Website Optimization is simply the process of making improvements to your website to increase your organic reach, get higher traffic, and get more conversions. Making changes to your website can not only help you rank your website better, but also create better chances for the visitors on your website to convert into leads. The digital world is changing every second, and it is very easy to become obsolete and lose your standing.
That is when you realize the importance of optimizing your website and making edits to always stay on the top of the game. Website Optimization is not a tough task. When you use a website editor to build your site, you can make all of these basic changes on that platform. Let’s look at how you can optimize your website to get higher traffic and conversions.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Investing in SEO goes a long way for your website. SEO is a long-term strategy, and you need to be patient to see its results. It is not a one-time act but a constant process of continual improvements. SEO consists of the optimization of various aspects of your website to effectively increase search engine ranking and improve crawlability and indexing. The main areas to look into in Search Engine Optimisation would include:
- Strong Keyword Research
- Reducing Bounce Rate
- Increase Page Load Speed
- Fixing any broken links or 404 Pages
- Getting good quality relevant backlinks
- High Word Count, Ideally 2000 words per page
- Adding a Sitemap
There are other aspects that are more technical. You can also get an SEO specialist to look into it for you if you don’t want to spend the time doing research.
Check Website Bounce Rate
Website Bounce Rate is simply the percentage of visitors who entered your site and then left without doing anything. Various factors may cause your bounce rates to go up. It can be the number of advertisements your website has, to the basic readability of your website content. You can check the following factors if they are applicable to your website:
- Keep content up to date
- Interlink blog posts or various pages
- Appropriate anchor text for comfortable navigation
- Linking relevant and popular pages
- Improving featured images for posts
- Reordering posts and category pages to show more recent/popular posts on the top
Many other aspects of the Website may contribute to an increased bounce rate. It’s always a process of trial and error. But identifying and constantly correcting these issues will gradually help you reduce your website bounce rate.
Split Testing aspects of your Website
Split testing your website is simply taking one aspect of your website and testing its performance with two different versions. This will allow you to check every aspect on its own. Split testing can be performed on various things, but the most popular ones include:
- Headlines
- Colors and Themes
- Button Text
- Call to Action
- Images
- Font and Font Size
- Placement of Ads
Creating two different versions and analyzing them will give you insights into what is performing better and gives you higher traffic and conversion!
Keep Website Up to Date
It is obvious that search engines rank up-to-date sites higher than obsolete ones. It is very easy to lose your ranking (and therefore traffic and conversion) if you are not vigilant and proactive about the regular updating of your website. The following things are areas you need to take care of
- Uploading relevant and recent content
- Updating blog content keeping in mind newer Search Engine algorithms
- Fixing all broken links and non-relevant links
- Always keep your social media up to date
Secure Website
The Search engine is more likely to rank a secure website over a moderately secure or a non-secure one. In simpler terms, if your website domain begins with an “http://“ over an “https://” then you are more likely to rank lower than websites with the latter.
Mobile Website Optimization
Most of your viewers come to your website through their mobile phone browsers. Therefore, optimizing your site and making it mobile-friendly is essential in order to cater to all visitors. It is recommended to have a responsive design for your site, which means that the site adjusts itself automatically to fit whatever device the visitor is using. This will make sure that your site is functional and easy to use for all visitors no matter what device they use. A functional and professional-looking website will definitely drive in more conversions and prevent people from getting frustrated and leaving your site.
Strong Call to Action
When we talk about conversions, a strong Call to Action does the trick. Even with the best website, if your call to action is not compelling enough, then you lose the opportunity for getting your potential conversion.
Track and Analyse Your Traffic
Using various tools, you can analyze how your website is performing. You can conduct an SEO audit to find issues with your SEO. You can also try to use various tools online to track your website traffic and understand what demographics they belong to and what type of content they engage with and use that data to plan your content.
