Here’s a few things that can really help your website perform better
You know that old saying: “If you’re not growing, you’re dying?” Well, it rings true for businesses today. In order to compete, you need to be thinking outside the box and coming up with new ideas and creative solutions to keep up with your competitors. One way to do this is by optimising your website as a source of information and value for your target audience. Think about how many websites you visit in a given week. Probably more than you think, right? It stands to reason that these sites have been optimised for user experience. If they haven’t, they probably won’t get much traffic or views. It helps if you can leverage the tools that are out there to make sure your site is up-to-date and super user-friendly.
Content that speaks to your audience
The first thing you need to do is create content that speaks to your audience. And by “content,” we mean blog posts, articles, and any other information you post on your site. This content is what will keep your visitors engaged and coming back for more. It’s also something that will be easily shared among your target audience. The more content you have, the more likely it is that people will stay on your site for a longer period of time. Create killer content and make sure you’re posting it regularly. This is important, because new content will keep people coming back to your website. It’s also a great way to build trust and credibility among your brand.
Aside from keeping people coming back to your website, new content lets Google know that you are updating your site with new information which will widen the words and phrases that you might be found for on their search engine. It works the same way with other search engines as well.
And let’s face it, going back to your website to update it really helps you to make sure your information is up to date and people can get hold of you. There’s nothing worse than finding a website, only to discover that the phone number is no longer connected and the business is no longer at the stated address.
Better UI/UX for a better user experience
If you want your website to perform at a higher level than ever before, you may want to consider investing in a UI/UX designer. This person’s job is to create an interface that is both intuitive and attractive while also making sure everything works. How does this relate to UX, you ask? UX is the acronym for user experience. What this means is that the interface and ease of your website should be designed with your user in mind. How can you do this? By asking questions about your users and what they expect from your site. You can also ask for feedback from existing customers to see what they would like to see changed or added. The better your UX is, the easier it will be for your visitors to navigate your site. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, they’re going to scroll right on by. Keep your customers coming back to your site again and again by investing in a great UI/UX designer.
User experience can be about the kind of content you’re providing — and also the way that information is presented.
Keeping sentences and paragraphs short and easy to consume is one way. Presenting information with clear graphics and paths forward also helps. And having easy ways for people to navigate elsewhere or know what’s next is vital for a good user experience.
But overall, it’s really up to your website’s viewers as to what is a good user experience. So why not ask them?
Mobile optimisation
If you want your site to be seen and you want it to rank well in search results, you have to have a mobile-friendly website. Otherwise, you’re saying bye-bye to a lot of traffic from mobile devices. According to Google, it’s estimated that as of July 2018, over half of all users are visiting websites from a mobile device. Sp you can imagine how much more this is the case in 2022. If you want your website to be accessible for all types of users, you have to make sure it’s mobile-friendly. One way to do this is by investing in responsive design. A website that’s responsive automatically resizes itself to fit the screen of whatever device a user is visiting your site with. It’s also a good idea to make sure your content isn’t too long. Google also prefers shorter content, so your visitors don’t get overwhelmed with information.
Responsive design is, these days, a given. And almost everyone’s sites have this. But what they don’t necessarily have is mobile optimised designs. This approach takes advantage of the mobile screen format, rather than just adjusting to it. In many website builders now including WordPress, Wix and Joomla, you can design a completely different layout for phone screens.
So what is a mobile optimised design?
We’re talking about more buttons for easy navigation. Less text and frequent breaks between that text. A little more in the way of graphics and video goes a long way as we tend to heavily lean to multimedia content on mobiles. And if you do have a video, add subtitles to it. Most of aren’t consuming website content with sound on. Finally, you can go a long way with your mobile viewers by putting a little more line-space between your lines of text. Because the text is often small, having 1.5 spaces or more between your text lines means that it’s easier to follow along with your eyes.
Bottom line
The more you invest in your website, the more you’ll get out of it in return. Remember, your website is the new storefront, so it should be treated as such. If you want to stay ahead of the game, you have to come up with new and inventive ways to keep your website at the top of its game. Remember, a website’s performance needs to get better as time goes on. The more time and effort you put into it, the better it will be.
Dante St James is the founder of Clickstarter, a Meta Certified Lead Trainer, a Community Trainer with Meta Australia, a digital advisor with Business Station, an accredited Digital Solutions advisor and presenter, and the editor at The Small Marketer. You can watch free 1-hour webinars and grow your digital skills at Dante’s YouTube Channel.
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