What Is Website Optimization and
What Can You Do With It?
Think about the last time you wanted to search for something on the internet. Maybe you were looking for a news story or the best place to take your elephant for painting classes.
Searching is the easiest part. You simply choose your preferred search engine (which is most likely Google) and type in what you want. In less than a second, you are greeted by hundreds if not thousands of results.
As an average consumer, you’re not going to scroll through each and every result to read all the details. In fact, you probably won’t even get to page two. Those appearing at the top of your search results are going to be where your attention lies. You’ll maybe get outside of the top five of results, but more than likely you’ll be sticking to the top choices.
All websites are competing for those top spots and if you have an online business, you should be too. People want fast and easy results and the best way to provide that for them is by being a top choice on the search results.
Website optimization is one of the best ways to ensure you’re at the top of those results. A better placement equals more traffic which equals more business for you. It’s a trend that’s here to stay.
In this article, we’re going to dive into what website optimization is, why it’s important, and what you can do with it.
What is Website Optimization?
You might have a pretty clear guess already. Website optimization is all about making your website work well for users. It’s a broad word that covers a handful of factors, like website speed, relevance, readability, content, design, link-building, and more.
You may also see it written as SEO, search engine optimization, as both are the same.
All of those factors are going to help boost your website to the top. Remember, landing on the front page is incredibly important, the top five even more so.
Is Website Optimization Important?
Yes, it’s incredibly important. A business without a proper website is a lost business. A business with a website without proper optimization is a business that isn’t lost, but just a bit confused.
Many businesses believe they can rely on paid ads or offline marketing to drive up their business. Those facets should not be ignored and can be capitalized on by proper research and execution. But they can be costly and time-consuming.
If you are running an online business, like an ecommerce store, then optimizing your website means you’ll be bringing in customers organically.
So, How Do I Optimize My Website?
The million dollar question! We’re not going to lie to you and say we have all the answers because we don’t (and someone is hiding the magic 8-ball in the office again). There are tons of videos, tutorials, articles, and books out there that deep dive into the subject.
We’ve rounded up a couple of beginner’s tips for you to get started.
Proper Titles and Descriptions
There’s going to be content on your site, so you want to make sure it’s all relevant information. If you’re in the business of selling socks, you’re going to want to use a lot of keywords related to the socks industry. This starts with your domain. If you are a sock company, wouldn’t it be nice to have the domain socks.com or something similar?
Keywords are exactly what they sound like, relevant words to your business. The easiest tool to use is Google’s Keyword Planner. It’s free and will give you a great base to start from.
You’ll also want to make sure and have relevant titles that make searching easy. Make sure to use easy, conversational language in your content pieces. This will make it easier for users and search engine crawlers.
Constant Testing
You wouldn’t buy a new home theater service before the big game and set it up right before everyone comes. You’d want to test it out to make sure the sound comes out of all the speakers and the picture is crystal clear.
One of the things you can do is run a website audit, which tests every aspect of your website that is important to optimization. You’re going to be making a number of changes, and you want to make sure they’re working.
Make it Fast
No one wants a slow page and a surefire way to make sure no one stays on your website is by having slow loading. Slow loading is going to increase your bounce rate, which is the rate of people who visit your website and then immediately leave without clicking on anything else.
Website speed is vital for optimization, as it shows your website is more trustworthy and reliable. Strive to be the hare and not the tortoise.
Publish Regular Content
Can you believe 2014 was five years ago? Your search engine sure can and that’s why your website isn’t relevant anymore!
Be publishing regular content on your site, whether it’s updates about promotions, newsletters, videos, etc. A more active website shows search engines and users that your website is up-to-date and still relevant. Be sure to build up internal links as well, linking content pieces together.
However…
Don’t just stop at publishing content.
In order to make sure people see it, you need to do outreach to promote your content. Outreach can be done on social media, to your email list, or by putting together a link building plan. Link building is no easy task, so if you are newer to the concept, be sure to check out “The Definitive {Process-Driven} Guide to Building Links in 2020” for great introduction to link building.
A method some people use is to search for broken links on third-party websites and contact their webmaster to offer a replacement link - to their own site! But this is hard work and not very productive as this video explains...
Video by SEO link builder Julian Goldie
As a rule of thumb, 20% of the time should go to producing the content and 80% to promoting it. While this is not literally, it does nicely illustrate the importance of working to promote your content.
Final Thoughts
The more you get into website optimization, the more things you will uncover. With over 200 ranking factors considered by Google, there is always more to learn. Remember to first focus on the basics - content and content promotion, while you master the rest.