Conversion rate

Updated 2026-11-02

Definition

Conversion rate is the share of people who complete a goal, such as signing up, requesting a demo or paying. The formula is conversions divided by the people who had the chance to convert.

The denominator matters. Some tools divide by sessions. Others divide by visitors. The same site can report two different rates, so always check which one you're reading.

Example

This example uses made-up numbers. Your site gets 20,000 visitors and 26,000 sessions in a month, and 500 of those visitors sign up.

• By visitor: 500 / 20,000 = 2.5%
• By session: 500 / 26,000 = 1.9%

Now split by source. Organic search converts at 3% on 12,000 visitors, which is 360 signups. Paid social converts at 1.75% on 8,000 visitors, which is 140 signups. The overall 2.5% hides that gap.

Reading it well

Small samples mislead. Going from 2 signups out of 100 visitors to 3 out of 100 is a 50% lift, and it could easily be chance. Wait for enough traffic before you act, or run a controlled test.

Rate also isn't the whole story. A landing page might double signups and bring in people who never pay. Follow conversions through to revenue where you can.

How Headstream measures it

In Headstream, you set a goal as a page path or a custom event. Conversion rate is converting visitors divided by all visitors in the period. The goals report shows conversions, converting visitors and the rate for each goal. A visitor who converts three times counts as three conversions but one converting visitor.

Bots are left out. To find where people drop off before converting, build a funnel. The goals docs show how to create one with the dashboard, API or MCP server.