Check out this week’s guest blog post from Lynn Sperry on 5 Ways to Maintain Your Small Business Website’s Efficiency!
Having a website is vital to any business. Not only does a website make your business visible, it also bolsters your credibility, gives you a competitive edge, and acts as a powerful marketing tool. However, simply having a website alone won’t cut it — you also need to make sure that it is efficient and easy to use in order to increase traffic and retain customers. With that being said, here are five ways that will help you ensure your website’s efficiency:
1. Speed up your website
Project manager Elyssa Respaut of AmDee explains in ‘Why Website Speed Matters’ that a slow-loading website is an indicator of poor performance, and a chief reason for website abandonment. Contrarily, fast loading speed translates to higher conversion, and can even help your website rank higher in organic searches. Therefore aim for increased loading speed by moving your website to a better host. If the budget permits, you might want to consider switching to a dedicated server, a virtual private server, or even a content delivery network. On the other hand, if you’re using shared hosting to save on costs you might want to try InMotion Hosting, Green Geeks, HostGator, or A2 Hosting.
2. Decrease the number of website pages
Your aim is your website’s efficiency, and having multiple pages for each bit of content is counterintuitive to that goal. Potential customers don’t want to have to keep opening new pages and tabs for everything. That’s especially true for those who are just researching about your business. The key, therefore, is to simplify things. This means eliminating unnecessary pages and tabs, especially those with no relevant information or call to action (CTA). Your goal should be to present all necessary details — the CTA included — about something (e.g., a product or service) in one page.
3. Use a content management system to streamline design
It is important to keep your website fresh and up-to-date; otherwise, it will be of little use. Unfortunately, crawling through hundreds of pages to make changes is labor-intensive and time-consuming. You can avoid both by switching to a content management system (CMS). When using a CMS, Updatable notes how you can edit elements of a webpage, from visual modifications to custom codes. You will be able to easily streamline the process of making minor or major changes to your website, which will let you keep it current not just every day, but even several times per day if needed.
4. Make your website mobile friendly
Business2Community emphasizes that websites need to be mobile friendly to ensure the same user experience regardless of the device being used. That’s because, as of December 2019, some 51% of people worldwide use their smartphones and gadgets to access websites. That’s a wide audience to lose. This is why we included not being mobile friendly in our ‘The 5 Biggest Website Mistakes’ post. Work with a professional or use a mobile-friendly template, and make sure you can provide an overall optimized experience for mobile users too.
5. Consider search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) ensures visibility and searchability. That’s because SEO helps connect your website to the popular topics and services that people are looking for. This, in turn, makes it easier for your website to be searched on Google, potentially resulting in higher traffic going to your site. Ideally, you’ll need both the technical and content sides optimized. This means having no broken links with any error codes, making the slug as concise as possible, enhancing metadata, and using tags appropriately, as well as the adequate use of key words throughout your website.
Having an efficient website is vital to a brand’s online success. In today’s digital age, a poor website will quickly lead to a company becoming irrelevant.
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