Websites are an essential part of any online marketing strategy. They allow you to connect with potential customers and promote your products and services.
Whether you're just starting out or have a hundred thousand contacts on your email list, a website is going to be one of the main keys to achieving your business goals.
However, websites aren't always effective. If yours isn't working, here are 7 tips for a more effective website.
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People don't spend hours browsing the web (they're all on TikTok now 😝).
But they expect sites to load quickly. Visitors may leave without reading anything if your site takes too long to load.
Make sure your site loads fast by using a content delivery network (CDN). This service distributes static files such as images across multiple servers located closer to your users.
There's a reason social media marketing tends to work. Its content loads as fast as your connection allows and provides a consistent user experience.
Your site needs to do the same.
Responsive design allows your website to adapt to whatever device your visitor uses. People browse the internet on smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and smart TVs.
By designing a single website that works on every screen size, you ensure that your message reaches everyone.
According to Statista, last year, mobile devices were responsible for 52.6% of the total website traffic.
Whether you're a SaaS or a law firm, your sales team will love you if your site is responsive on the devices your users actually use to view your site.
We've said it before, design is integral to the success of your website.
Images are one of the most important parts of a website. However, optimizing images for search engines can be difficult.
Optimization involves adjusting image file names, alt text, and meta tags. Search engines read these tags to determine what information should appear in search results.
Then there's the whole song and dance of actually optimizing the images for loading quickly. Been to a site recently that has great images but took 8 days to load?
You don't want that for your site. There are multiple avenues to enable your target audience to see your images in all their glory, such as: optimizing before uploading to your site, using a CMS with an image optimization plug-in, or routing every image and video through a CDN.
The latter is by far the most expensive in terms of business owners' pocketbooks, but as stated earlier, a CDN should be a part of any digital marketing strategy.
Headings are used to organize sections of a page. Including keywords in headings improves the chances that those keywords will appear in search engine results.
For example, if you write “About Us” in a heading tag, you can include the keyword “about us" in the title attribute.
Headings also help Google understand what the page is about. And since Google is taking it into its own hands to tell the end user what a page is about, clear headings should be a key part of any of your content strategies.
Social media links are another way to attract traffic to your website. Visitors often share articles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other platforms.
Adding social media links to your website makes it easier for readers to share your content.
These links also make it easier for you to build authority. Free and effective backlinking can't be beaten for search engine rankings boosts.
These free backlinks also amount to social proof later on if you end up with a Facebook or Google Business review. Free UGC!
Search engine optimization means writing content that attracts visitors. To optimize your content, focus on providing useful information rather than stuffing your pages full of keywords.
Use short paragraphs and bullet points instead of long blocks of text.
Sure these sorts of SEO efforts are annoying to some, but when a majority of readers have short attention spans, you have to cater to that.
We know; we mentioned this already. But it definitely deserves to be mentioned again. What's the saying? So nice we had to say it twice?
According to Inc, 70-80% of customers search for companies and businesses online before visiting them.
If you want to reach mobile visitors, create a responsive version of your site. This is especially important for e-commerce websites since a majority of online shopping is done on a mobile device.
A responsive website also ensures that your content displays properly on small screens. But there are also mobile-only optimizations you can take for your site that with help with conversion rates.
One of the most overlooked but key optimizations is ensuring important widgets like cart buttons, and affiliate widgets aren't overlapping. Ensuring no overlapped elements not only makes your target audience happy, but it's also one of Google's ranking factors for your site.
These seven tips will help you create a more effective website.
Hopefully, your website has checked each box from this article, and this was just a confirmation of how awesome your site is. But if it isn't, get in contact with us and see how we can elevate your site today!
