Over 72% of small businesses have their own website.
However, most businesses lack the skill and motivation to keep the website updated and running.
In the digital world of today, customers are more inclined to look and connect with a business online than they are to do it over the phone or in person.
They make their purchase decision based on the information they gather about you and having a functioning website helps you influence that decision in your favor.
In this article, we discuss some of the easiest and most efficient ways to optimize your business website to have maximum reach and impact.
5 tips to optimize your website
Websites are essential tools for any business — big or small — as they help establish your presence in the digital space. They lend you credibility and pave the way to build trust with your customers.
Customers are more likely to engage with a business they can find information about online in the form of product details and testimonials from their patrons.
To make the most out of your business website, you need to make sure it’s fully optimized for maximum reach and impact.
This helps you capitalize on your online presence, attract a wider array of customers, and drive business growth in the long run. We’ve come up with some easy and effective ways to optimize your website in no time.
Make the content accessible
One of the first aspects you need to focus on is making the content you already have and will put out in the future on your website accessible to audiences everywhere.
A customer is not going to take further steps to engage with you if they cannot access the first piece of content they find about you.
This can occur in myriad ways. Your website may not be optimized for mobile surfing, the video content may not have subtitles, and the audio and images may be broken or could not withstand update processes.
To ensure that the content you have on your website is accessible, you’ll need to go through your entire catalog and make adjustments for accessibility. Pay special attention to video content as it has seen a massive surge as the go-to content type by customers.
Consider using a video translator, such as Happy Scribe to translate and transcribe your video in different languages to have maximum outreach with them. It saves you time and effort and increases the value of your video by making it easier to appear in search results.
Benefits of translating and transcribing your video content
There are quite a few benefits to translating and transcribing your video content over and above increasing your website’s reach. Some of them are:
Offer your users with a great experience
The importance of user experience in driving customers to websites cannot be understated.
The experience a user has on a website dictates whether they spend more time there and engage with your business further or not.
You need to have exceptional UX on your website to attract customers, make them stay, and engage in meaningful interactions with them that result in sales. You may take external help in the form of consultants to improve your site’s UX.
You can also test your design skills for great UX by applying some easy tips and tricks and enhancing your website. Remember that the goal should be to make your website accessible and engaging while boosting its SEO.
Given below are some tips to enhance your website’s UX:
Make it easy to follow
Choose a simple layout for your website that is easy to follow. Aim to take the customer on a journey by subtly guiding them to take the next steps. Keep the colors, text, and designs simple though not necessarily minimalistic.
Play with design and color if that suits your brand image but make sure it’s not overwhelming. Keep text minimal as wordy websites can divert from the simplicity.
Make good use of CTAs
Use call-to-action (CTA) buttons as much as possible. They help the customers know where to head next and stay on the website longer. Don’t just give them information and leave, invite them to explore more, learn more, and eventually make a purchase.
Optimize your page speed
An extra five seconds of the load time of your website can increase your bounce rate by a whopping 20%. People want to see relevant information for their query and quickly. Make sure your website loads quickly by using light layouts, texts, and images.
Make it mobile-friendly
Most of the surfing these days is done through mobile. Make sure your website is optimized to be used on different screen sizes, be it computers, mobile, or tablets. This includes adjusting the text, image, and video sizes to fit a particular screen and still be legible.
Optimize your SEO
76% of customers look up the online presence of a business before they consider visiting it physically. Optimizing your website for search engine optimization ensures that a potential customer sees your website when they look for a solution you offer.
You may look to enlist the help of SaaS SEO services to help get a better grip on where your SEO efforts stand at the moment and where they need to be to drive sales. It helps you give an objective point of view and understand what needs to be done.
Here are some tips to revitalize your SEO efforts:
Pay special emphasis on backlinks
Backlinking offers a great opportunity for small businesses to improve their ranking by getting a shout-out from bigger platforms.
If a higher-ranked website links back to your website about something, it improves your standing on Google as well as lends you credibility.
One way to get mentioned on authority websites is to submit guest content on knowledge websites or websites dedicated to industry news. It’s important to make sure here that you pick websites and topics that are relevant to your business and niche.
This is because backlinks through sites that are irrelevant to your niche harm your reputation in Google’s rankings.
Another way to get backlinks is to reach out to other businesses in your industry.
You both help each other out by giving each other a shout-out and staying relevant to your industry. You may even collaborate with your partners and associates to mention you in their digital presence as it helps build a network.
Keep it up-to-date
Building and running a website is a continuous process, you cannot create a top-notch website and leave it as it is without updating it regularly. And you cannot keep doing the same things to keep it running without experimenting around with new trends.
To keep your website relevant, you need to keep up with the trends in your industry to capitalize on them. You may hire external help for this but if your budget doesn’t allow for this, you can certainly do it in-house.
Use certain tips and tricks to keep the website looking fresh such as adding your social media feed there. Anything you post on your social media will appear there, giving the illusion that it’s recently updated.
Add content on a weekly or alternate days basis, whatever is more convenient to you. We advise that you don’t space it out for more than a week. You may dabble with posting news related to the industry as it also makes the user see you’re up-to-date.
Keep your website simple, up-to-date, and relevant for maximum reach and impact
Websites are a boon for businesses today. They act as a showcase of what you have to offer and a platform to engage customers on.
To ensure maximum growth through your website, you need to make sure that the website is in top-notch shape.
See if the content you provide there is accessible to all kinds of audiences.
Optimize the user experience and boost your SEO efforts by improving your current practices.
Keep the site up-to-date to ensure that it feels fresh and relevant.
Let us know in the comments what you think are the most efficient ways to optimize a business website.