Also called a marketing, or sales funnel.

An analogy used to depict the journey your users take as they move through your website, acquiring your company’s products, or services.

The overarching idea is that, once in your conversion funnel, prospective customers go through distinct stages in which they decide whether or not to obtain your company’s products or services.

The image of a funnel aptly represents how traffic dwindles as visitors move through each stage of your website. Compared to those who initially landed on your site, only a small percentage may make it to the final stage.

Those who do make it through the final stage -- whether it be completing a purchase or signing up for a newsletter, for example -- have completed the conversion; they've made it all the way through the funnel.

The goal in Conversion Rate Optimization is to remove the bottlenecks and effectively widen the funnel so more traffic converts.