The Client
A solo-operated residential drywall repair and repainting service in Upstate New York. Services include drywall repair, interior painting, popcorn-ceiling removal, and wallpaper removal. Acquisition runs through Google Local Service Ads after a previous SEO attempt was discontinued over poor-quality backlinks. Target market: residential, non-commercial homeowners.
The Challenge
The site was leaking conversions at every major friction point. Traffic was arriving — it just wasn’t converting.
- Conversion rate: 1.1% baseline headline; 2.57% audit-period average.
- 30% of users bounced before scrolling; 0–10% scroll depth on desktop.
- Hero section held 78% of session time but drove minimal action; a desktop dead-click sat on the hero image.
- Form lived on a separate page — broke user flow; ~33% reached the form page, only a fraction completed.
- Mobile = 50% of traffic but the site was under-optimized for mobile.
- Page Speed (mobile): Main Page 63/100, Form Page 55/100, Drywall Repair 55/100 (ideal 90–100).
- Main Page Mobile LCP: 5.3s (ideal ≤2.5s).
The Strategy & Methodology
Prism3’s 8-Phase CRO Audit Framework — a forensic methodology that isolates every conversion leak in sequence before any recommendation is written.
- Kickoff Discovery — business model, audience, pain points, technical access.
- Analytics Baseline — GA4 + Microsoft Clarity.
- Page Speed Audit — Google PageSpeed Insights across 7 pages, mobile + desktop.
- CRO & UX Audit — page-by-page review.
- Competitive Analysis — 4 competitors audited.
- Heatmaps & Session Recordings — Microsoft Clarity.
- A/B Testing recommendations — framework for post-implementation validation.
- Final consolidated audit report with prioritized recommendations.
Tool Stack: Microsoft Clarity, GA4, Google PageSpeed Insights, Google Tag Manager.
Key findings (P0/P1/P2)
- [P0] Form on a separate page → popup overlay to retain flow.
- [P0] Generic hero tagline → rewrite with first-person CTA + credibility metrics.
- [P0] Mobile page speed critically failing — Main Page Mobile LCP 5.3s vs 2.5s target.
- [P1] No scroll incentive; generic CTA text → “Get My Free Quote”; two overlapping service sections → merge.
- [P2] Footer external link removed; mobile spacing inconsistencies fixed.
Competitive insight: the simplest competitors outperformed the complex ones. Winning pattern — single-page layout + strong hero + simple popup form + good visuals + minimal text.
The Results
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversion Rate | 1.1% | 3.2% | +85% |
| Timeframe | Pre-audit baseline | 14 days post-implementation | — |
Why It Worked
- Form friction eliminated — moving the form from a separate page to a popup overlay removed a full-page redirect. The form IS the conversion; where it lives matters more than what’s inside it.
- Hero rebuilt — first-person CTA + credibility metrics + clear hierarchy. 78% of session time was spent here — that’s 78% of the CRO opportunity.
- Mobile-first execution — 50% of traffic was mobile; fixing mobile doubled the conversion surface immediately.
- Competitor benchmarking — the best patterns from 4 competitors combined into one page.
Key Takeaways
- The form IS the conversion — placement matters more than contents.
- 78% of session time on hero = 78% of your CRO opportunity in one section.
- Mobile page speed is not optional — 5.3s LCP is a conversion killer.
- Competitor audits reveal the floor AND the ceiling — benchmark before building.
- 8 phases sounds like overkill until you see the 85% lift in 14 days.