Is your Website Optimized? Here are Some Fundamentals to Consider.

Is your Website Optimized? Here are Some Fundamentals to Consider.

A well optimized website is critical for business growth and expansion. Website optimization refers to a combination of strategies, techniques and methods to ensure your website ranks well on search engines, as well as delivers the optimal experience for its end users. These two components are integral and intertwined. In other words, if a website is technically efficient and delivering value to its intended audience, then the chances increase that it will also turn up more often search results. Search engine optimization (SEO) is field onto itself, so for our purposes we won't go in depth on this topic, but rather speak more broadly about website optimization. This will include some aspects of SEO, but focus more generally on making sure your website is fundamentally and technically sound. Here's what you need to know: 1. Good content – Having good content may seem like an obvious thing, but in a world with over one billion websites and growing, what makes for good content is not always so obvious. At the basic level your content should be well organized, readable, and if possible, somewhat unique. In addition, your content should contain keywords and phrases related to your industry. This is so that your website will show up when potential customers are conducting searches using those same keywords and phrases. As I said, there is an entire industry, SEO, dedicated to this topic. So for our purposes, let us just note that the search engines have gotten smarter over the years. They have begun to filter out the repetitive content. This means that it is no longer enough to simply flood your blog with key words, and hope for the best. When everyone in your industry is already doing just that, striving to make your content truly useful to your audience will help you outrank your competition. 2. Optimizing site speed – Optimizing your website for speed is a key factor for ranking higher on a search engines. Google, for example, favors sites which take the least time to load. The average page load time should be between 2 to 3 seconds. The good news is, with the right tool, optimizing for speed is not all that difficult. GTmetrix is just such a tool, and has quickly become the industry standard for site speed optimization. Load your site's individual pages here and follow the steps to decrease load times. You may have to make a few modifications to image size, for example, but with a little attention and focus, your site will be cruising through cyber space at rocket speed. 3. Responsiveness – Yes, mobile phones have taken over the world. In terms of website interaction, mobile users now account for more than 60% percent of all searches and over 50% of all clicks. This means that if your website isn't sufficiently optimized for mobile use, then you can be missing out on more than half of your audience and customer potential. The search engines, of course, know this and rank your site accordingly. The good news here is that most website builders and templates are made responsive from the get-go. However, taking the time to inspect your site's individual pages for mobile responsiveness can go a long way. Sometimes even a responsive site will need to make some adjustments to ensure an optimal display on mobile devices. Simple things like the order and placement of headings or images, or even text size might need to be modified with the mobile user in mind. For a quick start, try Google's Mobile Friendly Test. 4. Engagement – This brings us full circle and back, once again, to content. While having unique, well organized, content is critical, it's not the only thing search engines are looking for. Engagement, or dwell time, is a key factor within search engine algorithms. There are various ways to measure engagement, from bounce rates to conversation rates, all of which are worth exploring in more depth. However, for our purposes, the critical thing to know here is that bringing a visitor to your website is just the first step. Getting them to stay, interact, subscribe and ultimately purchase should be where your energies are focused. One thing to consider here is does your site have enough CTAs, or Calls-to-Action? In other words, does your site have enough prompts compelling the user to take the next step toward becoming a customer. Or perhaps they aren't quite ready to take that next step. An engagement strategy here would be to employ the use of a chat box. This allows a potential customer to get critical questions answered before they run off to another site out of frustration. Other simple strategies include allowing commenting and links for sharing on social media. Conclusion — Website optimization is a combination of compelling content and some technical fundamentals. With just a little time and attention to some basics, your site will be on the path for increased growth, expansion, and ultimately more sales. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to drop us a line at hello@kleiotechnology.com