What is website optimization
Website optimization involves utilizing tools, employing advanced strategies, and conducting experiments to enhance your website’s performance, subsequently boosting traffic, boosting conversions, and increasing revenue.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial aspect of website optimization, emphasizing the achievement of high rankings for specific keywords in the SERPs and facilitating easy discovery of your brand by potential customers.
On-page optimization is another crucial aspect to consider. By implementing this technique, your website can provide a superior user experience to prospects, motivating them to take the desired action and ultimately convert into a lead.
By optimizing your website, you can access an untapped market without having to pay for advertising, which will lead to more conversions and increased revenue.
But, while SEO is an essential part of website optimization, it’s not the end-all-be-all of optimization.
By optimizing your website for real people, you can establish trust with your visitors, begin to cultivate a relationship, and enable product sales without the need for sales calls. Taking a holistic approach to website optimization involves incorporating several disciplines to ensure optimal performance in all aspects of your website.
- SEO
- Copywriting
- Analytics
- UX Design (Frontend)
- Web Development (Backend)
- CRO/Landing Page Optimization.
If your main goal is to increase sales and leads from your current website visitors, it is recommended that you refer to our in-depth guide on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) instead.
Why is website optimization important
Over the past decade, there has been a shift towards consumers using the internet to make purchasing decisions and buy products. In 2020, global eCommerce sales reached nearly $4.29 trillion. In 2021, retail eCommerce sales increased to around $5.2 trillion, and it is predicted that this figure will increase by up to 56% in the coming years.
The internet is now widely used to search for information on local businesses, with 46% of all Google searches focused on local intent. Additionally, 78% of local mobile searches ultimately lead to purchases made offline. This trend also extends to locating software companies, B2B enterprises, and various other entities.
By positioning your business correctly, you can consistently turn people who had previously never heard of your company into customers, as the internet is replacing the role of “asking a friend” in all industries.
If you fail to optimize your website and content, the number of people searching for terms related to your business becomes irrelevant. Your site will not appear in the search results, meaning your website and business will go unnoticed by everyone.
When you optimize for search, you ensure that your website and business appear in the search results when consumers look for relevant terms, thereby placing yourself on the map.
By mastering Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you will generate targeted traffic from interested buyers.
Optimizing for search alone is not sufficient; growing traffic without appealing to potential customers will result in visitors bouncing from your website without making any purchases.
In order to take advantage of the traffic, it is necessary to enhance both the user experience and the efficiency of your conversion funnels.
By mastering Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), you maximize the number of leads and sales you generate from paid and organic traffic.
Another benefit that is often not considered is the potential for website optimization to contribute to environmental conservation. Therefore, by engaging in optimization practices, you can actively contribute towards minimizing the carbon emissions associated with your website.
How to optimize your website step-by-step
The principles used in conversion rate optimization also apply to website optimization, and it is grounded in the scientific method.
First, identify the goal of optimizing your website. Each business type will have its own unique objectives to focus on. For instance, if you manage an eCommerce site, determining methods to enhance sales and boost average order values (AOV) would be essential.
In order to accomplish this, the website owner will perform both quantitative and qualitative research on the crucial pages of the website that have an impact on the ultimate objective of the site.
The homepage is a prime location for conducting A/B tests because it is where a significant amount of website traffic is directed initially. Ensuring that visitors grasp the company’s offerings right away and can navigate to the next step (by clicking) is crucial.
To improve your objective, start by identifying the main goal. Then, analyze the under-performing aspects on the web page and develop a hypothesis to test how these elements can enhance conversion rates.
Formulate a list of variables that will be examined in your experiment. These variables can be modified in different ways and implemented as experiments using an A/B split testing tool.
Perform the experiment and ensure that you collect a sufficient amount of data to obtain statistically significant conclusions. It is crucial to avoid relying on inconclusive data sets for making business decisions.
First, measure the results to determine if the changes to the website element have resulted in an improvement. Next, draw conclusions based on the measured results. Finally, iterate based on the conclusions drawn.
One can use a winning variation as the new baseline and continuously test it as more ideas for improvement are generated. Even a losing test serves as a valuable learning opportunity and offers guidance on the next steps to take in the optimization process.
If website optimization is done correctly, it can provide numerous measurable business benefits. Initially, the process of website optimization evaluates which version of web page elements is most effective in assisting visitors in achieving a specific objective.
Optimization enhances the website’s ability to effectively convert visitor traffic into email subscribers, readers, or paying customers. Consequently, this improved efficiency results in a higher return on investment for customer acquisition and traffic-generating campaigns including web searches, Google AdWords, social media, and email marketing.
The goals of website optimization
The goals of a website depend on the type of business, its target customers, and the desired action from the audience, which could be making a purchase, filling out a form, or reading an article. Conversions, or the number of audience members who complete a specific action, also reflect the desired action of a visitor to a website.
In this example, we will be going step by step to rephrase the given text while keeping the meaning intact. Please note that no new information should be added, and no information should be removed. Original text: “I went to the store to buy groceries because I needed food for the week.” Step 1: “Because I needed food for the week, I visited the store to purchase groceries.” Step 2: “I visited the store to purchase groceries because I required food for the week.” Step 3: “Due to the need for food throughout the week, I went to the store in order to buy groceries.” Step 4: “In order to obtain food for the week, I decided to visit the store and purchase groceries.” Step 5: “The reason behind my trip to the store was to purchase groceries as I needed food for the entire week.”
- An online publication practices website optimization with the conversion goal of increasing the number of articles visitors read.
- An online store optimizes its website to encourage completion of checkouts and repeat purchases.
- An online software company optimizes its website to improve the rate at which visitors sign up for (or convert to) a free trial of the product.
- An insurance company optimizes its website to capture more potential leads for insurance coverage sales.
- A fundraising campaign optimizes their donation form to encourage more donations.
Elements of websites to optimize
In accordance with the company’s objective, website optimization might encompass the process of conducting tests.
- A headline, or key messages related to the company’s value proposition.
- The use of visual media, like photography or a video.
- The length of a form, varying the number of required fields or the order of completion.
- The prominent display of customer case studies that describes their success using your product or service.
- The visual style, text, and placement of a call to action (CTA) button or link.
- The organization of the website’s navigation.
- The placement of social sharing functionality.
- The appearance and organization of the webpage for a visitor on a mobile device.
Landing pages utilized for marketing campaigns are frequently an aspect of a website that can be enhanced. This is due to the valuable traffic directed to these pages through advertisements, emails, or social media. Website owners can also engage in website optimization for multi-page procedures on their sites, such as the signup process for a free trial, the checkout process, or any multi-page form.
How does website optimization work
In order to optimize your website, the objective is to enhance its appeal to both search engines and real users. However, how can this be achieved? The initial stage in improving anything is to recognize any existing problems. Prior to making any enhancements, you must first determine the flaws within your current site.
The basis of any excellent optimization procedure is to think sequentially.
Simply brainstorming potential issues with your team is inadequate. You lack the capacity and expertise to address all aspects. Instead, utilize software tools at your disposal to search for potential issues related to SEO, page speed, mobile usability, and other areas.
In conclusion, it is advisable to evaluate the user-friendliness of your website by conducting usability tests with individuals who have no affiliation with your project. The outcomes of these tests will provide you with a clear direction in which you can align optimization endeavors with various teams.
Content writers have the ability to enhance the content, website managers have the ability to enhance the site structure and other on-page SEO issues, and designers have the ability to enhance both the user experience and the overall appearance of your site.
