Here are seven low-cost techniques to optimize your website to match today’s standards, some of which may be simpler than you think.
Your website serves as a virtual storefront for your company. You want it to look neat, inviting, clean, professional, and appealing. Just like your normal place of business. Here are some helpful techniques to optimize your website.
You may be surprised that some of them are easier than you think.
1. Optimize by updating the content on a regular basis.
It was only yesterday that I spotted a restaurant’s Thanksgiving menu on its website. It’s January!
The front page of that restaurant included a special seasonal menu, which was a brilliant idea. However, they did not execute adequately. They allowed it to be up for an excessive amount of time. Therefore, it’s important to set a monthly reminder to visit your website and update the homepage content.
2. Optimize by including a call to action.
Consider the following question: What is the most important action you want visitors to your website to take?
Three instances of popular summons to action are as follows:
- Include a sign-up for your email list. When people join your email list, you have a long-term relationship with them. This allows you to promote to them. Most email marketing platforms make it easy to include a signup box.
- Make sure you have a shop button in your eCommerce store. If you offer things online, include a large “Shop Now” button. In addition, you might embed photos of a few products on your homepage to tempt buyers to click through.
- Fill out a lead form. If you’re selling services rather than products, have visitors fill out a lead form. It saves their contact information so you may follow up on it later.
3. Make contact information visible.
Examine your homepage with a critical eye. Do you make it difficult for people to find you or make educated guesses about how to contact you?
Contact information is often included in the header or footer of each page for small businesses. Include an email address and a phone number at the very least. Add your address if you receive customers at your location. Add a large visible link to your Contact page if you’d rather use a separate page for it.
4. Include images and/or videos in your post.
Take a look at your main page. Is there a lot of text?
Break up large blocks of text with images. This makes the site more engaging to users. Include at least one image of your company, products, or team. Invest in professional photography. A professional photographer may usually be hired for a few hundred dollars in most locations.
Videos are also really good. So make a how-to video, or a video of you greeting people. Upload it to YouTube or another video hosting service. Then, to post it on your site, incorporate the code.
5. Optimize by making sure your design is up to date.
A website created in 2005 will appear outdated when compared to one created in 2015. An out-of-date website design is liable to give the idea that your company is out-of-date.
Of course, it’s preferable to update the entire website. If time and money are limited, at the very least, rebuild the site to make a strong first impression. Other pages will be updated as time and funds allow.
Request a homepage makeover from your Web developer. Purchase a low-cost template if you’re a do-it-yourselfer. Furthermore, you can get a professionally created template for under $100.
6. Optimize by increasing the page’s speed.
Visitors may never reach your home page if it takes too long to load.
In addition, extremely sluggish pages might have a detrimental impact on search engine rankings. Therefore, run a speed test. The best thing is that you’ll get an idea about whether or not you need to enhance your speed.
7. Make it mobile-friendly!
Last but not least, today’s websites must be compatible with mobile devices. This is especially true for local businesses.
Today, customers may be looking for a nearby business on their smartphone while driving. In search engine rankings, a website that is not optimized for mobile devices can be penalized.
If you give your website a makeover, make sure the new design is responsive. In other words, make sure it is capable of adapting to mobile devices. The same is true if you buy a template.
To optimize your website you can try a few of these techniques. Though simple, they can have a great impact on the overall appeal of your website.
