Do you ever wonder if your website is working as well as it should be? Well, if a website isn’t optimized for your audience, your business could be missing out on sales! Website optimization should be a recurring part of your brand strategy, and something you do consistently to improve your site’s performance and your user’s experience.
A well-rounded approach to website optimization will improve your traffic flow, conversion rates, search engine performance and more.
Ready to focus on website optimization? This guide explains how to determine whether you need to improve your site and where to focus your efforts when you do start implementing site updates.
What is website optimization?
On a basic level, website optimization is making improvements to your site so that it performs well and your visitors are able to seamlessly navigate through it. However, if you’re looking for a more specific definition, Optimizely suggests that website optimization is the process of using controlled experimentation to improve a website’s ability to drive business goals.
Every business should have clear objectives and goals for their website. In order to achieve them, the site needs to function properly. Website optimization helps you do just that.
How do I know if my website needs to be optimized?
Before we review the places on your site that could be improved, let’s first determine if you even need to worry about website optimization. Your website needs to be optimized if you are running a business and you have a website. Yup, that’s right. All websites can be—and should be—optimized and maintained on a regular basis.
An initial design and setup is not enough effort to have the best website possible for your business. Unlike other tasks that only need to be done once or twice—like connecting Google Analytics or updating your contact information—optimizing your website is an ongoing process.
The simplest reason why optimization is important is because it helps your website perform as well as it could. It also makes it easier for your visitors and customers to accomplish what you want them to do when they visit your site.
Think of the conversions you want from your website visitors. It might be buying directly on site or booking a discovery call. A well-optimized site makes it easier to guide your website visitors toward doing just that in a way that feels easy and makes them a lot more confident about moving forward.
5 Areas of Your Website To Optimize
Let’s break down optimization into realms of what you could consider optimizing when looking at a specific page of your site (or section of your site–blog, portfolio, etc.). While these lists aren’t everything to consider, hopefully it will spark more experiments to run!
1. Website Content
One way to approach website optimization is to focus on the words written on the site’s pages and posts. Questions to ask yourself might include:
Is anything missing or unclear?
It’s vital to communicate anything your website visitors need to know that helps them determine if they want to buy from you or connect to learn more about working together. If your site is unclear or missing information, it might be time to call in a copywriter for help. A good article on the subject comes from my friend Erin, who hosts the Talk Copy to Me podcast. Her article reviewing the difference between a rewrite and an edit provides a good headspace to get into as you go to look at your content.
Are you using headings appropriately?
Heading structure and hierarchy of content is one of the easiest things to fix on a webpage, while also offering the most effective change for your user experience. Make sure you’re only using one H1 on each page. Consider your hierarchy and make sure your H4s are nested under H3s that are nested under H2s.
Do you have social proof?
Adding testimonials that are up-to-date, or recent publications and media attention, can be a great way to give your services and talents some clout.
Is your text formatted in the best way?
Text can be formatted in a variety of ways on the internet. Experiment with the different ways to do it so that your audience can consume it easily and quickly.
2. Website Imagery
Media on your webpage can be helpful to communicate big ideas, show off skills and style, add personality, and even provide social proof. Media can also come in many forms: photos, graphics, illustrations, videos, carousels, slideshows, etc.. Questions to optimize your media might include:
Are your images current?
Displaying your most current work will always be your best sales tool. Are there better images or visual aids that could interpret your content and display it more effectively?
Are the website images on your page and in your content all your own?
It’s important to be careful with any outside images you use on your website. Keep all of your licensing information for any third-party images—even ones that are free. It could be years from now that a lawyer reaches out asking you to prove that you are allowed to use that image. Best practice is to always use and take your own. I know I love myself a good brand photo shoot!
Would a video better communicate any of the information?
Video is a great way to educate or show more behind-the-scenes content. If you have access to quality video, embed them on the page if it makes sense to. Just don’t overload your site with videos.
Do all of your images have alt text set up?
Alt text on images can greatly help your SEO efforts, but remember the real reason to use them is to improve accessibility for individuals who use screen readers to access web content. Clearly describe what the image entails, and if you can add natural SEO phrases in that description, great. If not, don’t stuff them in there.
3. Calls to Action
Assuming that you want your reader to take an action step after visiting your page, how often is that action being taken? If we take the number of times someone takes the action and divide it by the number of people that have viewed the page–we get conversion! A conversion rate to be more specific. Let’s optimize the ask with the intention of increasing that conversion. Questions to ask yourself might include:
Do you have a clear call-to-action (CTA) on the page?
Every webpage should have a singular focus–the main action you want your visitor to take. Be sure this is clear and guides the reader to take the next step.
Could you use more calls-to-action (CTAs) on the page, or a secondary suggestion?
While it’s great to sell, sell, sell and be clear about the fact that you are selling, sometimes a site visitor isn’t quite ready and a secondary CTA could offer the chance to capture that visitor’s information for a newsletter or a follow-up article.
