A lot of factors go into designing a website to ensure a top-rated status and competitive leverage. However, millions of new websites are set up daily, making it extremely necessary to monitor your rivals and double down on what their web platforms lack. Further, rampant dynamic shifts in technology could make certain features on your website outdated or even obsolete. Take the following actions on how to improve a website:
1. Improve Website Conversion
If you think that you have differentiated your offers from the competition, yet the rate of conversion on your website is imperfect compared to expectations, you are wrong. A low conversion percentage is a clear indication that something is amiss, hence the need for corrective measures to improve website conversion. When in this kind of predicament, look into your content marketing strategy.
You need to review your content and compare that to the target audience. What’s the pain point? Is that what they get when they visit your website or is your content making them bounce? Rectify the content and offers and use descriptive and more attractive action words to get leads to respond to your call-to-action. Nailing the content marketing strategy will reinforce your sales funnel and improve website conversion.
2. Stick to One Trade
It pays to have an organised website that deals with one field of expertise. Niching down shows your readers that you are laser-focused on a specific skill and are an authority in your area of practice. If you chose to handle several concepts, make sure they are related or at least interdependent. For example, you can run an affiliate website that solely promotes health supplements and yoga e-books, instead of running affiliate promotions for the health industry, financial planning, technology, and making money online all under one website.
3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Building a weak website full of shoddy content defeats the purpose of having the site. Apart from getting it to rank on page one of Google and other search engines, there is an array of strategies that you can employ to improve website ranking. Think superior content, authoritative link building, collaboration with influencers to promote your website, a massive, but well-planned social media integration, and so on.
4. Web Hosting
You have to get your website up and running on the World Wide Web for it to be accessible to your clients and potential customers. Whether you’re on a web host service, VPS hosting plan or cloud hosting system, try to stay with strong and stable hosting. Changing content management structures shouldn’t be your first option, either. The reason for that is the accompanying cost of change, not to mention the complications that may arise in terms of transferring your content to the new set-up.
Instead, use an alternative game plan to better your web hosting experience and subsequently improve your website. Implement a content delivery network approach that enables your clients to smoothly access content specific to your website based on their exact location.
You can also reduce the number of HTTP requests for files on your website. It’s a necessary step due to website integration and it helps you avoid request/response delays, or failure in case of crashes by third-party integrations such as social media and information feeds. Moreover, conduct internal website monitoring to ensure your website’s uptime is always unmatched by the competition.
5. A Mobile-Friendly Website
Technology enthusiasts can attest that the use of mobile devices is on the rise. Innovations such as the internet of things (IoT) and the advent of portable smart devices with wireless internet connection capabilities have made it possible to access the internet from virtually anywhere on the globe. Besides, research shows there is more use of mobile devices to access websites. It’s in your best interest to ensure your website is mobile-friendly because most internet users today use on-the-go devices.
6. Website Responsiveness
Several issues could make your site have poor responsiveness. As you remember, link building is one of the SEO strategies discussed above. When you use links often, source them from credible websites. Additionally, perform continuous periodic audits to adjust broken links. Fixing broken links serves to ensure that redirections land the user onto a responsive, error-free page to avoid frustrations and reduce bounce rates.
7. Page Load Speed
There is no valid reason for a user to wait for more than a second or two for a website page to load. That’s a sign of lack of website maintenance. If left unchecked, it grows into significant problems: higher bounce rate, poor ranking, lost leads, and fewer potential sales. You need to inspect your website to make sure that images are compressive, the text content is not bulky, and files are optimised.
8. Use an Optimal Navigation Design
Users like it when a website is straightforward. Put yourself in the user’s shoes when designing a navigation section. Make it as easy as you possibly can for visitors to your website to quickly find what they are looking for and move from page to page, tab to tab without straining. The navigation bar should be like a map to your entire website.
9. Run Tests on Core Website Functions
Different websites are built to accomplish different goals. Tests such as usability testing and A/B testing can go a long way in improving the website. For instance, you can test the ease of finding the contact form, the effect of using different colours for social share and call-to-action-buttons, and the efficiency of a product or service ordering process among other tests.
Website improvement is an on-going task that requires you to undertake an upgrade procedure that’s iterated from time to time. This cycle is the thin line between your website’s survival and failure.
10. Network More and Increase Website Engagement
Websites have a comment section and several customer communication lines (phone, email, social media, chatbox, community forums, and others) where clients can reach out to you for feedback, suggestions, and inquiries. These avenues are crucial when it comes to engaging clients and can serve to complement your tests and research towards improving core website functions when appropriately used. More to that, attend conferences meant to help website owners improve their platforms and borrow as much knowledge as possible. However, be careful not to end up imitating outdated website practices that will only take away from your platform’s differentiation.
Maintaining your website need not be an expensive exercise that requires you to put in laborious hours and enlist the services of a data scientist.
Today, there are plenty of how-to guides freely available online and non-technical methods that you can learn and administer to put your website on the map. An improved website translates to a better experience for your customer and increases the likelihood of closing more sales.
