A Starter's Guide: Website Optimization

Online competition was much easier in December 1990 when there was only one website. In the following 25 years much more, like a billion, joined the world wide web. The increase rate has reached to 500 per minute which means 10 new websites have joined whilst you read the title.
So how can new websites survive in this dog-eat-dog ecosystem?
Is it even possible?
Here are the 3 best tips for website optimization.

SEO – Super Effective Outcomes

If you want your website to be found and seen by more people than your close circle of friends, knowing how the search engines work is a must. Therefore, spend some time or money on Search Engine Optimization. If you have the budget, outsourcing SEO consultancy would definitely pay off. However, be wise enough to ask company specifics and investigate them online because some agencies are especially specialized in website optimization. In case you have more time and energy than money there are also lots you can do.

Educate yourself on SEO. Watch YouTube tutorials. Follow blogs. Spend some time on SEO related sites. A simple Google search will provide you with great sites like SearchEngineLand.
Don’t pack your site only with keywords. Search engines are usually smarter than that. Place your keywords wisely and always keep the actual readers in mind.
Work on your URLs. URLs have a big weight on SEO evaluations. Try to stick to a single domain. Be sure your site stays “mysite.com/childhood” instead of “childhood.mysite.com/”. URLs are the smartest place for your keywords no one except search engine reads there.
Try to diverse your referrals. Relying too much on one type of referral will harm you. Think that you have 80% percent of your visitors from Google. If Google changes its algorithm, which they do on a regular basis, in a way that will exclude you from their search results, you will take a big hit. Try to appear on different platforms.
Don’t wait for instant effect. Don’t stop working on SEO and be patient about the results.

CONTENT – The body in a suit

Creating content is never easy but creating original content is arduous and very crucial for website optimization. It requires knowledge and guidance.
The penalty by the search engine for copied content is heavy and makes your site lose huge credibility. Instead of bulk paragraphs with repetitions try to provide short and clear information.
Make use of headlines. Have in mind that 80% of the readers only read the headlines. Be creative with them.
Even though there are some technical points that everybody mentions about website optimization, remember you are not writing for Google or Bing but for your actual readers. Your readers are there either to answer the questions on their minds or simply to enjoy.
You will decrease your bounce rate if you make sure your readers benefit from you. Think your content as the body in a suit. Even if the suit is made of finest Italian fabric, you should have the body to fill it properly.

This is George. Don’t be like George.

Graphics and User Experience – Look like a million dollars

This is an area where different fields like psychology, philosophy (What is a true beauty, indeed?) and anatomy work together. No need to be expert at any, here are the things you should know, to begin with.

Test what you have. Although there are lots of useful online tools to test your website, the cheapest, easiest and usually the most effective way is to ask your friends to check it out. Tell them to spend some time on your website. Ask them if they enjoyed it. Even you should sometimes think yourself as a stranger and surf through the website. To improve you should know what you lack.
Select the correct font. You are online, don’t limit yourself with regular ones.
Don’t underestimate white space. White space increases reader’s attention up to 20% and gives them a fresh feeling.
Make sure your links are visible. Have they colored, underlined or bold? Readers should know it is clickable.
Use videos if possible. Videos are effective, catchy and give reader incentive to share content. Also, try not to fall into usual mistakes. Don’t use a very long video and make sure it loads quickly.
Be consistent. The font, layout, headlines … They must be well organized and match.
Sweep 404 errors. Unlike the search engines the readers punish 404 errors severely. Encountering an error instead of a link they want will annoy your users.

Maybe this will calm them down.

Be mobile friendly. Double check your layout stays solid in mobile platforms.
Don’t write everything. Use some visuals instead of words. The simplest example is the share buttons at the bottom.

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