Website Optimization With Semalt 


Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. What is Website Optimization?
  3. Importance of a website
  4. Why you should optimize your website
  5. How to optimize a website
  6. Conclusion

Introduction



To optimize a website is major work. And on top of that, you have to do it right. It is also a very comprehensive process that involves the help of customer success managers, project managers, website analysts, SEO specialists, content writers, designers, front-end developers, back-end developers, content managers, and so on. All these skills are required to keep a website optimized. But why do you need to go through all this trouble? 

It's one thing to have a website. It's another thing to have a website that sells. Many people have websites - the whole web is full of them. But only a few percentages of these websites are offering value, quality, grabbing attention, and most of all - making money. Website optimization is the magic ingredient. Add it, and you will have a website that makes you smile. Remove it, and you'd be better off without a website. 

So except your website is a hobby that you are using to pass the time, you need to read every single word of this guide. Because it contains golden information about how to turn your business website into a money-making one. It will also help your site to stay relevant on Google, attract customers, maintain authority, and so much more. So without further ado, let's dive into the secret behind internet fame. 

What is Website Optimization? 

Website optimization is simply the process of creating, designing, developing, promoting, and maintaining a new or an existing website to gain relevance and authority on the web. Before optimization, your website could remain slow, error-loaded, lack leads, have no record of sales, rank low, and could also lose mobile users. But when you optimize your website, you can begin to record positive results for all these metrics, boom your business, and have an increase in Google traffic. So let's take about website optimization in detail.

Creation

No existing website can skip this stage. This is the whole process of making the website a reality on the web or any local/online server. However, there are wrong and right ways to create a website (talk for another day). You need to pay attention to the website hosting, choice of the domain name, and so much more. 

Design

This has to do with how the website is being structured. A well-structured website is already on the way to generating and keeping a massive inflow of traffic. Website designers, graphic designers, and other related specialists are usually hired for this stage.

Development

This includes the building of the site itself and it focuses mostly on content creation, management, and update. The best way to fully understand what goes into this aspect is to get yourself educated on on-page SEO. And you should know that website development for an e-commerce website is different from that of a blog, or a corporate website. 

Promotion



Promotion includes two aspects: performance enhancement and marketing. To enhance the performance of the site, the optimizer needs to pay attention to the site's loading speed, usability on mobile devices, links, and so on. Marketing involves all the strategies, plans, and adverts made to expose and spread the website.  

Maintenance

Finally, complete website optimization includes the maintenance of all these previously mentioned steps. The whole essence of going through the process is to get the benefits anyway.

Why you should optimize your website 

Understandably, the steps to website optimization are complex, comprehensive, and (of course) money-demanding. But why do a lot of companies spend money on the optimization of websites? 

In the intro, if you followed, one or two of the benefits were already mentioned. Again in the definition of website optimization, three to four more were identified. But in case you skipped or missed it, here is the detailed highlight of those benefits as well as mentions of more things you stand to gain if you invest in website optimization for your site or online store, or blog. All the benefits are interlocked with each other so follow the list step by step.
  1. Google-friendly website: This is the first benefit of website optimization and it is the foundation for other goodies. A Google-friendly website is a website that is in line with all the recommendations and guidelines for Google ranking. So when your website is said to be friends with Google, it means that your website has great content, provides value, loads fast, is compatible with mobile devices, has a good link profile, is easy to read by readers, can be easily indexed and crawled by Google, and so much more. Just this on its own is a great plus.
  2. Improved visibility and relevance: Now, because your site is in line with Google's guidelines, you would be treated like a king on Google so that whenever a related keyword is searched for, your website would be ranked high on the result page. At every chance Google gets to put you out there, your website will be upfront and in front of everyone on the internet. This alone is enough marketing for your brand. 
  3. Expansion of Customer Base: The next stage you'll reach is an increase in the number of website traffic (that is, website visitors and customers). It's simple logic. Your website has amazing content and structure, then it is visible to people. The next thing is for them to keep clicking. And since valuable and high-quality content has been established, there is a great probability that visitors would be converted to loyal customers. 
  4. Increase in sales and revenue: As you must have suspected, the more customers you have, the more you would sell. Since your products and services (or your content) are open to interested clickers, you can be guaranteed that your sales and of course revenue will increase. 
  5. Gain a competitive edge: Finally, you'll gain a competitive edge. This means that you would begin to be the first line of contact for the provision of a solution that is relevant to your niche. And little by little, your website would become an authority in your market like Google. 

How to optimize a website 



Now that you are aware of how important it is to optimize your website, here is a quick guide to how you can begin on your own. Although many experts would advise that you put it in the hands of professionals so that you can get it right once and for all and avoid wasting time or resources. But if you wish to have an idea about website optimization and the steps to doing so - here it is:

1. Website Niche Analytics: 

Pick a niche and check for its level of relevance in the market. If you already have a niche, check for its position using a website analytics tool. Doing this would help you determine if the niche you have carved out for yourself is worth optimizing in the first instant. 

2. Website Audit

Check your competitor's website and audit to see the progress over time. If competitors have been doing well, then you too can do well. And if you have an existing website, audit it to see how the progress of your site - what worked and what does not work. This would be a regular practice during this process. 

3. Semantic core compilation

This involves the compilation of the keywords and important phrases that would help you improve the relevance of your site. This step is also the baseline to increase traffic flow.  

4. Site construction

This is the development stage that was mentioned in the beginning. This involves the construction of the website so that content is spilled into sections, categories, and pages for easy navigation.

5. Fill up the site

After you have set the website, the next step is to fill it up with content. Again, the content to be employed here depends on the type of website it is. For some people, this means that you should add some posts and articles, others might need to pour in their photos of their products, and so on. 

6. Add links

Next is to create a good linking profile with inbound and outbound links. These links help make the site more visible on the web, rank high and makes it also move further in the journey to authoritativeness. 

7. Promotion 

Promote the website by building backlinks, improving the site's technical SEO, and so much more. As it has been mentioned earlier, improve the loading speed, make it compatible with mobile devices, and work on the user experience of the site. 

8. Marketing

Market your website by using but in-web and outside resources such as SEM, PPC adverts, email marketing, social media marketing, and so much more. These marketing strategies can also be updated with time and should be flexible with the seasons. 

9. Maintenance


Finally, work on maintaining the positive results you get. To do this, keep auditing your site to keep a record of what works and what doesn't. 

Conclusion

Website optimization is a lot of work but it is very beneficial to your business especially you plan on building a community around yourself. That's why it is recommended for a business to make the best move even from the beginning. And that is to ask for an expert's help. Trying to do it all on your own can be stressful, frustrating, and can make you lose a lot of resources or waste precious time. So stick to other things while professionals help you out. 

If you need to learn more about the subject of SEO and website promotion, we invite you to visit our Semalt blog.