Where To Focus Your Optimisation Efforts
Not all optimisation has equal returns. Learn how to identify the changes that will actually move the needle — and which ones are a waste of time.
Research Notes
The 30 Minute Conversion Audit
Grab a coffee. Open your website. And work through these four questions. If you can't answer any of them clearly, that's where your conversion problems live. Don't try to fix everything at once. Pick the biggest gap and start there.
Read MoreHow To Test Changes Properly
Changing five things at once then trying to work out what worked is one of the easiest mistakes in conversion optimisation. The more variables you introduce, the harder it becomes to learn anything useful. Good tests are boring, focused and controlled.
Read MoreThe Conversion Science Priority Framework
Let's imagine your website isn't converting. What should you fix first? The button? The colours? The testimonials? The answer follows a clear pattern based on the research. Start with Clarity, then Trust, then Friction, then Offer, and finally CTA optimisation.
Read MoreUrgency Without Being Annoying
Urgency works — the research is fairly consistent on that. But the problem isn't urgency. The problem is fake urgency. And the internet is absolutely full of it. The moment people realise your urgency isn't real, trust disappears.
Read MoreCTAs Are Not Magic
Button text does matter. Just not nearly as much as people think. Changing the button doesn't solve any of the fundamental uncertainty problems visitors face. A CTA isn't there to persuade somebody. A CTA is there to guide somebody who's already decided.
Read MorePricing, Offers & Decision Making
People don't necessarily want more options. They want easier decisions. The most effective pricing pages don't just present choices — they help people make them. The curse of too much choice creates paralysis, not excitement.
Read MoreMake Choosing Easy
The highest converting offers weren't always the cheapest. They weren't always the most persuasive. And they definitely weren't always the most clever. They were often the easiest to choose. People don't just need options. They need guidance.
Read MoreForms: The Silent Conversion Killer
Every field asks the visitor for something — their time, their effort, their attention. The more you ask for, the harder the task becomes. Baymard's research found that many checkout forms ask for significantly more information than they actually need.
Read MoreThe Friction Audit
Most conversion problems aren't caused by a single catastrophic mistake. They're usually caused by lots of small things. A click here, a form field there, an unnecessary step somewhere else. None of them feel significant on their own. Together, they create enough friction to stop people moving forward.
Read MoreWhat Happens Next?
One of the biggest themes in the research was friction. Not the dramatic kind. The small kind. Every extra click, every extra field, every extra decision creates a little more friction. And friction gives people an opportunity to leave.
Read More