In today’s highly competitive and highly digitized world, the company website can make or break the entire business. As such, having an optimized website plays an incredibly important role in the achievement of long-term business goals.
Web development will help you reach your target audience more efficiently, increase user experiences, help you generate more qualified leads, increase conversion rates, and boost sales.
Web design optimization is also crucial to search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines such as Google or Bing have algorithms for ranking pages and websites.
If you optimize your site, these search engines will better rank your web pages, hopefully pushing them in the top three on the first page.
Let’s not forget that quality content and well-placed keywords will also help with ranking.
Meta descriptions will tags, when used correctly, will improve your click-through rates.
Web development and optimization are crucial for any website, big or small.
So, web development, why is it essential to have it optimized, and how can you achieve it?
Below are some of the most effective ways of doing it.
Page Speed
Some 47% of consumers expect a webpage to load in less than two seconds. What’s more, 40% will wait a maximum of 3 seconds before abandoning the site altogether, never to return.
Also, 52% of online shoppers said that quick page loading times are essential for their site loyalty, while 64% said that they would purchase from another online store if the speed is lacking.
Page speed can be broken down into client-side and server-side components. Learning web development and learning HTML, CSS, and Javascript will help.
Adversely, you can work with someone who knows these programming languages. Many things influence loading speeds, and all of them should be addressed in one way or another.
User Interface
Full-stack and front end developers should also focus their attention on the user interface.
Like with a web app, your website’s interface needs to be user-friendly and intuitive.
Your content should be readable, and navigation on the site needs to be seamless.
Statistics show that easy navigation on a website can increase conversion rates by up to 18.5%.
Web applications make great use of their user interface, and so should your website.
Mobile-Friendliness
Today, more users access the internet via mobile devices as they do from desktops or laptops.
Google has also addressed this issue by favoring mobile-friendly sites. A so-called mobile website should switch to a reliable web host and redesign its content for the mobile user.
Responsive design and themes with added widgets can increase the conversion rate by up to 20%.
Being mobile optimized means that your site will also cater to mobile users, expanding your reach.
On-page SEO Optimization
On-page SEO optimization for your web pages will help your site rank better in search results.
Targeted keywords, meta descriptions, headings, and web page URLs will all play a crucial role in on-page SEO optimization.
Don’t forget about the page title either, as it will increase your visibility online.
Content Optimization
As part of your digital marketing and content marketing initiatives, content optimization is a must.
It will also help with increasing traffic and conversion rates on your website.
By using SEO and by providing your target audience with valuable and relevant content, you will increase the effectiveness of your website.
Keep in mind that search engines now prefer this type of content, as opposed to large quantities of low-quality content.
Long-form content, between 800 to 1,600 words is generally seen as providing more value to the reader.
It will also require you to add more links and increases the chances of the post being backlinked by others.
All of these work wonders for search engine indexation.
Don’t forget about adding videos and testimonials on your landing pages, as these are shown to boost conversion rates by up to 50%.
Live Chat
Live chat on your landing pages will increase the user experience and engagement, and is a great way to optimize your website for better conversion rates.
Also, automated chat features with greetings, surveys, and tracking can provide you with data to use for further optimization.
A/B Testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage against each other to see which one will perform better.
In other words, two variants of a page are shown to users at random and, with statistical analysis, you can determine which one will work better, based on what you want to achieve.
It is an excellent way of eliminating much of the guesswork and will help increase the conversion rate.
Website optimization is hugely important for small and big websites alike. It will improve the customer experience and will increase your long-term goal of increased traffic.
That said, there are many more ways of developing a site’s performance. It all depends on what you want to achieve with it.
If you want to learn more about web development and website optimization, contact us today. Our experienced developers will answer all of your questions.