Online shopping has been a thing for a while. But during Covid-19 and lockdown, online purchasing grew by almost 50 percent with 75 percent of people saying that they shopped online more than they did prior to Covid. The UK is now the third largest online market in the world.
That’s great news for online businesses, but with more and more competition out there, how do you get potential customers to your website and store? The simple answer is optimisation.
What is website optimisation?
Website optimisation is the process of using tools, advanced strategies and testing to improve the performance of your website. This leads to more traffic, increased conversions and, crucially, more revenue. One of the most critical aspects of website optimisation is search engine optimisation (SEO).
What makes an ideal website?
There are a number of elements that the ideally optimised website should have. These are:
- A custom web design with clear branding and fast loading speeds
- A well-organised structure and easy navigation
- A well-presented home page complete with categorised buttons throughout the site
- Optimisation for mobile and tablet
- High quality content
- A comprehensive ‘About Us’ page
- High quality, informative and appealing pictures
Why do you need to rank well in search engine page results (SERP)?
Imagine you’re searching for something online. How many times do you click past the first page? Chances are, unless the first page of results are irrelevant, not often.
Ranking on the first page not only leads to an increase in traffic, leads, and therefore customers, it also adds credibility to your business in the eyes of your potential purchasers.
So why should you optimise your website? Here are ten good reasons.
Want to know if your website is optimised? We can help! Get in touch on [email protected] or call us on 01902 372 402 for a FREE one-hour consultation.
So your target audience can find you
Website optimisation is key to SERPs, as we’ve already discussed. And good SERPs means more potential customers. Website optimisation gets you up the rankings and in front of your target audience. It’s cost-effective advertising that delivers.
To keep up with the competition
There’s a lot of competition out there, and everyone is fighting for market share. And your competitors know that. They’re not resting on their laurels, and nor should you if you want to be in the mix. They know that their website is a key part of their marketing and sales strategy and is generating return on their investment.
With more and more people turning to the internet to find businesses, if you don’t have a website, even if you’re not selling online, you’ll be left behind. Social media is great for raising awareness of your business, but if you’re selling physical products, you can’t list them all on these platforms. That’s why you need a website which can be linked to from your social media.
To get up the website ranks
Yes, we’ve already mentioned this (twice) but it’s too important to be glossed over. With more and more people using search engines (especially Google), to find businesses to meet their needs, you need to be search engine friendly. What does that mean?
Firstly, you need quality content which is posted regularly. You need improved website speed and a mobile responsive website that works on all devices. Throw in relevant keywords, some internal links, meta descriptions and well-titled images, and you’ve got a site that Google is going to fall in love with.
It’s not just about one page
You can’t rely on just your homepage to get you up the website rankings. Every page of your website needs to be part of your optimisation plan. This means high quality images with effective alt descriptions, great product descriptions, and authoritative content. A sitemap is also key in assisting search engines to crawl your site effectively.
Demystify Digital optimises every page of your website to help ensure your success. Want to know more? Call us on 01902 372 402 or email [email protected].
Improves your online reputation
Reputation can make or break a business. You want your business to be known for quality of product and service. And that’s what potential customers are looking for. With an active online presence, you need to strive for a great reputation.
When you’re ranking well on search engines, it gives a good impression to your potential customers. Back that up with quality, helpful content and a site that’s easy to navigate around, and you’ll be the best position to convert potential buyers into actual buyers. And if they’re happy with your products and service, they’ll recommend you to other people, further enhancing your reputation.
Cost-effective
How much is your marketing budget? It’s estimated that the average business spends around one percent of its total revenue on advertising. How much does a print ad cost you? Probably a significant amount. Having an optimised website is a cost-effective way of marketing your business, and doing so potentially globally.
A good SEO strategy doesn’t cost much compared to other forms of marketing and while there are paid for options – such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Google Ads – they’re not necessary to work your way up the rankings, generating what’s known as organic traffic. In fact, it’s been shown that fifteen percent of people who find your website organically convert, compared to less than two percent from paid results.
Improves efficiency and flow
An optimised website is one that’s efficient and easy for your potential customers to use. The easier it is to use, the more likely they are to buy from you rather than one of your competitors. It’s also good for search engines.
Social media optimisation
Optimising your website isn’t enough. Your social media also need optimisation. Social media has a massive reach, from Facebook, to Twitter, to Instagram. It’s a great way to communicate your message and branding to a wide audience and, again, it’s cost-effective. Build social media into your marketing and search engine optimisation strategy for maximum impact.
