The Conversion Patterns That Moved From Best Practice to Table Stakes

Five years ago, adding trust badges near your CTA was a conversion hack. Now it's expected. Skip them and people assume you're sketchy.

That's how CRO works. What used to be an edge becomes the baseline, and if you're not keeping up, you're not just missing out on gains - you're actively losing to competitors who figured it out.

Here's what moved from "nice to have" to "you're losing money without this" in the last few years.

Mobile-first everything. Not responsive as an afterthought but designing for thumbs and small screens from the start, because 70% of your traffic is mobile anyway.

Exit-intent offers that actually solve the problem instead of just screaming "WAIT DON'T GO."

Checkout flows that show progress, don't ask for information twice, and let people edit without going backwards.

The pattern I see failing most often is social proof used badly. You slap testimonials at the bottom of a landing page where nobody scrolls. The useful version puts proof right where people are deciding - next to pricing, in the checkout flow, immediately after the CTA. Context matters more than volume.

None of this is revolutionary but many sites still get it wrong. They optimize for the 2% edge cases while ignoring the 40% of people who bounce because the basics aren't there.