How to Optimize Your Website and Stand Out Online

Optimizing your website is the first step in boosted traffic, performance, sales, and rankings. In this post, we’ll dive into the best tips to make your website shine online.

Whether you’re creating a website for your new coffee shop or upgrading your existing business website, it can be hard to make your business stand out online.

Your brand’s online presence can make or break your business, especially if you’re a digital business like an online store. Optimizing your website can lead to significant increases in web traffic and sales conversions. Leaving your web traffic to chance is unwise, which is why we’ve created a guide to help you improve website functionality and take your business website to the next level.

Focus on user-friendliness

One of the most important elements to think about when optimizing your website is how user-friendly it is. Customers aren’t going to stay long on a website that doesn’t look good or doesn’t help them find what they’re looking for. This is what makes user-friendliness and end user optimization so important. When considering end user optimization there are a variety of factors to consider, which we’ll dive into below.

Creating a mobile-friendly website

Statista reports that people conduct nearly 60% of all searches on a mobile device. In addition, search engines like Google prioritize sites that are optimized for mobile devices. You can minimize lost business opportunities by ensuring your customers can easily navigate your website on any device.

To create a mobile-friendly website, it’s important to test your website pages while you’re creating them. Depending on how you’re building your site, you may have the option to view how it will look like on a mobile device. We recommend using multiple mobile devices to test your site before going live.

Understand user behavior

It’s important to understand the performance of your current pages. Through tools like Google Analytics, you can understand the benefits of website analytics and get a deep dive into the behavior of your website visitors. This includes how long they stay on a page, their scrolling habits, and what pages and links customers click on.

Another important factor to consider is the importance of online reviews and buying behaviors. According to Trust Pilot, 89% of consumers say they read reviews before buying products online. Online reviews are a form of social proof that can gain the trust of consumers.

Other examples of social proof include expert endorsements, and influencer marketing. Implementing end user reviews, and expert or celebrity endorsements can be a great way to encourage users to buy.

Creating an accessible website

Website accessibility is a crucial part of creating a website that’s usable for the largest number of people. It’s also a factor in where you rank with search engines. When auditing your website for accessibility it’s important to consider a variety of visual factors. Inserting captions is a useful way to ensure your website is more accessible as it allows users to take in video information without listening to the sound.

You should also consider things like using a color contrast ratio of 4:5:1, adding relevant page titles and headings to all pages, and using alternative text with your images. If you want more information read our comprehensive guide on web accessibility.

Optimize for speed and functionality

No one likes slow websites. If your website isn’t fast, you run the risk of users just clicking away. Speed is also an important factor in how search engines rank your site. Below are some tips to help you upgrade your website’s speed.

  • Remove unnecessary code: trim the fat off your code by removing unnecessary characters like spaces between lines.
  • Optimize website images: make sure your images are high-quality and don’t take a long time to load.
  • Use browser caching: there are a variety of plugins that facilitate browsers caching files from your server. This can improve your speed, especially with static pages.

Generating web leads

One of the more important functions of a website for many businesses is as a tool for generating sales leads. If your business relies on web lead generation, there are some important features to consider:

  • Lead Generation forms: Lead generation forms can be a crucial way to improve sales for your business. A well-designed lead generation form gets basic information from a customer. This will often include their name, phone number, email address, and leaves a space for them to comment for more information.
  • Effective call to action buttons: Having a potential customer go to your webpage is just the beginning. Effective call to action buttons should stand out on your page. Consider using a contrasting color or white space around it to help it stand out. They should also include a clear message for customers.
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Seek the help of experts or craft your own website with ease thanks to EarthLink Business.

A/B Testing

Going the extra mile can help you take your website to the next level. A/B testing can be a great way to figure out what messages are resonating with your audience and what is getting the most traction with search engines.

You can test your website pages in many ways. Consider experimenting with the size, shape and text in your CTAs. This can be important to getting higher conversion rates. You could also adjust the layout of your pages. This is good to let you know what placement is most effective for your menus, images, and other content.