Can help you achieve your goals
An optimised website is one that delivers real results, whatever your business goals. Perhaps you want to build brand awareness, gather leads or make sales. With a correctly optimised website, you can achieve your aims as your target audience finds you online.
Finds you the right customer
Every business has an ideal customer. If you haven’t taken the time to identify your dream client before, now is the time to do it. Then you can target your SEO towards those potential customers so that you get quality, relevant traffic to your website.
Making your website relevant to your specific audience and providing quality content with relevant keywords will move you up the rankings. Optimising your website for conversions will focus on guiding visitors towards your specific goals.
How to optimise your website for SEO
So, we’ve covered why you need to optimise your website, now we’ll look at how.
Analyse your website data
Your website can tell you a lot about what’s working and what isn’t. For example, how well are your call-to-actions (CTA) working? Do a good proportion of your website visitors click on them? Or do most of your visitors ignore them? If it’s the latter, then you may need to make changes.
Checking user behaviour and using Google Search Console will help you build an accurate picture of how visitors are using your website. Google Search Console tracks key metrics, such as number of sessions, bounce rate and much more. Use that data to look for specific patterns. Which are the most popular and successful pages on your website? Use these as a template for the rest of your site.
Keywords, keywords, keywords
In the past you could simply pick a keyword out of thin air and rank for it almost immediately. Sadly, those days are long gone. Now it takes real work to identify relevant keywords and rank for them.
There are plenty of tools out there to help you identify keywords. Begin by thinking about what search terms you would use to find something you needed. It’s worth starting broadly and keyword research tools will provide a list of related longtail keywords that people are searching for. These keywords then need to be used in long, in-depth articles that provide expert knowledge to your visitors.
Content, content, content
Experts say that the ideal length of a blog post is 1600 words. However, that’s not set in stone. Check out the typical length of the top ten results in SERPs. If they’re longer, then yours needs to be too. And while length isn’t everything, it does indicate to the search engines that you’re providing lots of good quality information. And the longer your website visitors spend on that page, the higher you’re likely to rank.
Optimise for on-page SEO
We’ve already covered that every page on your website needs to be optimised. This includes titles and subtitles, URL slugs, meta tags, body content, and alt image text.
Your primary keyword should be in your title and at least one subtitle. Plus, it should be in the slug. In the body content, aim for the main keyword to appear between 0.5 and 2.5 percent. Anything more than this looks like you’re keyword stuffing, which search engines do not like. You should use related keywords too for better SEO ranking.
Off-page SEO
This relates to your social media and other off-site means. Things like guest blogging, influencer marketing, brand mentions and backlinks from reputable sites all help to drive traffic to your website.
Be careful where your backlinks come from. Small, low-authority sites can do more harm than good to your brand when it comes to search engines. Instead, consider emailing influencers and other blogs in your niche, ensuring that you’ve shared something of theirs too.
Optimisation for all devices
Again, we’ve already mentioned it, but more and more people are using their smartphones to access the internet. If your site isn’t mobile optimised, then you’re losing business. Not only that but Google has launched the mobile-first index, which means that focusing on mobile optimisation may help you rank better.
Responsive design offers the best solution. Many templates and themes on content management system sites such as WordPress offer mobile responsiveness as a standard feature, so there’s no need to get involved with complicated programming.
The need for speed
Page speed is a vital part of SEO. The faster your site loads, the better. People have short attention spans and expect rapid loading. If your site is too slow, they’ll simply click the ‘back’ button and try one of your competitors. Likewise, if you’re requesting information from people and the form refuses to submit because of slow loading, you’ve lost that valuable data and a prospective customer.
If your website if running slow, it’s time to improve your website speed.
Does SEO improve your website conversions?
The answer is yes. Not immediately as rankings take time to build, but you should see a slow but steady increase in visitors and resulting conversions. That’s because you’re attracting people who are actively looking for your product or service. Add in value-led, informative articles that establish you as an authority in your area, and you’ll find that more visitors are converting to active customers.
Conclusion
SEO can seem like a dark art but knowing the basics will give you a head start.
Data and research are the keys to a successful SEO campaign. Without understanding your target audience, their needs and their behaviour, you won’t get the results you want. Create content geared towards your audience and make sure it’s better than your competitors’.
Want to know more about how Demystify Digital can optimise your website? Get in touch on [email protected] or call us on 01902 372 402 and arrange a FREE one-hour consultation.