Are all of your ARIA labels set up on all of your buttons?
An ARIA label tells a website visitor that a button exists and if it is about to jump them to a new webpage. Want to learn more about ARIA labels? Here’s a blog post that explains what they are and why you should use them.
4. The Back End
Simply put, I would say this section should just be “Call Alison at tiny blue orange!” 🤪 She is my developer extraordinaire who will get your site running so smoothly and securely. Alas, if you have your own dev superstar, you might ask them:
Are my website images loading as quickly as they can?
Make sure your images are compressed and small (aka quick to load). Alison also has a great article on page speed and image optimization. Take a peek to learn why these are so important for any website. https://tinyblueorange.com/improving-your-blog-images-and-site-speed/
How many plugins are you loading?
Things can get technical when it comes to plugin bloat and excess scripts running on your site (jargon–right?! bleh). If I could oversimplify for just a minute, are there any plugins that you could remove from your site without messing with the function and beauty of your site? Not just deactivate, but delete!
Is your host the right choice for your website’s needs?
Also technical, but a good host is like finding the right plot of land for your garden. Think: succulents grow best in a sandy and gravelly base, whereas vegetables want more nutrient-rich crumbly soil. (Definitely a question for Alison or your Developer!)
Are you using an effective cache system?
A cache system can be a great way to speed up your website. It works by storing a snapshot of your site to load from memory.
5. The “Robots” (AIO, GEO, SEO, etc.)
Again, I want to touch on this from a zoomed-out lens. There are new generations of “robots” being born every day. The modern robot search, aka the AI bots, is quite different from the older bots of just a year or so ago (SEO bots). Yet, both are very important to optimizing your site. Here are a few questions that could help us with all types of bots:
Are your content intentions clear?
It is important to write page content for a specific topic, a curated keyword, or a frequently searched phrase that you know your audience is seeking out. As an example, this entire blog post is about website optimization. The content doesn’t divert and address other types of web design topics on a tangent.
For local businesses, is your content consistent with your GMB content?
Google My Business is a great source of authority for your business. Be sure that content posted on your website matches your profile, and use the content to supply your profile with even more!
Have you directly answered any questions your audience may have on the subject?
People are searching with questions and prompts that require answers. If you know they are asking a question, build it into your copy and answer it directly. You might have an edge over another site that isn’t so direct. Test it out!
6 Simple Steps To Optimizing A Website:
1. Determine your goal for website optimization
What exactly are you looking to optimize and/or improve? It is important to have very specific and clear goals for your website in order to take the right steps to get there. So, you will need to decide what needs improving—or what needs optimizing. Some examples are:
- Performance (i.e. gallery load time or layout)
- Conversion Rates (i.e. visitors compared to the number of new leads or subscribers)
- Search Engine Results / Rankings (i.e. what does your homepage’s google description say?)
- AI Bot Traffic (ie. would you like more traffic from AI sources? )
- Overall Traffic Sources (ie. do you want more visitors google search?)
- Traffic Flow (i.e. can you highlight more areas of your website to your page visitors?)
- Quality Leads (i.e. how are your services positioned?)
2. Ask and observe your audience
What is your current starting place? Before you begin making adjustments and trying to measure growth, first assess and document where you’re starting from. Take a good look at the current and past data and analytics. This will help you be aware of your audience’s behavior and accurately track growth.
3. Seek out inspiration
One of the best ways to consistently breathe fresh life into your site and optimize it is to get inspired. I suggest looking at other websites, your competitors, drawing inspiration from your own imagination and taking audience requests into consideration.
All of these elements can guide you to making effective changes to your website.
4. Execute small changes as a test
Before you make a lot of changes and spend a lot of time, you need to test things out. This could be making a small update to content on a page (photo or text), or it could be optimizing metadata for search engines to comb through. Another tweak you can try is even swapping one plugin for another.
5. Track and analyze the website optimization results
The final step in the ongoing process of website optimization is to track and analyze the results. Are you tracking data via Google Analytics, or do you need other tools like heat mapping, surveys, focus groups?
It is incredibly helpful to have the right tools to track the results of your hard work! When you have the right applications and tactics in place, you can analyze what’s working in your website optimization strategy and what’s not.
6. Profit from your optimization efforts
Let’s be real, this is the ultimate goal! Optimizing your website is an ongoing strategy intended to improve the overall conversion rate and performance of your website. When that happens effectively, your conversions, leads, and sales should all improve as well!
In an effort to be truly real, sometimes doing an optimization might not move the needle for the goal that you set (in Step 1). So we can go back to the drawing board and try a few other optimizations for your goal. And, sometimes that does mean a complete redesign or restructuring of your website.
If you have a gut feeling that starting fresh is best for you, let’s talk it out together and consider all of the facets involved. After all, while a website can be a powerful tool for your business, it’s not the only one.
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