Understanding SEO strategy

If you want your business to stand out online, it’s important for businesses to invest in SEO. Investing in SEO may not show immediate results like digital ads, but it will lead to better outcomes over time. It’s important that businesses don’t underestimate the benefits of website analytics.

Conduct keyword research

It’s important to choose keywords that are relevant and useful. Don’t just choose keywords you think are popular. Tailor the keywords to your business and how your audience will look for you on search engines.

Include meta titles and descriptions

Improve your chances of ranking on search engines by writing meta titles and descriptions. Here’s a helpful website to stay within the parameters.

Keep your website up to date

Stale content hurts search engine ranking and can create distrust with your customers. It’s important to add new content related to your business. This may look like new offers, videos, tutorials, and blog posts. By regularly updating a blog with useful information, you improve your SEO and give customers a reason to keep visiting your website.

These are just some of the many ways you can improve the effectiveness of your website for your customer and when it comes to ranking on Google. Want to know how your website is performing? Get your website performance score in under two minutes.

Make a link building strategy

Link building is when you get other reputable websites to provide links to your website. This is important because when your website gets linked by other sites, Google processes this as your website having authority and higher levels of trust. Below are six things to keep in mind when forming your link building strategy.

  • Partnerships with other companies: Form partnerships with other relevant websites to link content to your website.
  • External links: Once you link content on your website, try to request links back to your site by contacting them.
  • Foster a community: Form relationships with other people in your industry and ask them to include links to your content in relevant content on their pages.
  • Understand quality over quantity: A small number of backlinks from trustworthy sources are far more impactful than backlinks for low-quality websites.
  • Don’t purchase backlinks: Purchasing backlinks is against Google webmaster guidelines. Google will penalize websites that do this, and it can damage your website ranking.
  • Link to related industries: Make sure any links or backlinks are in related industries to your website.

Your partner in website development

Even with this helpful guide, optimizing your website can be overwhelming. This is especially true for small business owners who can’t afford to pay experts. EarthLink Business offers a wide variety of website development tools built to help you succeed without breaking the bank.

Website Builders

EarthLink Business offers consumers powerful web building tools to set their businesses up for digital success. Customers have the flexibility to build their website on their own, or to work with a team of experts to build it for them. The DIY web builder offers customers a smooth drag-and-drop experience. The websites are all mobile-friendly, securely hosted, and compatible with SEO.

Elevated visibility with SEO Success Coach

EarthLink Business offers customers an easy-to-use DIY SEO tool. This tool helps customers boost their online presence with real-time insights and keyword research. With SEO Success Coach, you invest in SEO without a hefty price tag.

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Extra tips to consider

Social media integration

One simple way to improve your website optimization is website social media integration. You should include links to your social account on your website and vice versa. This links different aspects of your digital footprint.

Make use of video content

Your website has less than 20 seconds to capture your clients’ attention. Using video can draw attention and keep them on your site. A great video simplifies your messages and engages your visitors. Create product videos or overviews, client testimonials, or share stories from your team and show your company’s personality.

Reach out to customers for feedback

There are very few things better than direct feedback from your customers. Consider trying to get feedback from visitors through newsletters, reviews, or website hosted surveys about their experience on your site.

Track and measure your results

Search engines offer websites analytics tools to gain insight into their website performance. It’s important to track the metrics to understand how your website is doing. Some metrics to consider are traffic, conversion rate, retention, and search engine ranking for relevant keywords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does website optimization cost?

Website optimization can be costly depending on how you do it. Outside agencies can be pricey, but our website and marketing services can get you results without breaking the bank!

How often should you optimize your website?

This depends on your company. If your business is reliant on your website to generate sales, then you should be updating often. If your website isn’t as important as a lead gen tool, you can probably update it less.

Why is website optimization necessary?


Without optimization, you will struggle to get new customers to find your website. Even if people are finding your website, you may not get the right people who will be converted to customers.

Conclusion

We hope this guide has helped take the mystery out of how to optimize your website. By following our key points, you should be ready to improve the visibility of your website. If you are looking for an easy way to improve your digital footprint, call our team for a quote on our custom website services 844-356-5249.

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