A killer website can be the difference between a potential customer choosing your business or clicking away to a competitor.
Despite what drag-and-drop web builders may want us to think, a killer website is born when key strategies work together to optimize the whole product.
Website optimization is really not as simple as dragging and dropping.
What’s it all about then?
Get a pro-level glimpse website optimization
Website optimization comes from an interconnected series of carefully planned tactics — and it’s maintained through careful analytics. Focus on these 5 tactics, and you’ll be optimizing like a Pro.
Google PageSpeed Score
Does your website load in under 2 seconds? Or, do visitors watch a rainbow swirl for a while? Slow load times can frustrate visitors and lead to a high bounce rate, which negatively impacts your website’s overall performance.
Your website’s load time is tied to your Google Page Speed Score. Check your website’s score on PageSpeed Insights.
Then, to detect performance issues, go to GTmetrix, which provides a comprehensive analysis of your website’s speed and performance.
Your analysis will include things like:
- Page load times
- Page size
- Structure deficiencies
- And more!
Address issues identified in your report, and you’ll provide visitors with a seamless and enjoyable experience. This will ultimately increase the likelihood of converting them into customers.
Pro Tip: Aim for a Score of 90 or above on both desktop and mobile devices.
Cohesive Use of Branding
Let’s be honest, your website is your “digital business card.” It’s crucial to make sure it accurately represents your business; in other words, be sure it’s “on brand.”
What does “on brand” mean, and how does it optimize your website?
“On brand” means that your website ties together all elements of your brand identity in a cohesive, unified way. Your logo, color palette, typography, and tone of voice are all consistent and appealing, which creates a recognizable and unforgettable brand identity.
Take a look at the way your small business’ website reflects your brand identity. Can you identify the following branding tactics?
- Brand colors are balanced appropriately
- Brand typography includes no more than 2 fonts
- Design elements are directly tied to the brand identity
- Logo is properly used, in correct formats
Cohesive use of branding isn’t just nice to look at – it also is a key player in optimizing your website.
Pro Tip: Develop your brand identity with free tools like Miro and Canva. Identify great ideas, weed out the weak ones, build a concept map and collaborate with your team!
Clear SEO Strategy
Next up, build an excellent SEO strategy so your website will be the talk of the town. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a complicated process that helps users discover your website.
If you pay close attention to at least these three elements, you’ll lay a strong foundation for great SEO.
- Optimize each page around a single keyword. By doing this, search engines can quickly understand what your page is all about and rank it appropriately for relevant searches.
- Use only necessary plugins. Too many plugins can hurt your website’s performance and make it less attractive to search engines.
- Optimize your content. Incorporate keywords into page titles, subheadings, and body content in a natural way. Be sure to include a lot of white space, and use concise sentences. Finally, make sure meta descriptions are clear, descriptive, and include your page’s key word.
Pro Tip: Include internal and external links appropriately, to improve the navigational experience. When you add external links, make sure you avoid linking to the site of a direct competitor, and click the option to open the link in a new tab. This will keep your website open too!
Excellent User Experience
If visitors land on your website, is it easy to navigate? Do all functions work properly? Your website should give users a “friction-less” experience, which means it’s easy to understand, navigate, and use to their benefit.
Think of your website as your home, and your visitors as your guests. You want to make sure they feel welcome and at ease when they engage with your website.
Three first steps will help create a great user experience:
- Organize your website clearly. Start by ensuring your menu is easily navigated. For example, include the topics that users expect, such as “About,” “Services,” “Resources,” “Blog,” and “Contact.” Be sure that any pages in a dropdown menu are logically organized.
- Design your website appropriately. A well-designed website immediately welcomes visitors in, encouraging them to stay and explore. If your website looks like a yard sale, visitors will bounce faster than a rubber ball. Choose legible fonts and colors that aren’t hard on the eyes, and avoid overwhelming your visitors with too much information.
- Make sure all functions work properly. This can be as simple as verifying that all buttons, links, and CTAs direct the user to the proper place. Monitor this regularly to ensure you fix broken links quickly. For more complicated sites like e-commerce, be sure to take the steps that your customers will take as they use functions to make purchases. Is the process smooth and understandable? Is it optimized for mobile?
By providing a great user experience, you’ll keep visitors engaged, boost retention rates, and increase the likelihood of positive word-of-mouth.
Pro Tip: Ask focus groups to use your website and try all of its functions. You’ll get real, on-the-ground advice from people just like your audience!
Healthy Content Marketing Strategy
A healthy content marketing strategy involves more than a regular blog. Content marketing includes all your web copy, lead generation materials, video marketing, infographics – and yes, your blog, too.
Optimize your website’s content marketing strategy with these 4 tactics:
- Make sure your content is relevant and fresh.
- Implement keywords naturally.
- Publish blogs consistently.
- Produce lead generation materials, such as white papers, infographics, or e-books.
- Speak directly to your target audience.
These tactics will help you establish your brand as an authority, generate quality leads, engage customers and build awareness.
Pro Tip: Focus on quality over quantity. Don’t just churn out content for the sake of it – focus on crafting content that speaks to your audience and adds value.
Link Building Strategy
Links, links, links! A robust link building strategy will help you strengthen visibility and drive traffic back to your site.
To increase visibility, first make sure your own web copy is valuable. This will increase the possibility that other sites will link to your site in their content, otherwise known as “backlinking.” If you notice that a site mentions your business, but fails to link to your website, send them a message to request an appropriate backlink.
To drive traffic back to your website, publish guest posts on relevant third party websites. Also, engage on social media in a constructive way. Add valuable comments to posts in your target industry and market. By sharing your expertise on other platforms, you will direct interest to your website.
Pro Tip: Publish valuable infographics on your site. Give users permission to repost it on their platforms with a link back to your site as the source.
Want to Save Your Valuable Time?
Feeling a bit sour about your website, but don’t have the time to optimize it properly?
Let us add some zest!
Spicy Lemon Marketing’s professional website optimization services can invigorate stale websites or create an optimized, fresh digital home from the get-go. Contact us today!
